Obed and Tarana lead the first-ever Afghan church in Canada. Obed leads several Bible studies across the GTA and has a prolific online ministry in Farsi, Dari, and Pashto that reaches thousands worldwide. The online ministry is a vital lifeline to believers in Afghanistan; Voice of the Martyrs has named Afghanistan as "The World’s Most Dangerous Country for Christians". Tarana focuses mainly on local outreach to women and supporting refugee and new immigrant settlement.
Obed travels across to different countries around the world every year in order to teach, train, and encourage the Afghan Christian diaspora. In 2019, he spearheaded the Pashtun Christian International Forum, an organization of Pashto-speaking Christian leaders around the world.
Give a gift to support Obed and Tarana's ministry
Obed and Tarana were both born into Muslim families in Afghanistan; they were both practising
and devoted Muslim for the first few decades of their lives. They learned Islam as taught under an extremist group's rule, but Obed questioned why God wanted people to be so violent. He decided that this group's understanding of Islam must be wrong, so he studied Islam for himself and went through Islamic religious classes for three years to officially become an Imam.
But that was when God opened his spiritual eyes and he decided he was done with Islam.
No longer seeking to be an Imam, Obed went to Pakistan to do business studies. He learned to use a computer and the Internet for the first time, and decided to search for God online. After finding a website that answered his questions and reading Matthew 1 online, he decided the Bible was the truth and to follow Jesus.
After finishing his higher education, Obed returned to Afghanistan where he met and married Tarana, and lived as a secret Christian for almost four years. He and Tarana had to escape to India when Obed's family members and relatives threatened their lives after finding the portions of the New Testament that Obed had printed and hidden in their home. They left everything behind to follow the Lord’s will for their lives and lived as refugees in India for almost nine years. (Another article here.)
In India, Obed had the opportunity to go to Bible College for three years and also planted an Afghan church. (Another article archived here.)
He served as the leader of the Afghan Christian Refugees Community,
a radio producer with TWR India, and audio interpreter for ISO ministries.
He also founded a Christian Charity under the name of “Dari Fellowship
of India”.
They and the Afghan church were badly persecuted by the Muslim
community in New Delhi, India.
Since India is not a signatory of the refugee convention, it was not a safe haven for them,
and they had to leave India and came to Canada though a Canadian church's
sponsorship in 2015.
After arriving in Canada, they met with the Jesus Network, with whom they planted a new church in Mississauga, and join our outreach in Toronto and other areas across the GTA. His vision is to reach out to Muslims, especially those who speak the Farsi, Dari, Hazaragi, Pashto, Tajiki, Urdu, Hindi, and English languages. Since it is often inappropriate in Afghan culture for a man to speak personally or privately with women, Tarana's work in discipling women is essential to bringing whole families to Jesus. Their main mission is to grow the Afghan church in the GTA. They consider it a great, wonderful pleasure and an honour to serve Lord Jesus under the Jesus Network.
An Open Letter from the Afghan Christian Community to the Body of Christ Worldwide
Originally posted to https://gpcw.org.au. (Archived page)
We ask that you please forward and share the
enclosed “open letter to the church” with your friends, churches, prayer
groups, human rights advocates, the media, your local representatives,
senators and other government bodies and authorities… we need everyone’s help to make our voices heard!
We must make people aware that right now
our Afghan Christian brothers and sisters are being subjected to
forcible arrest, intimidation, fear, torture and certain public
execution merely for choosing to be Christian! We must raise up a standard against these egregious
injustices and blatant human rights violations by taking a strong and
public stand against these unconscionable actions being perpetrated and condoned by the Afghan government from the parliament floor against its own people!
The enclosed letter was written on June 8, 2010 by Afghan
Christians who are currently living in exile from their beloved homeland
because they were forced to flee their country in order to save their
life and the lives of their families, due to orders of execution issued
against them by the Afghan government for choosing to convert to
Christianity:
******Letter to the Body of Christ around the world, written by members of the Afghan Christian community on June 9, 2010: To the Body of Christ:
This letter is written by the Afghan Christian Community in New
Delhi, India which is a small community of 150 Afghan Christian refugees
and asylum seekers.
We left our country because we were sentenced to death on the account
of our Christian faith (conversion), as Afghanistan is a Muslim
Country, the Afghan Government is an Islamic government, and Islam is
the only formal religion of the country, and according to the
Constitutional law of the Afghan Islamic Republic, conversion is
considered as a big crime, Christian are called pagans and infidels and
are sentenced to death by the Afghan Government. Christians are
considered criminals. Death penalty is waiting for all those who want to
leave the darkness and come to the true light, repent from their sins,
and put their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord and Savior
of all human being.
We believe that you (the Body of Christ) have already heard that some
pictures and movies of the Afghan believers (from Delhi and Kabul) were
shown by an Afghan Private TV (Noorin TV), this TV channel showed these
picture in a especial program (Sarzameen Man), and the Government and
people were encouraged and provoked to think about the issue of
conversion, to make a stand against it and to take serious and practical
measures and actions to destroy Afghan Converted Christians (Sons of
God) and those who share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Lost. The Afghan Parliament, Senate, Religious Council and Islamic
Parties and leaders made statements that the Afghan Government has to
search, find, arrest, deliver to courts and executes all Afghan
Christians, and the Christian NGOs and Organization have to be
stopped too.
University students protested against Afghan Christians in
Kabul and Herat Provinces, and the Afghan Government also made a
statement that all Afghan Christians will be arrested and executed, and the Christian NGOs and Organizations which involved with the issues of conversion will be closed.
Mr. Mujajdi the Chairman Of Afghan Senate said that if the Afghan Government does not take serious action, he and other Islamic leaders will call andrequest the Afghan people to take practical measures to kill all Afghan Christians.
President Karzai himself showed his personal interest in this
regard and said that all Afghan Christians will be arrested and
executed and Christian organizations which are involved with this issue
will be stopped. He ordered the Afghan security organs to take
serious measure in this regard.
The Afghan Home Minister and the
Chairman of the Afghan Intelligence told to the Afghan Parliament that 4
Afghan Christian individuals and one family are arrested and they are
under investigation, 13 NGO are recognized and suspended, names of the
Afghan Christians are listed and the Afghan Intelligence agency is
trying to arrest them. Two Church organizations by the names of WCA and
NCA are closed.
As we are in contact with our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan,
many believers are arrested, our houses are checked by police and
intelligence people in Afghanistan, our families and parents (though
they are Muslim) are under investigation and even arrested, and all
Afghan believers are misplaced.
So, We (Afghan Christian Community) along with our other Afghan Christian brothers and sisters who are in
Afghanistan request you to:
1. Please pray for us and for this critical situation, pray for
those who are arrested, and those who are under investigation.
2. Please come together and help your Afghan brothers and
sisters in Christ, as we are sentenced to death, we are arrested, we are
under investigation, the Afghan Government kills us because we believe
on Jesus Christ, we know that we should consider it pure joy when we
suffer
(James 1: 1 -4), and we are enjoying all suffering all joy. But we
also know that faith without deeds is useless (James 2: 14 – 17), and
this is the time to raise your voice for your brothers and sisters, for
our children, for our old parents, for the execution of thousand Afghan
believers. This is the day that all of us should come together and pray,
think, help and raise our voices to the International Community, to put
pressure on the Afghan Government to stop killing, persecuting and
executing Afghan Christians, to give us freedom of religion, to respect
and accept us as Afghan Christians.
3. We do not know how the whole world and especially the Global
Church is silent and closing their eyes, while thousand of their
brothers and sisters (Body of Christ) are in pain, facing life danger
and death penalty, and are tortured, persecuted and called criminals
because they believe on the Truth. We need to wake up, get up and speak
up today, and to prove it that we are really in concern, and care for
our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should help the persecuted part
of the body of Christ, for His Glory. If we really believe that Lord
Jesus Christ is God, then, He commands us to love Him and to love our
neighbour, if our own brothers and sisters, are in pain and suffering,
and we are silent and we ignore them and their suffering, then the
question is that do we really obey Lord Jesus commandment of love Him
and our neighbour?
So, dear brothers and sisters (the Body of Christ), we (Afghan
Christian Community in New Delhi) on behalf of all Afghan Christians
request you to support us by your prayers and practical measures, lets
tell to the Afghan Government, that we are not pagans and infidels, we
are not criminal because of our Christian faith, and lets tell them not
to sentence us to death.
May God bless you!
Afghan Christian Community (Obaid S. Christ)