Afghan Team Members

Background

Lalmir and his wife and children left Afghanistan in 2009 because of a conflict in political loyalty and moved to New Delhi, India where they lived for 7 years. It was there that he and his family got connected with a church made up of other Afghans, and Lalmir gave his life to Christ and began to grow as a Christian. Their family hosted church meetings in their home and were active members of that church made up of Afghan believers.

In 2016 Lalmir and his family were resettled in El Cajon through the US refugee resettlement program, not knowing anyone or having any ties in this community. I heard about an Afghan Christian living here through someone who knew him in India and they had contacted some mutual friends that let me know. When I met the family none of them knew any English at all. Lalmir’s wife Bashkila was experiencing severe headaches and could not sleep. I remember praying for her about that, and also that she could be in touch with her family back in Afghanistan. They had been out of touch for many months. The next time I visited them she shared that our prayers were answered and she was now in touch with her family back in Afghanistan.

The resettlement agency that placed their family of 8 in a 2 bedroom apartment in El Cajon got them into trouble, having them sign the rental agreement that here were only 5 in the family and they received an eviction notice. We found a local news reporter to interview them and because of her report and discovering the impropriety, the family was allowed to remain and the director of that agency eventually was let go. They continue to live in the same complex in a two bedroom apartment and struggle just to pay the ever increasing rent.

Once here in the USA, Lalmir’s wife became very fearful about being known as Christians and began resisting Lalmir in his building relationships with local believers here. Mike C became good fiends with the family and helped them out through their transition to living in the USA. Life was hard for them. For three years they didn’t have a car. Lalmir rode his bicycle thirty minutes each way to the market where he found work. Eventually we found cars for the family and even Bashkila drives now. Their older girls have excelled in school and one is now a student at San Diego State University.

When Afghans began arriving to San Diego County in September 2021, our Bridge Builders team came alongside Lalmir and his daughter Wahida and began reaching out to Afghan men and new families. Most Afghans speak either Dari ( Persian ) or Pashto but Lalmir and Wahida speak both, so they have been an amazing bridge for our team to develop relationships with many new Afghan families.  All of our current programs are growing because of these two. This includes weekly team visits to new families bringing welcome baskets ( our teams have visited over 100 families ), a weekly women’s sewing initiative that enables women to make their own clothing, an ESL driving class for men two mornings a week, and our weekly tutoring and mentoring program for school age kids.

Lalmir had gone through a several month long training program to become a long distance truck driver and had become licensed. But his family did not want him gone from home like this job requires. He has tried various jobs but nothing seemed to work out well enough to enable him to be able to earn enough to be able to move his family to a larger home. Interestingly enough, the apartment complex that they have remained living in for all these years now has a community of 16 Afghan families!

One of the families we all met early on in our visits was an imam who spoke no English, but we could identify him by his clothing. He had come late to a Thanksgiving meal we had hosted for new families and had apologized to Lalmir that he came late and missed a welcome message that I had given to the group before we began eating. He wanted to meet me and to hear what he had missed. So the three of us sat and I shared the welcome message with him that we were followers of Jesus and we were welcoming them as our new neighbors.

A few months past and we hadn’t seen the imam so Lalmir, Maher and I decided to go visit him, and found that he now had his own home, the inside looking much like a small mosque. We drank tea together and presented a New Testament to him in his local language. He seemed very grateful and put it among his other religious books. Before leaving we asked him if he had any needs. He then told us that he and his friends needed help understanding the driving signage and driving laws, since they had none of those back in his homeland. From this request we began a weekly driving class for Afghan men and then expanded it at their request to include an English language ( ESL) class, which now meets twice a week at our Center in El Cajon. Lalmir is the teacher for the driving class and he is well respected and looked up to in this new community. He helps with ESL and really understands all of the the challenges that these newcomers are experiencing, having gone through them himself.

Wahida tells the ladies she meets that others helped her and her family to adjust to a new life when they first arrived and how much it meant to their family, and that this is what they want to do for others now that they are settled. In addition to attending university as a full time student, Wahida co-leads the women’s sewing initiative and leads the team in visiting new families. So many of the families are still living in hotels and do not have cars yet, most require our transportation to and from our programs. Lalmir has become a faithful driver for these families attending our programs and is being asked daily to help new families with their needs. We would like nothing more than for him to work for us full time and have the housing and financial needs of his family being met.