If you’ve ever considered home-schooling your kids, I bet the possibility of martyrdom is probably not one of your biggest concerns. Yet, that’s exactly what one mom faced starting her own home-school in Afghanistan.
I read with horror and astonishment the story of Jamil Abraham and his wife, a Muslim scholar originally born in Afghanistan. They moved to Pakistan in 1992 during the civil war and while there his wife converted to Christianity through the witness of a Pakistani missionary. When they returned to Afghanistan in 1995 his wife gave birth to two daughters. However since Taliban regime was against girl’s education, his wife started an underground home-school for girls in Kabul. She also shared the Gospel with her students through the classes.
Isn’t this a wonderful reminder of the opportunity home-school parents have to ‘instruct their kids in the ways of the Lord’ that is quite unusual compared with regular-schooled kids. Of course, it is what you make it, right? Home-school or not, we as parents need to be proactive, use our time wisely and not let our teaching of our kids in the Lord, slip off the radar. This woman knew her highest goal. Education was very important but the sharing of the gospel in her home-school could not be sidelined, even with the threats from the Taliban.
Amazing right!? Let’s ask ourselves… ‘what do our actions in the home say about how important God’s word is in our family’s life?’ If we leave it to the church or the occasional prayer at the dinner table…what does that say about the importance of the Gospel for our family’s daily living? Remember our family is our ministry. We don’t get to choose; we’ve already chosen and God has given us this fantastic opportunity to shepherd our kids through His word.
Parents need easy, resources that work!
Of course, parents need help; they need simple ways of grabbing their kid’s attention and getting them engaged in God’s word.
They need guidance to show the relevance of God’s word to their kids daily lives. That’s why Anton is building video resources that can be used in the home by parents. Every show has to grab attention, get everyone ‘on the bus’ so we can learn from God’s word. It’s no different with video. Just this week I’ve been recording some fun little devotional videos following Psalm 119! I’m even gonna teach your kids the Hebrew alphabet as we go because this Psalm is an acrostic poem.
Sadly, the story doesn’t end well for our home-school mom in Afghanistan. She ignored many threats to close the home-school down, until in 1999 the Taliban abducted and killed her. The husband and his daughters fled to Pakistan where he had a dream about Jesus Christ. The scholar had never been convinced about the Quran’s explanation that the Holy Spirit was the Angel Gabriel. In the dream, Jesus came to him and said, ‘I am the Holy Spirit’. As he compared Islam and Christianity, the dream reoccurred and a pastor said to him, ‘Congratulations! God has invited you to believe and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour’. He agreed, giving his heart to Jesus and was baptised in Pakistan in 2000. Now Jamil has remarried and translates the Bible into Pashto after resettling his family under the UNHCR refugee mandate in another country.
Boy, you’re tempted to think you’ve got it tough don’t you, until you read stories like this. Who would ever dream of their home-school ministry leading to martyrdom? We need to be thankful for our freedom to raise our kids and share the gospel. We need to exercise those muscles and push the envelope to use our opportunities to their full potential.
This story I read can be found on page 12 of Barnabas Aid Jan-Feb 2017 https://barnabasfund.org/downloads/PDF/Magazine/bfaidjan_feb17.pdf
If you’d like to give feedback on a preview of one of my new devotional videos, shoot me an email and let’s get started today!
