During my stay in Kabul, the Afghan-Turk NGO graciously arranged office space for me to use when I was not teaching. My officemate was an Afghan man in his early 50s. "Thomas, please meet Mr. Siraji, a key part of the Aghan-Turk staff. Mr. Siraji was a member of the Mujahideen. He was one of the youngest jihadists fighting against the Russians. But don't worry, Thomas. He has come down from the mountain, he has shaved his beard, and he is MOSTLY civilized now!"

On day three of my 15-day seminar, some of the Turkish and Afghan teachers greeted me with a major surprise.

Unfortunately, I often encounter “Christians” who are so gripped by fear and even hatred of Muslims that they have no capacity for love. In most cases, this fear is of the baseless, irrational variety—the kind of fear we are all prone to conjure up when we cloister with those from “our tribe” and work tirelessly to cast those from “the other tribe” in the worst possible light. My Muslim friends tell me that there is the same propensity among Muslims to believe the worst about Christians.

It was day 14 of a 15-day seminar. The Afghan-Turk Educational NGO, a Muslim non-profit based out of Turkey, had flown me to Afghanistan to offer an intensive ESL course for veteran primary and secondary teachers.In this context of serious English instruction and ongoing spiritual dialogue rooted in mutual respect, the teachers and I found unexpected common ground around one of Jesus's parables.

Thomas Davis, from our PCI Raleigh team, recently traveled to Afghanistan to work with a Muslim NGO training English teachers for two weeks. He came back with incredible stories to tell, and he will be sharing them with us in a series of posts.