One of the goals of the Missions Team has been to inform our class about the ongoing progress of the gospel around the world as it affects peoples, places, and events. The subject of today’s post is the nation of Afghanistan. In a recent article from the Washington Times, Vice President Biden tells us that the new administration plans to beef up the current military presence in Afghanistan as it slowly phases out the nation’s presence in Iraq in order to address the “real front” against terrorism.
In light of this article, I want to present our class with a few major statistics about the current situation with the nation and peoples of Afghanistan so that in the coming months and years when we begin to hear more about our involvement there, we will be better equipped to pray for the nation, the peoples and the progress of the gospel for the glory of God.
A Few Facts and Numbers
• There are roughly 32 million people comprised of 70 different people groups. The majority are the Pashtuns (Pakhtuns or Pathans), then the Tajiks, Hazara,and Uzbek peoples.
• 99% Muslim with about ¾ of them being Sunni , ¼ Shia
• One of the world’s poorest countries, with roughly 66% of the people living off of less than $2 per day and with a 40% unemployment rate.
As with so many places in this part of the world, Afghanistan is a nation that has been ravaged by internal strife and fought on and over by other powerful nations and empires for centuries. Many of us are only familiar with the Taliban government that NATO helped to overthrow in 2001. Since then the US has made a partnership with Afghanistan as a long-term commitment toward stability. It seems that the decision to deploy more troops there will be in line with stabilizing the government as well.
“As the country continues to rebuild and recover, it is still struggling against poverty, poor infrastructure, large concentration of land mines and other unexploded ordnance, as well as a huge illegal poppy cultivation and opium trade. Afghanistan also remains subject to occasionally violent political jockeying. The country continues to grapple with the Taliban insurgency and the threat of attacks from a few remaining al Qaeda.” - Wikipedia
Points of Prayer
• There are fewer than 300 believers and no known church within the majority people group of the country. Persecution keeps almost all believers from sharing their faith and those that do may lose their jobs, families, opportunities and even their lives.
• The New Testament is available to the Pashtun but most are unable to read at all.
• Although relative peace has come to Afghanistan, there is still conflict in many areas, basically hindering any significant opportunities for workers to go and provide a Christian witness.
• For a number of years, radio has been the only opportunity for many Pashtun to hear the gospel. However, most Pashtun still do not know about radio broadcasts.
• Dependency on Christian workers is another big issue for all the countries in these kinds of situations.
Pray for the country’s well-being as well as it deals with the insurgents, the illegal drug-trafficking, and all the casualties of war either past or present in light of the many undiscovered land mines.
For more information, seek out these sources: Wikipedia, Operation World, Central Asia website of IMB.
NM for the Missions Team