OnRamp’s staff celebrating the privilege of blessing this family with a vehicle.

Time to tell the story of our most remarkable client yet. While every OnRamp client has overcome obstacles, none until now suffered kidnapping, suicide bombings, and Taliban beatings. But our 102nd client family faced all this and more last year as they fled Afghanistan to find a safe home here in College Station. With their permission, let me share the story of Saboor and his family of five.

Saboor was raised in Afghanistan’s Herat Province, a region known for agriculture. Through incredible sacrifice by his parents, Saboor graduated college and secured work with USAID in partnership with Texas A&M and Purdue Universities doing Agricultural Development in Herat. Through these projects, he made lifelong friends with two professors from TAMU, including his OnRamp Advocates, Dr. Glen Shinn and Dr Edwin Price. These projects led to greater opportunities for Saboor in the fledgling US-backed Afghan government. Yet that progress carried a price: threats from Afghans who resented Saboor’s association with Western powers. Threats began against his family. And in January of 2021, just sixteen months ago, Saboor received a desperate call from his wife. Their oldest son, just ten at the time, had been kidnapped. Saboor would have gladly given his life to protect his son, but was now at the mercy of a violent gang who demanded $200,000 for his son’s return. That was far beyond what he could raise. After multiple days of radio-silence, the kidnappers lowered the price to $50,000, but warned Saboor that if he failed to pay up in 24 hours, they would murder his son. Saboor’s total wealth amounted to only around $11,000. So he reached out to friends and family and banks and anyone who could help. Fortunately, the required funds came together in the nick of time. The kidnappers were paid and Saboor’s son was returned, traumatized but safe.

Like any good parent, Saboor sought justice for his son. He used his government contacts to seek information on the kidnappers. Shockingly, the more he dug, the more corruption he found. The kidnappers were in bed with the local government. But they had met their match in Saboor. He pressed the justice system until the bulk of kidnappers were arrested, tried, and jailed. It seemed his family would now be safe.

But then the Taliban arrived and Afghanistan fell last summer. One of their first decrees was to free all prisoners, including the kidnappers, who had not forgotten Saboor’s name. They publicly threatened to track him down and kill him. Saboor knew that the only way to keep his family safe was to flee Afghanistan as quickly as possible. They headed for the capital, Kabul, to fly out before the city fell. Those terrifying images of thousands of Afghan families pressing against US soldiers to enter the airport… they were there! The US embassy promised to evacuate them IF they could get through the gates and onto an awaiting aircraft. For three days they tried to make it through the crowds, but without success. On the second day, Saboor was beaten with a steel cable by a Taliban soldier for no apparent reason. While horrible, this was actually used by God to preserve their lives. They fled the crowd after the beating to seek shelter, only to hear a massive suicide bomb explode four hours later in nearly the same spot they had been standing. 200 people, including many US soldiers died in that blast. This family would have likely been included without the touch of Providence.

After three days, US soldiers evacuated and the airport closed. Saboor’s family had missed their chance to fly out of the country. But they did not give up. Friends at TAMU reached out to local contacts, and a plan was hatched to drive the family out through Pakistan. Yet as was so common in those days, the people in Kabul behind this “plan” were actually running a scam designed to pocket western funds. While the family miraculously made it by taxi through the border, they ended up with no long-term place to stay or path forward in Pakistan where local authorities treated them with hostility and suspicion. It looked like they would be forced to return to Afghanistan. But once again, Providence intervened. Saboor had spent part of his college studies at a university in Japan, and that university and JICA (The Japanese International Agency) stepped in at the last possible moment to fly the entire family to Tokyo! They had finally made it safely out of harm’s way. From Tokyo, they received approval from the United States to come to Texas and work at TAMU. On November 30, 2021, they arrived in the city of College Station which they now call home.

While safe, they were still in need. They had sold every possession and spent every dollar to make it out of Afghanistan. They had nothing but what they could carry. Fortunately, they found a community more than willing to lend a hand. Saboor received a great job in the same building where his friends and advocates, Dr. Price and Dr. Shinn, work. They found an apartment they could afford and began to get back on their feet. Their kids even enrolled in school and absolutely love it! However, like so many financially struggling families, they were not able to afford a reliable vehicle. They had to rely on the inadequate bus system to get to work, doctors, and stores, which wasted hours in commuting. So Dr. Shinn provided yet another gift: a nomination to OnRamp. When David DeSousa and I interviewed Saboor, we knew immediately that we would accept him as a client. How could we not?! Fortunately, God also knew, and provided a perfect 2012 Honda Odyssey Touring, donated by a local family that’s supported OnRamp generously over the years. So on May 26th, 2022, just six months after arriving in College Station, Saboor and his family loaded up in this spacious vehicle, now free to build their new lives in safety in our town.

What struck me in this case was how God provided an answer to a prayer offered many months ago. Like many of you, I felt such grief and anger when I watched the news of Afghanistan’s rapid fall and saw so many Afghan families fleeing for their lives, trying desperately to make it through the airport gates. We all knew what would happen to those families that had worked with western organizations and governments to build Afghanistan. Now they were easy prey for a vengeful Taliban. So we prayed that somehow God would give us an opportunity to help at least one of those families. We longed for some concrete way to ease the pain displayed so profoundly on our screens. And in our case, God answered our prayers with Saboor and his family! It took nine months, but God’s timing is perfect. Little did we know that one of those very families, straining to flee, would end up our neighbors needing our help! What a joy to welcome this beautiful family to our community, and show them the faithful love of God in the tangible form of a reliable minivan.