Shoaib's Story

When I think about my childhood, besides the games we had like marbles, rolling the hoop/wheel, tip-cat, and soccer, one of them was bicycle riding. 

My name is Shoaib. I was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. I remember when I was learning to ride a bike, the first thing was I fell off the bike and I got really scraped up, but with that scraping, I was gaining experience. We learn how to ride a bike by falling. My father also played chess, and I learned to play from him at a very young age, around six or seven. I've continued both chess and cycling for about fifty years now, and it helps me find peace in my life.

I was in the third grade when one day in 1352 or 1973, the twenty-sixth of Saratan, When I went to school, there were tanks and checkpoints everywhere. On that day, I couldn't go to school because of the coup by Dawoud Khan, and from that day to this day, which is now over fifty years, the people of Afghanistan still do not have peace and tranquillity. When the people of Afghanistan don't have peace and tranquillity, neither did we, and we grew up in this state of war and violence

This was a part of our lives, and when the Soviets came to Afghanistan, we were there. After that, I studied law and also worked for the United Nations, but when I look back on my life, there were two questions I had no answers to.

One question was: how did the world come to be? Who created it? How was it created? My previous religion didn't provide a clear and explicit answer to this. Likewise, the books of atheists also had no answer on this matter. This was the great question of my life, and the second question was: how can we make our inner and outer selves one and the same?

We, too, would appear to others to be very good people or whatever they thought of us—educated—but inwardly, I knew I was a sinner. I wasn't as good as they thought. I couldn't reconcile my inner and outer selves. These were the two important questions.

When we became immigrants in Pakistan, we were at the lowest point in our lives because I didn't understand the language; I didn't understand Urdu, and on the other hand, the relationships in the family weren't good either. I also didn't have a job, I didn't have money, I mean, it was the lowest point of my life in Pakistan, and there, a number of Afghans had become Christians in Islamabad, as well as a number of Americans, Canadians, they worked among the Afghans, but when they contacted us, Christianity at that time seemed to me like a religion that was outdated, and the Americans also seemed like spies to me, and I had an opposition to Christianity, both in my family and among my friends and peers.

This unhappy way of life continued until one night I saw a very luminous man in a dream who said to me, “Why are you against me? Why are you against me?” And this was maybe for a few seconds. The next morning, I told my wife, “I had this very strange dream. I don't know, but I know that I am against Christians.”

After that, we had Christian friends who wanted me to read the Holy Word with them, so I asked my wife to call one of our friends to let them know I wanted to start the Bible. So, we started the Bible with this American friend. The very first verse of the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The first verse of the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,’ and this really solved my very first question, the one I hadn't had an answer to for decades.

And after that, we read the Old Testament and the New Testament. When we got to the New Testament, to the life of Jesus Christ, there was a verse from His work that really helped me to believe in Jesus Christ or that touched my heart. That verse is in Matthew, chapter eleven, verse twenty-eight, where Jesus Christ says: “Come to me, all you who are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Why? He says, “I am humble, I am gentle toward you.” That verse really touched my heart, and the Spirit of God also touched me, and on one of the days of fall 1999, I believed in Jesus Christ, and I told my wife. My wife said that I too had become a Christian.

And we both immigrated to a western country, and there we were both baptised. And what the Lord is doing, especially among the Afghans and Iranians, is opening our hearts to Himself. We believe in Jesus Christ; He wants to use us for His kingdom, to spread His message, and He is using us among the Afghans and the Iranians.

And my desire, my prayer is for all Afghans, for all Persian-speakers, for all Iranians, Tajiks, and Afghans wherever they are, whether inside Afghanistan, in Iran, Tajikistan, India, Pakistan, or in western countries, that they also read the Gospel, read the good news of Jesus Christ, and believe in Him. They themselves see that God loves them.

In the Word of God, we read that it says God so loved this world that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, what did He not do for the world? Not to punish the world, but to save the world. God wanted us to be saved through Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ has eternal life.

We are saved, and this is the good news of Jesus Christ. My message to you, the viewers, is this: read the Gospel, believe in Jesus Christ, and see how positively He will change your life. The Word of God is living and changes our lives for the better.

Believe me, since we came to faith in Christ, our problems haven't lessened, but we are happy in our troubles, we have joy in our hearts, and the Lord has also given us abundant blessings in our lives, in our family life, in our married life, and in our life in the community—blessings that are completely beyond measure.

We also encourage you to believe in Jesus Christ and see how good and sweet the Lord is, for the Lord is a God of love.