Afghanistan Report:

When I stepped off the plane, I could not believe my eyes. There were dark rain clouds approaching Kabul from the mountains. Spending two months the first summer and three months the second summer in Kabul, I saw nothing like this. When I saw the dark rain clouds I felt the Lord speak Haggai 2:9 to my heart which says, “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty.” At that point, I remembered stories I have heard and pictures I have seen of Afghanistan in the 1950’s and 1960’s before the lawless and bloody conflict ensued…which lasted 25-years and included the Russian invasion, civil war and Taliban rule…that Kabul once was a peaceful, beautiful city and an international hub for all of Asia. I believe the glory that God intends to pour out on Afghanistan will be greater than what it once was. And God will have a church!

Afghanistan had several days of rain this June, where the actual average rainfall for that month is 0.0! I also noticed that Kabul River, which is usually completely dry all summer in Kabul, was full of water! There has been drought in Afghanistan for around a decade and it has been broken this year! Check out this blog from an Afghan news site on February 7 of this year:

“There are signs that the drought which has gripped Afghanistan for the past several years might be finally breaking. ‘In the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, about 3 1/4 inches of rain fell in Kandahar over a two-day period... Rainfall for December was four times the normal amount for the month... North of Kandahar Air Base, the Tamak River rose so high the water was nearly touching the bottom of the main bridge leading into town. Meanwhile, near Kabul, rainwater filled some smaller streams that are usually bone-dry this time of year.’

According to Khoshhal Murad, a United Nations interpreter in Kabul, Afghans are saying ‘this is a sign from God.’

‘When the Taliban were in power,’ Murad said, ‘some of its leaders grew so frustrated by the drought they randomly rounded up dozens of people, drove them into the desert and demanded they pray for rain. It didn't come. You can't force people to pray,' Murad said. 'They should have gone out in the desert themselves.'

Murad said his father told him this is the most rain he has seen in more than 30 years.

The drought has broken throughout Afghanistan - both literally and metaphorically…”

Then, driving to the guesthouse from the mountains, I noticed a hint of green covering the mountains and hills surrounding Kabul. I thought, “it couldn’t be,” but my mind took me back to a picture I had seen two years ago of Kabul in the 1960’s. The picture was of some beautiful buildings in Kabul with the mountains in the background, and the mountains in the picture had this green hue to them. I was confused by the green hint to the picture and remember thinking to myself that there was no way that grass on the hills was the cause of the green hint in the picture. I thought the picture itself was just discolored from age…I was wrong! The hills and mountains surrounding Kabul are actually turning green! Again, I felt the Lord speaking to my heart that the grass on the hills is a prophetic sign of what He is about to do…I felt He was speaking to me about Joel 2 (vs. 18-32). I believe the Lord was telling me that just like He