Episode 81

In the summer of 2021, the world witnessed the unmitigated disaster of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Like unwilling witnesses to a train wreck in progress, we were unable to look away as the nightmare unfolded. Desperate civilians clinging to departing planes fell to their deaths. Babies were handed to troops across barbed wire. The Taliban acquired abandoned military equipment and weapons. Allies and American citizens were abandoned behind enemy lines. The country fell to the Taliban in a matter of days. To boot, 13 American service members and about 70 Afghan citizens were killed in a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport were untold numbers of people were waiting for a flight out.

Though virtually everyone is in agreement that the withdrawal was a failure, opinions are still split as to whether the U.S. should have withdrawn in the first place. In this episode on the Removing Barriers podcast, we have a conversation with Missionary Scott about this, what the withdrawal means for both countries moving forward, and other things that we should keep in mind as we evaluate this historic event.

People are going to starve this year because of what we did. People in Afghanistan are going to starve to death. There are people who are in jail now, not because they did anything wrong, but they’re on the wrong side of politics for that group of people. And we left behind millions and millions and millions of dollars of military equipment, Apache, TAC, helicopters. My wife even said we were watching the news report and she goes, they’re wearing our uniforms. You can’t tell who is who.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG, and we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

This is episode 81 of the Removing Barriers podcast, and this episode will be a follow up from episode 57, Afghanistan, a spiritual perspective, but in this episode, we’ll be looking at Afghanistan. A Missionaries Perspective Joining us in this episode is our guest from episode 53, missionary Scott. Scott is a missionary in Central Asia and a military vet. After listening to episode 57, Scott contacted us and expressed a slightly different perspective. So we invited him back to discuss his perspective. Scott, welcome back to the Removing Barriers podcast, and it is indeed a pleasure to have you back. Thank you. I appreciate it. Definitely. Thank you.

All right, well, let’s dive right into it. Tell us a little bit more about your military experience. Where were you at 911? Kind of go back 20 years and just discuss that for us. I can. I served as a translator for the United States Air Force for about eleven years when the Lord called me to preach. When he called me to preach, I separated from the military, went to Bible College, graduated Bible College, went to the mission field. That’s the Gist of it. It’s not real clean that way. There’s a lot of different things that happened in between, but that’s the Gist of it. For eleven years, I spent a lot of time in Asia back and forth. I spent time at the National Security Agency and on the field in Asia, just back and forth, all eleven years. We moved almost every year. When 911 happened, I was actually in South Korea. Alarm went off at midnight or 01:00 in the morning. I remember the exact time that there that went off. It was nighttime. I got up and I reported to work, and my wife went into labor. Oh, wow. So I went to my commander and begged him to let me go to take my wife to the hospital. They released me. I drove from Osan to Seoul, the army hospital up there, and our van broke down at the back gate. We walked from the back gate to the hospital, and she started to have the baby. And there was a lady up there who was from my unit who was already up there preparing to have a baby because she was a military person. She had to stay up there, whereas my wife had to travel. And when we got up there, we found out that they had locked down the base, and they were forcibly moving everyone who lived off base on the base where her mom and dad had just arrived in country that day and didn’t have any paperwork to allow them onto the military installation. And they were in our apartment with our children. And she panicked, not knowing what would happen to her parents and the kids. And labor stopped. And it was another day before she had the baby. Oh, wow. And the Lord provided for my family. Our oldest boy, he knew where Mama had packed all the bags for the kids in case they had to go somewhere. So he showed Grandma and Grandpa where everything was and got everything ready to leave the house. And Grandpa just told the story over and over again of why they were in Korea and how they got there and where her daughter was and our kids daughter was and all these types of things. And a captain’s family took them into their home and kept them until we got back from the hospital. Oh, that’s great. Definitely.

So as I mentioned in the intro, you were listening to episode 57, and you email us and say, hey, I haven’t set a different perspective, and we invited you back on. So in your opinion, should the United States have left Afghanistan? Of course, we discuss in episode 57 why the US went in there. If you have not listened to episode 57, encourage you to listen to that one as well. But should the United States have left Afghanistan? Why or why not, in your opinion? Okay. In my opinion, no, we should not have left Afghanistan. There had been no American deaths in Afghanistan for over one year. The economy was picking up, society was flourishing. Things were going very well in Afghanistan. We were having good relations with the Afghanis and building strong relationships there. Girls were going to school, businesses were opening. Everything was going well. And then we just pulled out. Somebody has to be in charge. There has to be a ruling presence in order for there to be ordered. If you look back during the Roman time period, there was a thing called the Pact Romana. The Romans were in charge, and you could travel freely because the Romans kept peace. If anybody attacked anybody else, the Romans come after you. If people got attacked traveling, the Romans have come after you. And because the Romans are strong, people kept their own business and didn’t hurt anybody else. As a general rule. Well, that’s true for the United States as well. When we were strong and we are in different parts of the world, it made stability. Even now, these numbers change a lot, but just rough guesses. Right now we have over 50,000 troops in Japan, 40 some thousand troops in South Korea, 35 plus thousand troops in Germany, 12,000 plus troops in Italy, 9000 something in the United Kingdom, about 4000 in Bahrain, 3000 in Spain, over 1000 in Turkey. Australia has got almost 1000 troops. Saudi Arabia, Belgium, quit all have over a thousand troops in them. And our only function there is to create stability. We’re not occupying those countries. We’re not controlling those countries. We’re just there as a stabilizing presence, just like the Romans were back in the day. And as long as there’s a strong presence, everything stays in order. For example, I don’t care how you feel about Trump one way or the other, but he was a strong figure. And while he was President, nothing happened. The Russians stayed in place. The North Koreans stepped down their rhetoric and stayed in place. When Trump left office, there was a military coup in Burma Myanmar. Shortly thereafter, the Southern border went nuts. All kinds of things broke loose the minute he left office because he was a strong leader.

The current leader is not a strong leader. As a matter of fact, we don’t even know that he’s the leader. He comes to the microphone and says things like, they won’t let me say, they won’t let me answer, they won’t let me do this. You’re the President of the United States of America, and somebody else is telling you what to do. You’re not in charge. I don’t know who’s in charge, but it’s not you. And that’s weakness, and it shows his weakness. And because of that weak display, other people, they feel that they have the ability to do whatever they want. And so they’re going to take that chance. Had a strong leader being in the White House, we wouldn’t be experiencing this problem with Russia right now. Had a strong leader been in the White House, you wouldn’t have time to look in Taiwan right now. There’s a lot of things that are happening because the White House is displaying weakness. They’re not only displaying weakness, but they’re pushing agendas that weaken the country morally and spiritually. Economically, Russia lives off oil. And if the price of oil is low, Russia doesn’t have a lot of extra money. So if you let the oil flow, gas gets cheap here, merchandise gets cheaper here, it promotes business, and it weakens Russia. As long as you restrict the flow of oil, it gives Russia more money, more influence, and more power. Do you understand what I’m saying about that? Yeah, definitely.

Let me ask this question, though, because you said that okay, and I would agree, when the United States is in the country, it does bring some sort of stabilizing force or present. But the question begs, though, should that be the US job? Because in episode 53 57, we asked, should the US be the police of the world? So I’m going to show that back at you. Is that the US job? Should parents be worried that their son has been in Afghanistan or in Kuwait or wherever the US might have a military presence, and they’re just there. Just because the US wants to have a force of presence there. Someone always has to be in charge. And if you have the ability to do something, you have the responsibility to do something. I travel to different parts of the world because God gave me a gift with language that other people don’t have. And because I have that gift, I have that responsibility to exercise that gift. If you look through history, there’s always been somebody in charge. Babylon was in charge. Persia was in charge. Rome was in charge. England was in charge. Mongolia was in charge. There’s always a world influencing power, and that’s a stabilizing presence. That’s been us up until this point. We’re losing that now, and there’ll be a lot of bloodshed. And before a new world order is established.

Who do you think would be that replacement? China? Russia? Well, quite frankly, I’m the kind of guy that if somebody has to be in charge, I’d rather be meeting somebody else. When I was in the military, there was an organization, 22nd Intelligence Squadron, 21st or 22nd, I don’t remember, but I had the opportunity to be President of an organization, and I didn’t feel like I wanted that position, but other people wanted me in that position while I bowed down and somebody else was President. And I got stuck in as vice President. And I realized very quickly I’d made a huge mistake by not taking the President’s position, because the person who had taken it was an empty and the unit suffered greatly. And I had to carry actually myself and the Treasurer both had to carry a lot of things because the person in charge didn’t know what they were doing. And there were people that wanted me to take it because they knew I could, but I didn’t think it was my responsibility. And so just from a personal perspective, I’ve learned that if you have the ability, you need to step up to the plate and take charge, or someone else is going to take that might not do such a good job, and you’re still going to have to deal with consequences of their decisions. Now, I don’t want China in charge because China doesn’t have my value system. Russia. I have mixed feelings about Russia because of their past. But Russia is more moral than the US is right now, sadly, in many ways. And that’s a terrible thing to have to say. That’s a bold statement, though. It’s a true statement, Wickedness, that is promoted in the US does not fly in that part of the world at all. I don’t know what more to say than that.

I was actually going to ask you a question about that. You said that the United States was up to this point has been that stabilizing presence in all the world, and it got me thinking that because we have a JudeoChristian moral ethic, we were suitable for that role. Now that those values are slipping and those values are being cast aside for this new lawlessness, new sin, not new at all, but just an embracing of sin. I wonder if the US deserves to lose its place in the world. It very well may deserve to lose it. I understand exactly what you’re saying, but the world power doesn’t necessarily have to be moral. Should it be moral? Yes, that is an ideal situation, but historically speaking, it hasn’t been. The Roman leaders were wicked, wicked people and completely morally bankrupt. Even England. A lot of the leadership in England was pretty wicked, too. We’ve never been a completely righteous nation, but we did have an undergirding of scriptural foundation, which is being eroded right now. And the people in power right now have no respect for the things of the Lord whatsoever. There is a wickedness coming out of the US. That’s horrific. A lot of countries receive aid from the United States, and unless they promote the wickedness that the US is pushing, they don’t get the money. That’s crazy. So they start promoting all this garbage that we’re putting out. The last two administration, this administration and two administrations ago have pushed this greatly. And it’s a serious situation because there are countries that find a lot of these things morally abhorring, but they need the funds so they’re willing to play the game. I think that’s very sad that that goes on our appetite. So it’s a corrupting influence, even though these countries have a moral position that is contrary to what the US is because they need money, they’re forced to, or at least they’re choosing to lower their standards acquiescence in order to get that money. So it’s a double whammy on our part in the fact that we’ve lost our morality, we’ve lost the right to be in a position of influence, and we’re corrupting others in the process. I remember the last time we spoke with you, you mentioned that in your part of the world, people look to the US to figure out what is Christianity doing. In other words, whatever the US doing, they consider it to be this is what Christianity is doing. And for the US to be putting forth such a foul and blatant disrespect for the word of God is really something that the chickens either have or will come home to Ruth. And we’ll pay a dear price for sure. It’s actually the nature of sin. No man liveth and dieth unto himself. We all influence the people around us, no matter who we are. So you’re either influencing somebody for righteousness or you’re influencing them against righteousness. And no one ever sins by themselves. When somebody gets involved in sin, they always try to drag somebody else in with them. You know, Eve took a bite of the Apple and then she had to go find Adam. That’s why God made man the provider.

But I want to dive a little bit deeper into that because you said something that I find to be maybe Truthful, but pretty bold, and especially with the current situation where Russia has decided to invade Ukraine. I know this episode is not necessarily about that, and I’m taking us off, of course, a little bit. But right now, Vladimir Putin is being looked upon as being a war criminal, as person who is morally corrupt. And you’re saying that that person and that country that the person leads is more moral than the United States of America, who is the morality police of the world. Let’s dive deep into that, because what is it that Russia is doing that make them I guess I’m going to put it this way, biblically more moral than the United States, because we have to judge morality by something either by a biblical standard or by rolling standard. So from a biblical standard, moreays shift with society. God’s word is the standard. Yup. But morays are based on societal standards, and they shift based upon how people view God’s word. Now, the foundational building block for all human society is marriage. One man and one woman. The home. If the homes destroyed, everything else collapses. Government arts, everything falls apart. When the home is destroyed, Russia still promotes the home. America does not. And that’s what gives them the moral high ground, so to speak. That’s as simple as I can put it without going into anything deeper. And that’s really the foundation of it. What’s happening in the US is they’re attacking the home and tearing the home apart. And they’re promoting stuff like it takes a village to raise a child. It doesn’t take a village to raise a child. It takes a mum and a dad. It’s God’s pattern. The first thing God instituted was marriage. And then he blessed marriage. He blessed the home. When the Lord Jesus started his public Ministry, the first thing he did was bless the marriage. Wedding feast of Canada, Galilee, John, chapter two. The first thing he did when he started his public Ministry was bless a wedding. One man, one woman. It was his first institution. The Old Testament is the first thing he blessed in the New Testament. It is the foundation. And when you’re attacking that foundation, you’re attacking the society as a whole.

And how does that weaken the military? Because it seems like a lot of these quote unquote principles have been pushed into the military. How does that weaken against the government and also the military, by extension? The military, sadly, has become one big social experiment. And anything the government goes for, they push on the military. For example, when they were pushing same sex marriage, they were offering people free leave to go have a same sex marriage. I think I heard a quote the other day. Somebody said there’s 150 transgenders in the US military right now. That affects readiness. If you’re more worried about who’s sleeping next to you, as opposed to whether or not you’re ready to go to battle, your priorities are wrong. My gender, my sexual orientation should not be an issue in the United States military. It should all be whether or not I can do the job. And it’s not become that anymore. Even when I was in the military, we had duties and I had to pull double duty because I had a lot of women in my unit and we were in a unit that was sealed. You had to carry on your water because there couldn’t be any pipes going in and out of the building. No electric, no water ran in and out of the building. The electric was generated inside the building. The water was carried inside the building. They couldn’t pick up the containers. So anytime the water had to be brought in, I or another man had to go carry the water in, and they were in five gallon drums, which are heavy, and they would make the guys go do it and wouldn’t make the girls go do it. But if a guy couldn’t pick a drum up, he had to go get a Dolly. And it was just a big double standard battle carry used to be two men, and now it’s four men. And instead of putting two men at risk, getting somebody wingered off the field, you’re not putting four out there on the field to get a guy off the field. I don’t agree with their philosophies. I don’t agree with what they’re doing, and I think it weakens readiness. What’s kept us on top so far is we’ve had the nicest toys that can change very quickly. Yeah, well, especially when you talk about China has all the, what do they call them, precious Earth metals or something like that. I forget the exact word for it. Minerals. Taiwan produces the minerals and Taiwan produces most of the computer chips in the world. We have the nicest toys, but all those toys went off computer chips. If somebody cuts off the computer chips, we’re going back to flying back lanes again and we don’t have the coolest toys on the street anymore. The power can shift very quickly at this point, and the priorities are all wrong. They’re pushing this green energy agenda. They’re pushing all these things that really aren’t critical that we should be looking at like God gave us the Earth to be good stewards of the Earth, but it’s going to be here till Jesus comes back and nothing is going to change about that till Jesus comes back and they’re making us use green energy and our enemies aren’t. China’s opening new coal plants like one a week or one every two weeks or something. I forget what the stat is and they’re producing stuff and we’re not. We’re looking at people having trouble being able to get food here in the not so distant future. And China is just building war machine at breakneck speed. Unless something changes, we’re not going to be the world power anymore. We’re going to be subjugated.

And I think it’s foolish for any American to think that once a different country comes into power that they’re not going to try their best to subjugate us, especially considering how dominant we’ve been for the past, however many years. So that’s something that we need to consider as well. This idea that we can focus on things, as you said, that don’t matter and neglect those things that do matter, energy, sustainability, or selfsufficiency morality, all these different things, it’s a recipe for disaster for us. And I wondered what you thought of those things creeping into our military, creeping into how we actually carry out missions. Let’s look at the withdrawal from Afghanistan. For example, not too long before the withdrawal from Afghanistan, we had top military officials testifying on Capitol Hill and other places in our government and in our legislature about how they want to understand the societal issues in our country today, such as white privilege and all of these other woke terms that we’ve come to understand in these last few months and years. And we have top military officials concerning themselves with these things. Meanwhile, later on, the military withdrawal from Afghanistan, in my opinion, was just a complete disaster, completely botched. I grew up. What are your thoughts on that withdrawal? And as a veteran, as a former military member, as a missionary in that area of the world, what are your thoughts on the withdrawal? They withdrew in such a haphazard manner. They put that entire society at risk. You took an open, Democratic society and handed it over to an enemy that’s already swore they’re going to subjugate them. People are going to starve this year because of what we did. People in Afghanistan are going to starve to death. There are people who are in jail now, not because they did anything wrong, but they’re on the wrong side of politics for that group of people. And we left behind millions and millions and millions of dollars of military equipment, Apache, TAC, helicopters. My wife even said we were watching the news report, and she goes, they’re wearing our uniforms. You can’t tell who is who she was, right? They had our uniforms, our weapons, our bullets, and they are arming themselves with our equipment, which is good equipment. And who’s going to stand against them once they get organized and trained? You think they’re going to stop at Afghanistan? No. They already have places in Pakistan. What’s to keep them from pushing down there and taking over? I talked to the people where I work up in Central Asia about this situation. They know nothing about it because information is so controlled there that they don’t really worry about it or think about it. So when it comes to them, it will hit them. They’ll be blindsided by it. Wow. It’s not an easy trip from Afghanistan to where I am. There’s a lot of mountains, but they can still go that way. They travel that way.

So how has this withdrawal affect your Ministry? Did it affect you in any way? I know you just touch on it a little bit that they don’t know anything, but you personally, how does it affect what you’re trying to do over there in Central Asia? In truth, the withdrawal by itself doesn’t affect me directly, but the influence of the withdrawal does. A blue passport, a blue US passport would take you anywhere in the world for the most part, say three or four countries. That is no longer the case. And part of it is that withdrawal from Afghanistan, like when the country I was in issued their visa free travel. That blue passport wasn’t listed among them. Again, first time I had ever seen other countries listed before. The US for visa free travel.

Why is that so? Because their influence is being lost. Interesting. So not only is it terrible for the people living in that country, it’s terrible for citizens or passport holders traveling across the world if we lose that influence and if we don’t have that standing any longer.

So what would you say to those who disagree with your views? I do not share the same views on the withdrawal, because, of course, when it comes to war, when it comes to stuff like this, there seems to be a lot of opinions. And the Bible doesn’t say Thou shalt not withdraw from a country. So how do you disagree without being disagreeable? Again, I think history is on my side. When you look at history, someone has to be in charge. I would rather be the group that’s in charge with my value system than, say, someone else’s. For example, the Chinese government right now is persecuting the Uighurs. They’re throwing them into re education camps. They’re assigning men to live with their wives, try to breed them out. They’re doing unspeakable, horrific things to people in the Western part of China. If they’re going to do that to their own people, what do you think they’re going to do to us when they take charge? I would rather us take charge and us present freedom to other people. An interesting thing about democracy, you have to be ready for democracy. And I think it was Ben Franklin that said our laws are made for moral people. They’re wholly inadequate for any other. So unless you have some sort of a Bible Foundation, our laws won’t work for others, and you have to kind of train them into that, if that makes sense. Yeah, definitely. And that’s a very famous quote. And that’s another issue I have because a lot of folks even going back into this morality stuff that we talked about earlier is that a lot of folks tend to judge morality based upon their perspective. I’m not that old, but 20 years ago, what was moral and right seems to have changed whole jascularly now and even 15 years ago or ten years ago, we weren’t talking anything about same sex marriage and all that stuff. But today it is widely accepted and stuff like that. As you alluded to and spoke about earlier, there are words that you would never, ever hear on radio or television 1015 years ago that you hear readily every day now, words that you don’t want your children to hear and they’re on the public airwaves. Yeah, definitely. Tell me about it. My oldest is six. Yeah, definitely.

You’re listening to the Removal of Barriers podcasts. We’re sitting down with Missionary Scott and we are discussing Afghanistan and missionaries perspective. We’ll be right back.

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So with the concept of wrath in American morals and values, along with the weakness of the American Christians, which I think has a lot to do with the rot in morals of America, could the US have continued to be a stabilizing force for good in Afghanistan? I think they could have continued to be a stabilizing force, but the moral corruption is what’s causing it to fall apart. Anyway. They kind of go hand in hand. I try to push against the tie because I don’t want it to come this direction. But I know that God puts in power who he will. So when I vote, whoever is going to be President is who God chose to be President, even though I still have my responsibility for doing right now, I know that my prayers make a difference. My behavior and my witness makes a difference. God also judges my morals. Is my faith in him or is my faith in the process? Am I trusting him or am I trusting in my own strength, my own abilities, my own wisomness to influence others? I have to fully trust in him. But I still have to stand for truth and right, regardless of circumstances. You know, Kobac had a front row to see his nation destroyed. He cried out to God and he said in wrath, remember, mercy. He knew it was coming, but he still had to stand against the tide. He still had to be a faithful witness, even though he knew that they were on the losing side. Yeah, definitely.

What came to mind, as you were saying, that who is to be blamed. Is this the fault of the government, the fault of the people or the fault of Bible believing Christians? I believe it’s Bible believing Christians because as I said, Chronicles 714, if my people, Richard, called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. Lost people act like lots of people because they are lost. They’re not supposed to act righteous. God’s people are supposed to be different. The average Church today, you can’t tell the difference between a worship service and a rock concert. They sound the same. They look the same. The people act the same. It’s a problem. Yeah, definitely. I have a family member. I was in the house, and I was singing hymns, and the family member was there, and they are active in their Church, and they’re like, I have no idea what you’re doing. I’m like, what do you mean? I don’t know any of those songs that you have sang. And this family member and I were young together, going to the same Church. When we were kids, we went to the same Church. So we grew up together, but we haven’t been together in 30 years. They’re a leader in their Church, and they do all praise and worship music, and I was singing hymns, and they didn’t know anything. I was singing well, and that was a shock to me. I think everything has its place. I am not out to attack worship music as per se. Like, if you want to listen to it on your own time, great. I don’t think it needs to be in a Church service. If you go to Church, you need to wear your best, not because you need to be high and uppity, but it’s a corporate celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we’re to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. That means when I go out as an ambassador for Jesus Christ, I’ve never met an ambassador in a tour of T shirt and pair of cut off shorts. Not one time. Every ambassador I’ve ever met from another country was always dressed very clean and very nice, regardless of where they were, even if they weren’t speaking, they looked nice. They had good deportment. They spoke well. They’re ambassadors. They represent their country. I’m supposed to represent the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and his coming Kingdom. I can’t be down and dirty. Does that make sense? Yeah, definitely.

Let’s dig a little bit deeper into this current administration, because they tend to be very hostile towards Bible believing Christians or biblical Christianity almost on every front. So is this a reflection of the state of Christianity in America? Yes, it’s a reflection, but at the same token, it’s a sideways kind of blessing. It is only under persecution that people buckle down and do what’s right. At times of prosperity, people forget the Lord. And once they go into persecution, they turn to the Lord, and they tend to be more faithful. So I think that our poor Christianity and the moral rot in our country has put this administration in place, which in turn is persecuting and shall persecute, and it’s going to get worse. I’m confident of it. But with that being the case, it’s actually going to improve the Church. For example, when Koba hit every Church in America, regardless of denomination, regardless of doctrinal stance, has lost one third of their congregation, and they’re not coming back. And that seems like a terrible thing. But if they went out from us, they were not part of us, according to first John, and it was actually a purifying thing for the Church. If you’re going into battle, you want to be able to trust the people standing beside you. And this is spiritual warfare. We’re about to face very serious times. We need to be in one accord. We need to be one in heart and motive and mind and praising the Lord and looking to him for guidance and strength. And we need to be a solid body of believers. And I think this is just a purification process. Yeah, definitely. I lead the soul in Ministry at my Church. And some folks that were coming out before haven’t returned, as you said, it’s over two years now, and some folks haven’t returned to Church, much less to outreach ministries. So I definitely see what you say.

In the email you sent us. You made a quote and you said that the current administration is a shameful manifestation of American Christianity. Now, I would not put the administration and Christianity necessarily in the same sentence. So I’m going to let you unpack that a little bit for us, because what exactly do you mean that they are shameful manifestation of American Christianity? Because God puts in control who he chooses, and when his people refuse to obey, he gives them wicked leaders. If you look at the life of Israel, when Israel obeyed, they got good Kings. When they disobeyed, they got bad Kings. And we’re in the same situation from my perspective. I mean, the people in power right now. First off, we don’t even know who’s in power right now, which is a very peculiar situation to be in all by itself. And everything being promoted is against God, against his Church, against his people, directly against us. We really need to buckle down as a people and pray. Like, I’m not issuing an indictment against anyone, but as a believer, how many hours have you spent in prayer on your knees for the people of Ukraine? And if we’re honest, not near enough. Yeah, definitely. Quite frankly, many. None at all. I will confess that initially I was more frustrated of the fact that the US is not doing enough to prevent this. I was the same rather than praying. And then it wasn’t until a friend actually sent me a text with a picture of Ukrainians in Church praying. And they realize, you know what, that’s what I should be doing rather than looking to the government for what more can they do to help the people of Ukraine? So definitely, I would definitely confess and agree with that. I read something from a friend that he sent me and he said, if you want to know who your God is, what do you turn to when things are bad, when things hit and you need a break or you need to get some peace or you just need to get things pulled together? What do you do? Do you watch a movie? Do you go out with friends? Do you go eat something? Do you feel better? What are you turning to? Because that’s your God. If the Lord your God and you’re casting all your care upon him, then all is well. But if you’re falling apart and chasing after any one thing, no matter what it is, that’s your God and your priorities are wrong. Yeah, definitely. And it’s so easy at times to turn to the flesh rather than to God when stuff happens. And for person like me, especially with my personality, I’m sure most men are probably like this. I want to solve the problem. Guilty as charged. Yeah. So when I realized I can’t solve the problem, that’s when I probably say, okay, now I need to turn to someone who can and then focus my thoughts on my mind upward towards God. But initially, most of the time it’s like, okay, what can I do to fix this? Yeah, definitely.

So let me ask you this, though. A Christian leader once said that America huge error in war is that they will send in men with rifles and guns and whatever, and they will bring peace to the gun, but will never send in a missionary afterwards to bring Christianity, so to speak. Do you agree with that statement and is that what was missing in Afghanistan? I will agree with that statement on the surface as very Christian influence. And MacArthur asked for a thousand Christian missionaries to go there at the end of World War Two, and they didn’t go. And I think Japan would be a very different place today had Christians responded to MacArthur’s call. I really do believe that now, as far as the situation in Afghanistan, there are missionaries there and there are missionaries who went, but they are few and far between. And the Taliban. The Bible says that if you’re right with God, you can speak with the enemy in the gate. I know of I don’t know him personally, but I know of a missionary who had been in Afghanistan for more than 20 years. He was ministering there while the Taliban was in control. And during this last takeover, the Taliban came to his house and ushered him out of the country. Oh, wow. And he’s still trying to get back into the best of my knowledge, but I thought it was very interesting. The Taliban knew who he was. They knew what he was doing. They didn’t kill him. They didn’t hurt anybody. They ushered him out of the country. And I honestly believe that if you’re gods, man, you will earn the respect of your enemy. I mean, the man had been there for more than 20 years preaching the gospel and being a faithful Minister. The Taliban, when they came in, knew who he was, and they didn’t want him there anymore, but they wouldn’t touch him.

Let me ask you this, and this is a very open ended question. Why is it that we don’t see more missionaries going to places like Afghanistan? I’m going to respond to that for the same reason I think we don’t see revival in our country. When I was in Bible College, there was a preacher there. His name was Harold Clayton, and he was an evangelist of summer now and back in the day. He was a very colorful character. He would eat his handkerchief while he was preaching and then pop it out at the end, did all kinds of crazy things to keep kids attention. And he was just an interesting fellow. But he talked about all the revivals he had seen as a young man. And after he preached that day, I walked up to him and I said, God hasn’t changed. The gospel hasn’t changed. Why are we not seeing revival? And he said entertainment. He said, everyone is able to sit home and watch whatever they want to watch, and they’d rather sit and be entertained and come in here God’s word. He said back in the 50s, there wasn’t a lot in the way of entertainment. And people would actually come and sit and listen, and they had better attention spans. The flashing lights and the music have a so dumbed down that most people don’t even have a 15 minutes attention span anymore. They’re listening for a sound bite as opposed to actually paying attention. And I think in order for somebody to be called to go to the mission field, God’s word has had to work in their life and draw them unto himself. And if you’re not listening to the gospel and you’re not digging in his word, you’re not going to hear the call. And it’s not that he’s not calling. People aren’t listening. People aren’t responding. And there are missionaries in Afghanistan. Something else this was something hard for me to get a hold of. When I was actually on the field. I met a lot of missionaries from South Korea, which I speak Korean, so that’s easy for me. I also met a missionary in Dan from San Salvador. I met missionaries from different countries from Norway and from Sweden and different countries coming into Minister there. And it hit me when I think of a missionary, I think of an American, and that’s not necessarily true. And just because Americans aren’t going to Afghanistan, God wants them save more than we do. And God has a witness there, and he’s going to send people there. Are we going to get in on the blessing of obeying? That’s the catch. Yeah.

What role does fear play into all this? Because a lot of times you hear a place like Afghanistan or quite honestly, anywhere in the 1040 window, fear is the biggest thing that comes from one mind is heavily controlled by Islam. They will kill you on a dime. What role do you think physical fear comes in? I think it’s a big thing, especially for the moms and dads. They don’t want their kids going, but faith displaces fear, Amen love displaces fear, perfect love, casteth out all fear. If you love Christ, you’re not going to worry about it. And quite frankly, when you actually get out on the field, you realize something quite amazing. People are people. It doesn’t matter who they are or where they’re from. Governments are evil. People aren’t necessarily evil in and of themselves. Dads love their daughters and their sons and moms love their sons and their daughters. And they want their families to do well. They want their people to eat. They want to see their family and friends. They want to have a good time. People are people. And most people do believe in God. They’ve just been lied to about it. Like most Russians believe in God. They don’t have right doctrine, but if you give them right doctrine, they seize it. I was preaching in a Church in the country I was serving in, and there was a little old blind lady sitting in the foyer one day, and she goes, one voice, three languages. That has to be the little preacher. Is that you, little preacher? That’s what she called me. And I said, yes, ma’am. And she goes, Would you come here, please? And I came over and she took my hand, and she goes, I want you to know I’ve been a Christian most of my life, and I have learned more about Jesus Christ since you’ve been here than I’ve ever known. And I want to thank you for coming. And it wasn’t me. I went to a good school, and they taught me the Bible. And all I did was give them what had been given to me. Amen. And it changed people’s lives. I had a woman that wanted to take me into, and the only reason she wanted me there she goes, you do not know how encouraging it will be to believers and to show that American missionary showed up just to talk to them. They’re not out to hurt anybody. They don’t want to hurt anybody. They don’t want to murder anybody. They just want to live their life and they believe in God, but they’ve been lied to about him. And if you give them the truth, many people will accept the truth. If you just give it to them. The truth bears witness to itself.

You seem to have a perspective and a life experience that quite honestly, many Christians growing up in the US and probably most of the Western world would never have, would never experience. I was raised in a main denomination, a mainline Protestant denomination. My mother was the pastor. Oh, wow. And I got saved in a Baptist Church of vacation Bible school because my parents wanted us out from underfoot, basically. And when I was 21, I really gave my life to serve the Lord. And as I followed his word, he led me in that path. And I had to question the things that I had grown up with because so many Christians, it’s part of your identity. Like after I got saved, I got saved the Baptist Church. But I was still part of that mainline denomination. If you asked me what I was, I’d say I was that mainline denominator of my interviewed military. It was on my dog Tags because it’s part of your identity. And even though I didn’t agree with their doctrinal statement, even though I didn’t agree with what they did, it was who I was. And it took a long time for that barrier to come down. When I realized that my allegiance was to Jesus Christ and not to some title that was put on me as a child. That’s when everything changed for me and I started questioning things and find out the truth. Once you reach that point, all that other stuff opens up for you. Your perspective changes once you get out of that paradigm, if that makes sense. And the Lord led me. I’m not some rocket scientist. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. I’m just a guy. But the Lord graciously led me and he will give you as much light as you’re willing to obey. For every step you take, he’ll give you more light if you’ll just obey and follow Him. And quite frankly, pastors are responsible for the failures of American Christianity. Just like this. Covid Psalm 96 says, The Lord will protect us from the pestilence, that’s disease. There was no reason for us to shut down the churches. There was no reason for the Christians to run to the Hills. We fear God. We don’t fear man. We don’t fear sickness, we don’t fear war. We fear God.

If you fear God, the greater fear removes all lesser fears. And if we’re afraid of everything else, then we don’t really fear God. I mean, if you look at the characters in the Bible and the things that they did, David as a little boy went out and faced a man over 9ft tall and the entire Philistine Army was standing on the Hill behind him when he ran out there to face him and he said, God is going to deliver you into my hand. Is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? I mean, it’s not just him. It’s all the characters in the Bible. Moses was looking and walking around with 2 million people in the desert with nothing. How do you feed 2 million people in the middle of the desert? God sent bread from heaven. He just obeyed. He didn’t know what God was going to do. He just knew God would provide. And Moses was a general. He was educated. He spoke multiple languages. He’s extremely intelligent. And when God took him to the Red Sea and put a rock on one side, a mountain on the other side, the sea to his back, and the entire Egyptian Army coming down on him, he already knew that that was a bad military move. He was trapped. He knew it, but he trusted God, and God gave him the victory. There was no Bible character that didn’t face insurmountable odds. And God deliver him, and it was because they just obeyed. And God has not changed. He will not change. So if you will trust him and believe him, regardless of what’s put in front of you, God can and will deliver. I got a buddy that just entered a country that’s closed. And I mean, this week, he entered a country that was closed. He went there without what was needed, but he trusted God and prayed, and God miraculously opened the doors, and he and his family are now in that country serving Amen. There was no physical way that he could do it. He did not have what the government said he needed. He did not have what man said he needed, but he trusted God, and God took him through in a miraculous kind of way. I would love to introduce you to him and tell you all about him. It wouldn’t be wise on this broadcast, obviously, but I know that God still does it. Amen. I’ve witnessed it for myself. I’ve seen it in my friends. He’s still on the throne. He’s still in charge, and he’s still saving people’s lives.

So let’s wrap it up and tell me this. How do we move beyond this? Because this seems to be, of course, the political right is going to use it in 2024 or even later this year, 2022, to go against Joe Biden because he pulled the troop out in a way that didn’t show leadership. Christians are saying he did it wrong. How do we move beyond all the noise and everything and reach the Afghan people with the gospel of Jesus Christ? I think we need to pray for revival. I really think it comes down to if we seek the Lord, actually. And let me restate that we don’t need to pray for revival. We need to seek the Lord because we don’t need to make revival a thing. We need to have the Lord in his rightful place in our hearts and minds, each individual person. If we seek the Lord, all this will get set right. He’s the only one who can fix this mess. No man can do it. And see I know the Lord is going to return. I know there’s going to be a one world government. I know that all these terrible things are going to happen but I also believe that we have a responsibility to stand against it until it comes. We’re not supposed to go with the flow. I also think that well, I just think we need to stand

definitely missionary Scott, thank you so much for joining us on the Removing Barriers podcast. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. God bless you.

Thank you for listening to get a hold of us to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing barriers podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.