Afghanistan
Afghanistan sits at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, with a rich history spanning thousands of years. Once a key stop on the ancient Silk Road, the region has seen the rise and fall of empires from Alexander the Great to the Mughals. Today, over 99% of Afghans identify as Muslim, with Christianity virtually unknown to most of the population.
43,844,000
People live in Afghanistan today under Taliban rule, where poverty is widespread and women face severe restrictions on education and employment. Nearly all Afghans practice Sunni Islam, and leaving the faith carries the threat of death — making it one of the most difficult places on earth to follow Jesus. A small number of secret believers persist, but they have almost no access to churches, pastors, or Scripture in their own languages.
Prayer points
Peace and Stability
Afghanistan has known almost no peace for over four decades — Soviet invasion, civil war, Taliban rule, American occupation, and Taliban rule again. Generations have grown up knowing only violence, displacement, and loss. Pray for an end to fighting and oppression, for the Taliban to be restrained, and for humanitarian aid to reach the millions facing starvation. But pray too for a deeper peace — the kind that survives political change, the shalom that passes understanding. Only Christ can heal what war has broken. "The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble." (Psalm 9:9)
Access to Scripture
Dari and Pashto Bibles exist — but owning one in Afghanistan can cost a believer their life. The Taliban actively seeks out and burns Scripture, and any digital Christian content must be carefully hidden. Yet Afghan believers find creative ways: voice recordings shared on small devices, WhatsApp chains of single verses, memorized passages passed between trusted friends in whispers. Pray for the full Bible to reach every Afghan in their mother tongue — that God's word would travel in ways authorities cannot track and no government can stop. "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." (Isaiah 40:8)
What No Missionary Can Do
Taliban rule has shut every door to conventional witness — no open churches, no missionaries, no public proclamation. But no government can seal a sleeping person's dreams. Across the Muslim world, and especially in Afghanistan, there are documented accounts of men and women coming to Jesus after encountering Him in vivid dreams and visions. Pray that God would do what only He can do — that He would visit Afghan men, women, and children in the night, revealing Himself as the risen Lord. Ask for courage for those who wake from these dreams to seek, and to find. "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." (Acts 2:17)