Experiences in Afghanistan

In my previous post, we covered Dr. Andrew Stenhouse's Experiences with the Lord in England. Now in this segment, we'll cover his experiences with the Lord in Afghanistan.

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Following his time in London, Dr. Andrew Stenhouse felt a distinct leading in his spirit that his missionary calling was not yet complete. While living in Hawaii on a break, a visiting doctor from California mentioned an urgent need for an intern to serve as a professor of medicine at a new medical school near the Pakistani border in Afghanistan. Recognizing this as a divine appointment, Andrew accepted the call.

His journey into the country began with an immediate provision. As his plane prepared to land in Kabul, an official announcement declared a mandatory five-dollar fee for all visitors. Remembering he lacked the cash, Andrew silently prayed to the Lord, who assured him not to worry. When the collection officer approached, he recognized Andrew's purpose:

"Oh, Dr. Stenhouse, are you coming to help our people?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, there will be no charge for you."

Out of everyone on the aircraft, Andrew was the only passenger exempted from the fee.

Once settled, Andrew took on the monumental task of establishing the medical program and instructing a large class of over a hundred students hailing from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. Every morning, he woke early to memorize three to four hours of lecture material without notes. Depending on the room's mood, he relied on trusted student translators to convert his outlines into Farsi, Hindi, or Pakhtu.

Teaching under Islamic rule, however, came with constant intimidation. Every day, a local mullah sat at the back of the classroom holding a drawn sword in its sheath, serving as a silent reminder that Andrew was strictly forbidden from mentioning his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Tensions mounted when students attempted to enforce an unwritten rule that no student—especially under a Christian professor—could ever fail an exam. When a group of students boycotted his dermatology final because they had already failed other tests, Andrew responded by failing everyone who participated in the boycott.

The fallout was swift. The resulting political backlash rippled all the way to Kabul, where the king’s cousin—the president of the Kabul School of Medicine—had also faced trouble for failing students. When the cousin invited Andrew over for a cup of tea, he shared his own frustrations about having been demoted to head the country's Department of Infectious Diseases over similar student discipline issues. Meanwhile, it became clear Andrew's time in the region was drawing to a close.

As hostility escalated, the Lord's supernatural protection became his shield. One evening, noticing that his nightly guard was missing from outside his door, Andrew locked his three exterior doors. Moments later, three students broke through two of those doors and forced their way toward his bedroom. With heavy snow falling outside the window in Kabul, escape was impossible.

"And so, anyway, I said, 'Okay, Father,'" Andrew recalled. "And so, immediately, when they got to my door, they started yelling and screaming and took off running. And I'm sure my angel from heaven had appeared and taken them away."

The very next day, while walking to the bank through the streets of Kabul to wind up his accounts, he was targeted by a hired pickpocket amidst a hostile crowd of students. Filled with righteous indignation, Andrew confronted the man and miraculously hurled him nearly thirty feet through the air—an impossible feat of physical strength orchestrated entirely by his angelic guardian. The pickpocket was caught by a student on the edge of the crowd, completely empty-handed, and the mob quickly dispersed, putting away their drawn knives.

For his safety during his final week in the country, Andrew resided within the secure walls of the U.S. Embassy until they safely flew him out, concluding roughly a year of intense service.

During his tenure, his duties had also extended periodically to a remote mission hospital in northern Afghanistan. Traveling there required flying in a small plane with a Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot, clearing animals off the dirt landing strip before touching down. This northern outpost provided a valuable training exchange, bringing medical students over from the University of Indiana to work alongside the top students from Andrew's school near Jalalabad.

The return trip from the northern hospital, however, was harrowing. It demanded an extreme, high-stakes takeoff where the plane rolled down the dirt path and shot right off the edge of a cliff. With the nose pointed toward the ground, the aircraft relied entirely on gravity as a temporary substitute for engine-driven acceleration, dropping nearly a thousand feet in a freefall dive before the wings generated enough airspeed to pull out and take flight. This razor-thin margin for error left no room for sudden downdrafts or pilot hesitation, relying on absolute discipline to survive.

Reflecting on his turbulent yet grace-filled year in Afghanistan, Andrew maintained nothing but deep love for the people. Though they lived in darkness, they had seen a true light appear—and though many could not bear it, the Heavenly Father's protection and faithfulness sustained him through every hazard.

Author's note: The next chapter in this series is Divine Healing in US Private Practice. See the Home page of this blog for more podcasts on the life of Dr. Stenhouse. You may access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master. Now I'd like to ask a very important question.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.