“Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning,” Psalm 30:5 NKJV.

Three years after the Taliban took over the country, the economy is collapsing, international assistance has virtually dried up, and there is growing dissatisfaction among the people.

The Taliban continue to persecute Christians and are singling out women and girls.

In August, they issued a strict public morality law completely prohibiting women from speaking, singing or praying aloud in public. The law is an attempt to literally silence women and erase them from view.

Women have also been ordered to cover every part of their body and face and be escorted by a man in public.

Dozens of women have been arrested in the streets of Kabul and taken to unknown locations. To be a Christian woman in Afghanistan would almost certainly incur the death penalty.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world to ban girls from both secondary school and university.

The Taliban set about enforcing a strict interpretation of Sharia law after seizing power in 2021.

They banned conversion from Islam to Christianity and began hunting down anyone suspected of being a Christian.

Christians who converted from Islam were reportedly arrested, tortured, and even executed.

Christians left the country, while others went into hiding. There were fears that there were no believers left in the country.

But today, in the midst of this grim situation, there is hope.

Many Afghans who fled to neighbouring countries are being repatriated and returning with a new-found Faith in Christ.

These new believers are forming tiny communities across the country and are meeting in secret.

They are starting from scratch, much like the early church did in the first century, strengthening their faith in the face of severe persecution and suffering.

At the same time, the Taliban have been working to erase Christianity from the country and are using advanced surveillance technology to monitor communications.

Despite the risks, the new Christian communities are finding ways to worship, share the gospel, and support one another in the hostile environment.

Muslims account for 99 percent of the population of Afghanistan, with the vast majority practising Sunni Islam.

There are no public Christian churches. According to Open Doors, Afghanistan is ranked as the world’s 10th worst persecutor of Christians.

This Advent and Christmas, Afghanistan’s Christians remind us that even in the most oppressive circumstances, the light of Christ cannot be extinguished.

Their journey is perilous, but their faith is strong. And it is in Christ that we find hope — not just for the future of the church in Afghanistan, but for all of us who believe in the power of the gospel to transform lives, even in the darkest of times.

Let us stand with our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan and pray for them.

Home Group Prayer:

Dear God, our Father,

We lift up our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. We especially lift up our sisters who live there in fear and anxiety about their safety and that of their families.

In the midst of all the trials and oppression, we thank you for the amazing evidence of your presence there.

We pray for the government in Afghanistan, and ask that your light may shine there too.

Please open their eyes to the plight of their people and fill them with compassion for them. We ask that they too would know the grace and freedom that come from you.

Thank you for the amazing ways in which you manifest your presence there.

Please continue to visit people in dreams and visions, and reveal yourself in other miraculous ways.

We pray for the coming down of barriers — spiritual, political, social — for nothing is impossible for you.

Thank you that you love the people of Afghanistan and desire them to live in the hope and freedom that comes from you.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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Materials used by kind permission of the original author.

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