Disclaimer: The following story mentions brutal murders and the trauma of those fleeing for their lives in Afghanistan. While we believe some of these details are helpful for understanding the situation of hundreds of hurting people in the world today, be advised that this content may not be appropriate for everyone.
Rescue from Certain Death
August 15, 2021. The Taliban took control of Afghanistan. They immediately began to hunt down their opponents and people who stood for things they despised—certain ethnic groups, Christians, those who worked for NGOs or the government, female professionals. Men were lined up and shot. Widows and young women were taken as wives by force. People fled.
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Muhammad* and Maryam were Hazara**, an ethnic minority long persecuted in Afghanistan for their Shi’a faith and hated by the Taliban. They immediately fled the city with their six children, but the Taliban caught them at the Afghan border. The children watched, horrified, as their parents were beaten to death in front of their eyes.
When Maryam’s brother, Abdul, heard about their deaths, he sent for his orphaned nieces and nephews. Now, he had a dozen people in his family to care for, and they were all at great risk. When the Taliban reached Abdul’s city, the whole family ran for their lives, leaving so quickly that the children didn’t even have time to put on their shoes.
Barefoot, homeless, and in danger, Abdul moved the family to a new hiding spot every night. He was terrified for their safety and didn’t know where to find help.
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More than a thousand miles away, Joshua was glued to the news, wondering what was going to happen. Though he’d never been to Afghanistan, his burden for the crisis was so great that he couldn’t even sleep. He wished there was some way he could rescue the men, women, and children whose world was collapsing.
But what if he could? Sensing that God actually wanted him to launch a rescue through ordinary people, Joshua reached out to some friends, who reached out to other friends. Together, they combined all their connections in the region to construct a modern day “underground railroad”—a system of secret guides and safehouses that could move endangered families out of Afghanistan. Project Alpha was born.
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September, 2021. Once the rescues were underway, the Project Alpha volunteers had the enormous task of culling through the names and situations of hundreds of endangered Afghans who’d been brought to their attention. They could only move one group through the railroad at a time, so each decision was crucial. One of the people on their list was Abdul—and they sensed he needed to be on the short list.
Project Alpha carefully worked out a rescue plan for Abdul’s family. The lay of the land in Afghanistan was constantly changing, with new checkpoints going up all the time, so no two trips on the underground railroad were exactly alike. When everything was ready, they briefed Abdul’s advocate—his brother who lived in the United States—on all the details Abdul would need to know. With the level of fear in Afghanistan, having messages delivered through a trusted person was essential. It was time.
Back in Afghanistan, Abdul was hiding out under a bridge when he got a call from his brother. “You’re going to get a phone call from a man named Dawood,” he said. “The last three digits of his phone number are 859. When you get that call, do exactly what he tells you.”
That night, after dark, Abdul, his wife Lila, and all the children, cautiously walked to the location Dawood had given them over the phone. He was already there, waiting for them. Dawood drove them to a house where they could hide for a short time. He took Abdul to a bazaar and bought traditional Afghan clothing for the whole family to mask their ethnicity, and shoes for the children. Dawood had Abdul scrub everything non-traditional and potentially incriminating off his cell phone, and then turn it off so they couldn’t be tracked. The next day Dawood drove the family to a bus stop, where a different man was waiting to ride with them to a new city, several hours away. One more hand-off and they were in a safehouse near the border. A fight among the Taliban right at the border prevented them from attempting to cross for a few days, but as soon as things cleared up, their fourth guide got them across. They had finally made it!
There was one last guide to follow—a local from their destination country—who took them to a big city, not far away. They arrived at a house where there were already several Afghan families staying. This safehouse would be their place of refuge until they could get safe passage to a different country as asylum seekers. Even though Abdul’s family would be living in close quarters in the same room, he felt like he might be able to sleep soundly for the first time in weeks.
Stuck in the Safehouse
November, 2021. Abdul and Lila gradually got to know the 35 other people in the house. It was quite a mix. There was the family of a prominent general from the army. A journalist. A lawyer. A widow with two young children. And several orphans who, just like Abdul’s nieces and nephews, had seen their parents killed by the Taliban.
Today, emotions in the house were running high. The trauma of their recent flight from Afghanistan and the loss of family members had taken a toll. In addition, living with this many people was a challenge. People were constantly stepping over each other in the hallways and common areas, and shushing energetic children in an attempt to keep the safehouse a secret from the neighbors. No one could safely leave the house. Food and other supplies were provided by Project Alpha and delivered by a group of local Christians.
Abdul was up on the open roof enjoying time outside when he heard angry shouting and crashing down below. Alarmed, he raced down the stairs. The shouting had stopped, replaced by a heavy silence. In hushed voices, the other men told him that some of the Christians had come with supplies for the house. Certain food items had run out the day before, which put everyone in the house in a difficult position. One of the refugees—a powerful man used to being in charge and bullying people to get his way, had lashed out against the men. In anger, he’d lost control and started beating them.
Abdul understood the feeling of powerlessness the guilty man had probably been feeling—it was hard to be so dependent on others for everything—but this was a terrible thing. What would happen now? Would they all be expelled from the house, and no longer receive the food they needed to survive?
A few days later Abdul was surprised to encounter the same Christian men in the common room. He found out that they had spoken to the man who beat them and been reconciled. Who would do such a thing? These must be very strange people to not only help a group of strangers—foreigners—day after day, but to continue to do so after they’d been beaten.
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March, 2022. Many of the families had now been in the safehouse for several months, and there was no certainty around when any of them would be able to leave. Project Alpha had never expected things to drag on like this, but it was proving extremely difficult to find places of asylum as well as jump through all the hoops the local authorities were putting in front of them. For now, all they could do was wait and try to make the best of a hard situation.
By now, the families had given up trying not to make noise. (After all, there were even two newborn babies in the house whose crying in the middle of the night was unavoidable.) As strange as this life was, they needed to do what they could to create a sense of normalcy. Different people in the house began to consider what gifts they had that could help others. One woman began a school in the atrium on the rooftop for the children. A man who’d been a personal trainer in Afghanistan led the men and older boys in various physical activities on the same roof.
The Christian couple who oversaw the houses each led a weekly Bible study for those who wanted to join, one for men and one for women. The couple were well loved and respected in the houses; the wife in particular often spent time going room to room visiting with the refugees, asking how they were, praying for them, and reading portions of scripture to encourage them. Abdul and Lila had been going to the Bible studies ever since the beating incident. They wanted to understand what gave these Christians so much courage and why they were so committed to serving them.
One of the other people coming to the mens’ study was the tough character who had done the beating. Abdul was starting to notice some changes in his behavior—the hard edges and anger were starting to soften and melt away.
Recently, the director had changed the way they studied the Bible. He was now asking the men to dig in and answer questions about what they read. What does this story tell me about God? About people? How would my life be different if this was true?
Abdul had always believed Jesus was a prophet. But like many of the men, he was being challenged by the stories to consider if there was more. Abdul didn’t know what to think, but the words of Jesus and the way he lived with power and compassion were captivating.
If Abdul believed Jesus was more than a prophet, many things in his life wouldn’t change at all. He’d still be a refugee who’d given up everything else to save his own life and the lives of his family members. He’d still be a man without a country.
Many things wouldn’t change, but the way Abdul looked at the world around him certainly would. The way these Christians lived out their faith by sacrificially loving others was absolutely crazy—but he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was actually how everyone was meant to live.
Abdul hoped his family would be granted asylum soon. Secretly, he also hoped he would figure out what to do with Jesus before that happened.
Epilogue: An Unfinished Story
As of this writing, there are 384 people still in safehouses under Project Alpha’s care, including 164 children and 7 babies born to refugee families in the houses. Project Alpha volunteers around the world are working hard to find places of refuge for these displaced people, while also raising funds to care for their daily needs (it costs $2,000 per day—about $5 per person—to fund the safehouses). More than 60 people have been successfully relocated to Brazil, Germany, or Canada.
Project Alpha, founded and led by a Novo staff couple, has crossed about 650 Afghans on the underground railroad. Miraculously, every single person Project Alpha helped made it across the border. Some were severely beaten and injured by the Taliban at checkpoints; one ended up crossing the border via ambulance, but survived and was able to receive the medical care he needed in order to walk again. Project Alpha still has a list of about 800 people waiting for rescue in Afghanistan. For now, crossing new people is on hold while they focus on relocating and supporting those already in the safehouses.
But according to the Project Alpha founders, the local believers caring for refugees in the houses are the real heroes in this story. They have invested their lives in helping, despite opposition from family and friends and the questioning of local authorities. Most of them have literally given blood to help the refugees (as in, donated blood for their medical needs). When the director and his wife were beaten during a rescue attempt outside the houses, Project Alpha asked if they were done. Their response? “No, no, please don’t take this away from us. We just feel like this is what God has called us to do.”
These believers are mostly uneducated, which in their culture means you’re a “nobody.” But Novo staff have been able to come alongside them with a different message of encouragement and empowerment—that you don’t need education to be a minister and that the Holy Spirit can and is doing amazing things through them. The safehouse leaders have been eager to learn about Discovery Bible Studies, and say that watching the Holy Spirit show up and teach the Afghans, rather than them having to prepare lengthy lessons, has taken a huge weight off of their shoulders.
“At first we were trying to get people from Kabul to California,” Joshua said. “That was our definition of success. But then God put it on someone’s heart that our goal is not to get them from Kabul to California, but from Kabul to Heaven. Then we saw what God was doing in these safehouses through the Bible studies—how people’s lives are changing—and realized God was putting it all together.”
This story is unfinished, because the stories of these Afghans are still being written. We don’t know how things will end. But there are things you can do to influence the direction the story takes:
Join Project Alpha as a volunteer, prayer partner, or advocate (all willing people are welcome—lawyers, social workers, Awana moms, etc.)
Give toward supporting families in the safehouses (roughly $5 per person per day)
Rally your church or network to cover the cost of relocating a family to a more secure and sustainable host nation (so far relocation expenses, including living expenses for the first two years, have been $7,000 per person in the family)
To learn more about current needs and opportunities, offer to volunteer, or ask Project Alpha questions, email hello@novo.org.
*All names and locations have been changed or hidden to protect those at risk.
**The situation of the Hazara has been called a genocide emergency by the international organization Genocide Watch; the Hazara have been singled out for brutal murders, bombings, and even attacks at schools, maternity wards, and weddings.
A NOTE FROM THE WRITER
This is the story of 650 refugees, told through the eyes of one man. While everything in this story is based on real events, I took some creative license in the way the story is told. “Abdul” is a real person, and the details about his background, family, and situation are true—right down to the children leaving without their shoes. He and his whole family were safely crossed out of Afghanistan in October of 2021 by Project Alpha. The story of how that rescue took place and their time in the safehouse is fact-based but fictional. For example, the details of his trip on the railroad describe what a typical crossing looked like, but not his exact experience. Likewise, the story of what he and his wife experienced in the safehouse is based on facts—the crowded conditions, the kinds of people living together, the unstable emotions, the beating of volunteers, the long wait to be granted asylum, and the ongoing Bible studies and character transformations—but is an imaginative account of what they may have seen and felt as a result. By basing Abdul’s story on the broader story of what many Afghans have experienced, I am able to protect Abdul’s privacy, share the impact Project Alpha is having in the lives of countless refugees, and make it simpler to follow along and understand.
–Megan Reynolds, Novo Communications