Afghanistan

Friends. I have recently decided to go to a place in which I have longed to see for years now. Afghanistan. Here at YWAM Herrnhut, Germany, I have been invited to attend a two week trip with the base leader to Afghanistan. Jan (the base leader) is a photographer, and that is one of his biggest passions. Together we will encounter the lifestyle that is so foreign to the western eye. He will capture this in his photos while I will do what I can to express it in words. And together we will make a news letter, a magazine, something that will hopefully change the views our world has on this forsaken place. There is a beauty and a lost art which must be re-discovered. Jan and I believe that God has purpose and plans that he is already arranging in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the world. We are to be part of that plan and that restoration. There is a team there working with the villages and we are going to encourage them and remind them of Gods love for them, that they may disperse it to the people in which they encounter. We are not going to save Afghanistan, we are not going to tell them their ways are wrong and that they need to turn from their cultures. We are only going to serve them and to show them the love that God has shown us. I believe that is the only thing that can change a mans way: the love of God. Afghanistan isn't a place where the population is muddied with terrorist, as most of you reading this may think. It is a place filled with culture and religious devotion, which many of us lack. They are a peaceful nation and have caused no more havoc in this world than the United States of America. Their lifestyles are devoted and peaceful, and I am sorry that only the radicals have caught the eye of the media. A few decisions in the government, a war, a religious uprising, none of these things can change a heart, none of these things can refuel life into ones existence. So I feel I must go, but only for a short while, only that my heart may be reminded of Gods beauty in a way I have never experienced. The I will return, not having made an effect that changes Afghanistan as a whole, but the heart of one man his ability to understand his own value, is worth all of my years on this earth. And this will not be the last place I go.