Worth the Wait

Hamed* had been working as a contractor at the US Army camp in Kabul for eight years.  One day, he saw his chance to get his deep questions answered.  Jerry*, the American Chaplain for the army camp was walking across the quad headed to the chapel and Hamed yelled out at him to get his attention. As he approached, Hamed asked Jerry if he had a moment to talk about this Jesus he had heard about. Jerry and Hamed sat in the office, while Jerry shared how Hamed could make Jesus Lord of his life. Hamed responded that he wanted to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior, so Jerry led him to faith in Christ and for the next six months they met daily for discipleship.

 After this, Hamed and Jerry discussed the possibility of applying for his Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for him and his family. It took about 2 years to complete the SIV process but finally, in the Spring of 2016, the family was contacted by the US Embassy in Kabul and were issued their SIVs and told to get ready to leave for the United States. Hamed and his family quickly sold their house and car and said their goodbyes, preparing to leave Afghanistan and not return. The day came for them to leave and when they arrived at the airport, they were told that the State Department had forgotten a piece of the paperwork so they could not leave. The family was devastated! They had sold everything! No home, no car, no job; what were they to do? There was nothing they could do except wait and pray. Life has not been easy for Hamed and his family from 2016 to the present. He went through many trials and hardships, but his faith grew. Jerry and Hamed kept in contact, encouraging each other and praying for one another.  The Lord brought another Afghan brother, Ali*, to continue discipling him.

 Then came the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021.  For two weeks the family desperately tried to leave by any means. While attempting to flee, Hamed was beaten, injured, and turned away by the Taliban. As Jerry watched hundreds of thousands of Afghans leave who did not have SIVs and who never worked for the US, he was hurt and angered. Why, God? Why were they allowed to leave, but You couldn’t get Hamed and his family out?

But God had a different plan to get the family out. After the complete withdrawal of US Forces God started gathering other individuals to accomplish this. Jerry reached out to everyone, every organization he could think of to help. Finally, he was led to Project Alpha. Hamed and his family went into hiding for about 45 days until Project Alpha was able to help them relocate to a safe house in a nearby country.

Finally, the US Embassy emailed, stating that their case had been moved and the family could come for their interview.  After several more months, they received all of the countless amounts of approvals, bought plane tickets, and flew to meet Jerry in Atlanta.

This process has taken eight years to complete. Eight years of praying, crying, financial help, and walking with this family through seasons of not understanding what God was doing, yet we trusted our Father in Heaven. God used this time to grow Hamed and his family in their faith and to teach them to walk with Him. We can say now that it was all worth the wait.

Thank you for reading and for blessing people like this family with your faithful prayers and donations.  Our current needs are approximately $20,000 per month to cover the costs of caring for the people we host and helping them to move to safer places.  Would you consider a gift towards these needs?

*Name changed for security reasons.