Latif, an Afghan Muslim man on his sixth pilgrimage to Mecca, wondered why God was mad at him.

He was a devoted follower of Islam and repented of his sin. So why didn’t he feel peace?

“Why are you so far away from me?” he asked God.

The next day, through crying and fighting with God, Salar continued on his journey. A strange man approached him and asked where he came from.

Latif was confused and upset because his shaved head and clothes indicated that he was on a pilgrimage.

Life-changing encounter

The man shared his salvation testimony with Latif, prayed for him and gave him an Arabic New Testament. The prayer touched Latif. It was like this man knew his struggle.

Back in Afghanistan in 2007, Latif and his best friend began to study the Bible every day but not to become Christians. Instead, they compared the Bible and the Quran.

“We studied to find out which part they changed,” he said.

Although Latif wasn’t a Christian, his friend turned him to the police, who found his Bible and beat him to the point of death because they thought he was a Christian.

Upset at being falsely accused and angry at Christians, Latif fled to India. On Christmas Day, he attended church and slapped the pastor.

“Latif, we love you. God loves you,” the pastor told him.

The next day, the pastor bought Latif food, clothes and shoes. He also prayed for Latif. Yet again, he found himself asking “Why?”

“Why is this man doing that?” he wondered.

Through contact with Christians and the work of the Holy Spirit, Latif received Christ in India in 2008 “Jesus, from tonight, from this moment, you are my Lord and Savior,” he prayed.

And on that night, everything changed for him.

Active ministry

In 2010, Latif started a church in India. He didn’t know anything about planting churches, but he modelled his after the book of Acts.

He started meeting in his home and at the park. Throughout the week, small groups of two or three families would meet. On Sunday, people would share how they had reached other people and what they were learning from the Bible.

“And that way we grow,” he said. “We started just from the book of Acts.”

Eventually, the church grew to 70 people.

In 2012, Latif moved to Indonesia where he started another home church. They baptized 62 people from Iran and Afghanistan.

He moved to Australia in 2015 where one house church he started has since grown to three in Sydney.

In 2017, Latif met Mark Morris, founder of Refugee Memphis, at a conference in Tulsa. Morris asked him to pray about starting an Afghan church in Memphis.

Launching a church in Memphis

Latif and his wife began to pray and felt peace to come to Memphis, and in 2020, the first Afghan church in Tennessee was started.

Culturally, Latif’s churches are very different from traditional American churches. They meet in homes, and the families bring food and eat and share.

Sometimes, Afghan refugees don’t feel safe or comfortable in a traditional American church, he said.

Morris noted, “What we have to recognize is that their church is not going to look like our churches, but it’s going to be a New Testament church.”

In Memphis, there are around 75 Afghan families, most of them newly arrived refugees. Latif is in contact with most of them.

“We have a friendship. We invite them to our home. They invite us to celebrations. We share together, people that rejected the gospel two years ago are now really open, he said.

Twice a week, Latif broadcasts a gospel program to the global Afghan community. The program streams on Facebook, YouTube and satellite television.

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