If you would have asked me in 2009, as we were preparing to move to Budapest and devote ourselves to disciple-making in a different culture, whether I imagined that I would be building friendships with Afghani refugees, I probably would have found it easy to say “no”. At the time, there was no indication that our work in Hungary would include a focus on Muslim people.
But all of that changed in 2015, when God began bringing people from some of the hardest-to-reach nations on the planet to the cities of Europe. Today our harvest field includes a significant number of Afghani people who fled from Kabul due to the violence caused by the Taliban, and are now setting in Budapest. A number of these families live in a refugee transition home where I volunteer regularly, and I am seeing God at work. One young couple in the home, expecting their first child, are brand new Christians. My prayer is that God would use this couple mightily as disciple-makers among their own people.
What if Budapest is the place where Afghani people meet Jesus? What if a worldwide movement of the Spirit among Afghani people would radiate from Budapest?
One of our biggest challenges in reaching these Afghani people is language. Adults generally have very limited language ability in both English and Hungarian, so evangelism and discipleship will most effectively happen in the Dari (or perhaps Farsi) language.
Do you have a heart for Muslim people? Do you already speak Dari (or Farsi), or are you willing to learn? Could God be calling you, or someone you know, to Budapest in order to reach Muslims for Christ? Let’s talk! Drop me an email.
– Posted by Mark, who continues to discover daily new depths to the statement, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways”. (Isaiah 55:8)