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Former Taliban From Afghanistan Baptized at Mount Athos
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Steve Hayes
Jun 14, 2013, 1:10:16 AM6/14/13
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Ahmed was born and raised in a village in Afghanistan in the middle of war.
His childhood memories are dust, poverty, and compulsory Islamic education in
the sacred writings and war.
“I do not remember anymore who fought whom, however there was constant
warfare.”
For years he worked for the Taliban doing various things. He was a fanatical
Muslim who belonged to so-called radical Islam. At some point he could no
longer bear this sort of life – misery, poverty, violence, pain, and death
which he saw everywhere.
At 23 he journeyed through the impassable mountains into Pakistan and then to
Iran. His only “passport” was the common language of Farsi.
He worked for two years there “without documents” and eventually arrived at
the coast of Asia Minor in Turkey, which for him was the gate to the paradise
of the West.
One winter evening nine years ago, with an inflatable that children play with
on the beaches, two oars and four to five bottles of water, he along with a
friend jumped into the sea across from Lesvos, which seemed so close.
In his own words:
“The sea was pitch black, it was a moonless night in the winter and very
windy. We did not know how to swim. The waves looked like mountains to us.
Somewhere in the distance a red light was flashing. The boat was like a
nutshell in the waves. I soon realized that the journey to paradise was
neither near nor easy. After about ten hours we came to the steep coast with
rocks. We were in despair because we did not know if we would be able to climb
it, it was so sharp. Eventually we climbed and came to an unpaved road. Before
long we came to an elderly woman in black with a head-covering – we thought
she was a Muslim – and with a child. My friend spoke a little English, but she
nothing. With hand signals she showed us the way to a paved road and gave us a
few coins, which we knew was all she had, in order to take the bus into the
city. We arrived at the port and took the first ferry to Piraeus. At the door
they caught us. After three months in a small reception center for immigrants
that had many people like us, they gave us a map and we drove to Athens. I
learned Greek and worked various jobs until I found a regular job with a
company that placed solar panels. They payed me well, they wrote me up with
the Social Insurance Institute, and I did my papers to receive political
asylum. I worked for the same company in Athens for six years. All these years
after work I would go to the outside of the churches in the beginning –
something was pulling me there – and afterwards I began to enter within. I
would become calm. As my Greek was getting better, I wanted to know more about
Christ. I found a New Testament, however it was in a language I did not
understand [Koine Greek]. Eventually I found a blue one in the Greek I had
learned. I began to read it. I decided that I wanted to become a Christian. I
left Athens when the company closed and went to the provinces to find various
rural jobs. Eventually I found a small basement apartment in the city nearby.
It had a beach. I like the beaches very much in Greece. Shortly before Pascha
in 2013, I decided to ask to become a Christian.”
On Wednesday June 5th, in the evening, on Mid-Pentecost according to the Old
Calendar, on the balcony of the Athonite Cell of Marouda over Karyes, looking
towards the Skete of Saint Andrew and the endless blue Aegean, the same sea he
crossed one night from the opposite direction, under a beautiful sky and
brilliant sun, Ahmed became a Christian. He took the name Alexander.
Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2013/06/former-taliban-from-afghanistan-baptized-at-the-monastic-republic-of-mount-athos/
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
His childhood memories are dust, poverty, and compulsory Islamic education in
the sacred writings and war.
“I do not remember anymore who fought whom, however there was constant
warfare.”
For years he worked for the Taliban doing various things. He was a fanatical
Muslim who belonged to so-called radical Islam. At some point he could no
longer bear this sort of life – misery, poverty, violence, pain, and death
which he saw everywhere.
At 23 he journeyed through the impassable mountains into Pakistan and then to
Iran. His only “passport” was the common language of Farsi.
He worked for two years there “without documents” and eventually arrived at
the coast of Asia Minor in Turkey, which for him was the gate to the paradise
of the West.
One winter evening nine years ago, with an inflatable that children play with
on the beaches, two oars and four to five bottles of water, he along with a
friend jumped into the sea across from Lesvos, which seemed so close.
In his own words:
“The sea was pitch black, it was a moonless night in the winter and very
windy. We did not know how to swim. The waves looked like mountains to us.
Somewhere in the distance a red light was flashing. The boat was like a
nutshell in the waves. I soon realized that the journey to paradise was
neither near nor easy. After about ten hours we came to the steep coast with
rocks. We were in despair because we did not know if we would be able to climb
it, it was so sharp. Eventually we climbed and came to an unpaved road. Before
long we came to an elderly woman in black with a head-covering – we thought
she was a Muslim – and with a child. My friend spoke a little English, but she
nothing. With hand signals she showed us the way to a paved road and gave us a
few coins, which we knew was all she had, in order to take the bus into the
city. We arrived at the port and took the first ferry to Piraeus. At the door
they caught us. After three months in a small reception center for immigrants
that had many people like us, they gave us a map and we drove to Athens. I
learned Greek and worked various jobs until I found a regular job with a
company that placed solar panels. They payed me well, they wrote me up with
the Social Insurance Institute, and I did my papers to receive political
asylum. I worked for the same company in Athens for six years. All these years
after work I would go to the outside of the churches in the beginning –
something was pulling me there – and afterwards I began to enter within. I
would become calm. As my Greek was getting better, I wanted to know more about
Christ. I found a New Testament, however it was in a language I did not
understand [Koine Greek]. Eventually I found a blue one in the Greek I had
learned. I began to read it. I decided that I wanted to become a Christian. I
left Athens when the company closed and went to the provinces to find various
rural jobs. Eventually I found a small basement apartment in the city nearby.
It had a beach. I like the beaches very much in Greece. Shortly before Pascha
in 2013, I decided to ask to become a Christian.”
On Wednesday June 5th, in the evening, on Mid-Pentecost according to the Old
Calendar, on the balcony of the Athonite Cell of Marouda over Karyes, looking
towards the Skete of Saint Andrew and the endless blue Aegean, the same sea he
crossed one night from the opposite direction, under a beautiful sky and
brilliant sun, Ahmed became a Christian. He took the name Alexander.
Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2013/06/former-taliban-from-afghanistan-baptized-at-the-monastic-republic-of-mount-athos/
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
RVG
Jun 14, 2013, 4:31:54 AM6/14/13
to
Not necessarily an improvement.
--
"Shut your eyes and see."
James Joyce, Ulysses
http://www.jamendo.com/en/list/a122027/a-winter-in-babylon
http://rvgmusic.bandcamp.com/
http://soundcloud.com/rvgronoff
--
"Shut your eyes and see."
James Joyce, Ulysses
http://www.jamendo.com/en/list/a122027/a-winter-in-babylon
http://rvgmusic.bandcamp.com/
http://soundcloud.com/rvgronoff
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