My heart has broken watching what is happening in Afghanistan. The women of Afghanistan were a huge part of the inspiration the Lord gave me for Love UnVeiled.
I was there in 2003, just two years after the Taliban had been defeated and the US & ally troops entered the country. Teaching English to women in the north of the country I heard horrible testimonies of what had happened to their families under the Taliban era, to women and to men.
We sat in the home of one of the school directors as she told us how her son was brutally slaughtered in that room. She recounted how in shock she sat for ten days in the same room with his blood body, unable to move. During lessons, as I shared the story of the woman caught in adultery, students told me of horrific stoning of mothers, sisters, neighbors that took place in a pit just ten minutes from our classroom.
We visited a statue in honor of American soldiers, erected by the Afghan people in 2001 after the Taliban was defeated. The statue plaque said, “the people of Afghanistan are grateful to the American people who fought to give us our freedom”. My heart broke as I read in the news yesterday of the fall of that city finally taken captive.
My experience in Afghanistan was life changing. It stirred the birth of the vision God gave me to unveil His love to the broken and oppressed. It was being in Afghanistan with those courageous, beautiful women that I witnessed the strength and power of women to multiply, even under oppression.
One educated woman in our class believed English would bring women freedom, so during the Taliban era, under threat of death penalty to educate women, she boldly and courageously taught women English, one to one in secret in her home. Those women then took what they learned back to their homes and round tea, they shared in secret what they learned, with other women. The 30 women in our English class were all the result of one courageous woman who fought for freedom for women.
Seeing for myself how multiplication had happened through women who were desperate for freedom made wonder what would happen if these women were set free by Jesus, just like the woman at the well! This was the inspiration behind the birth of Love UnVeiled.
Around that time, the Magdalena movie to show how Jesus valued women was also birthed out of the need to bring Jesus to women in Afghanistan, recognizing that the influence of women was needed if the region was going to be reached with the gospel. This movie further inspired my vision to “reach the world by reaching women” – which we have since seen God do so supernaturally over the last 15 years!
Please pray for the courageous women of Afghanistan who unknowingly have impacted the lives of women around the world through their suffering and courage. In the last 20 years, women in Afghanistan have experienced some education and tasted some freedoms, though in many areas it was still very bad. But now they face losing what freedom they had, and even greater abuse than before.
Afghanistan was one of the hardest countries to reach, but now women – and men – need Jesus there more than ever! And it will cost their lives. Pray that they will remain courageous and that although our western protection has been withdrawn, God will send them help, that He will put His hedge of protection around them, to protect them from all evil! Pray that those who know Jesus secretly will be kept safe from harm. Pray they will be given strength to “stand”.
Reporting on Afghanistan, I heard a news reporter ask “Are we leaving because we accomplished our mission, because we failed in our mission or because we are just tired and weary of war? But the enemy is not tired or weary!”
What a challenge this was to me – to all of us believers! The spiritual battle has been won, but we have been called to occupy until He comes! Have we become tired and weary with the pandemic, political unrest, climate, social agendas? Have we withdrawn from the battlefield?
The enemy is not weary, he is not giving up or withdrawing. He has plenty of energy to keep going with his agenda to kill, steal and destroy. Just as in Afghanistan, human armies cannot win this war! Transformed, regenerated hearts are needed. We are called to “not be weary in well doing for in due season we will reap a harvest if we do not give up!” Galatians 6:9.
In this second half of 2021 let us not take for granted our freedom or forget the vision and calling God has given each of us. Let us STAND on His promises and trust Him for renewed strength and courage and faith. Having done all, we must STAND – in prayer, in faith, in God’s word, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, please give us your heart and mind to pray with spiritual wisdom and understanding for those in danger! Give us courage and faith to stand in prayer with our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan! Teach us to pray with power in the Spirit so that we will be praying in alignment with Your will.
Please also pray for those devastated by the most recent earthquake in Haiti – another country which desperately needs our prayers, and which also influenced the movement of Love UnVeiled in South-East Asia! A testimony for another day…
“What is overcoming? Standing – and having done all STAND Eph 6:13. Men and women that are breathed into John 20:20, and able to stand shoulder to shoulder, able to keep rank, men and women the Lord can take account of as men and women of God.” JB Stoney. Standing with you in Christ alone, by His power and in His love,
Liz
Liz Dickson
Founder & Executive Director
Love UnVeiled