"Lessons from the Hindukush-Stories of Faith"
For a decade across three deployments, Afghanistan became my chapel. I learned that God's grace appears in shared naan after mortar fire, in gardens planted in bomb craters, in a child's piercing question. These stories honor the interpreters, shepherds, widows, and children who taught me true faith-planting seeds in impossible soil and trusting the Master Gardener. They shared their bread when they had little, their homes when danger loomed. I went to serve but was served.
Let me tell says, old Jonathan
The Wayfarer and author tells that for a nearly a decade, Afghanistan became his classroom and chapel. Across three deployments from Kandahar's dust to Kabul's chaos, he learned that God's grace appears not in grand gestures but in shared naan after mortar fire, in gardens planted in bomb craters, in a child's question that pierces the heart.
These stories honor the interpreters, shepherds, widows, and children who taught him what faith truly meant, not comfort or certainty, but planting seeds in impossible soil and trusting the Master Gardener with the harvest. They shared their bread when they had little, their homes when danger loomed, their courage when fear should have consumed them.
He believes that hospitality was their sacred duty. And he is not a bit shy to say that he went to serve but was served. These are not stories of heroism but of ordinary people revealing extraordinary grace in war's darkest valleys.
