KABUL 24 by Henry O. Arnold and Ben Pearson

This book is about an amazing true story of faith in the midst of uncertainty.

You will read about how the 24 workers of the Shelter Now International organization (both Christian and Muslims) were arrested illegally in Afghanistan just weeks before the 9/11 attacks, how their faith couldn’t be taken away nor imprisoned and how the message of the Gospel was heard from a prison turned into a pulpit.

This book left me one teaching: Any Christian can become a ‘tough times minister’ even if he didn’t wanted to. These 6 Shelter Now International foreign workers in Afghanistan answered a God’s calling to help the people that suffered the effects of a country in war. They weren’t looking for the martyrdom or the ‘Jesus super hero’ title, but God choose to put them into a situation where they were meant to be the last Christian fortress in a war land.

I didn’t found the usual super great faith declarations in the central people of the story (like I did in other books about people who gave their lives for Jesus). Instead, I’ve found a group of people who loved God and answered a call without knowing that, eventually, that obedience would take them into a situation that very few people could choose on their own. God often takes us to our destiny, by force, and once you’re there, you can be a huge witness for Jesus.

That’s the most inspiring message of the book: Any Christian can be a great Christian in awful circumstances if only the faith remains in Jesus. There might be pain, fear, uncertainty and solitude, but if you hold on to Jesus, there always be a way out.

Being the apostle Paul isn’t a ‘must’ in order to turn the prison into a pulpit. That’s the greatest lesson of this great book.