Home for now, but their hearts are in Afghanistan

Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer survived three months in Taliban prisons. Find out what God taught them .and who's ready to go back.

This time last year, Heather Mercer was a recent Baylor University graduate preparing to leave for Afghanistan. She was going to join Dayna Curry, another Baylor alum, working with Shelter Now, a Germany-based relief agency.

Little did they know what the year would bring for them. They would go from being unknown relief workers, to prisoners of the Taliban-to international celebrities.

They also would come to know Jesus in ways they never thought possible.

About Afghanistan

Dayna and Heather lived and worked among the Afghans-people they found welcoming and generous, hurting and poor.

"Afghans have nothing, but they give you everything," says Heather. "They want to know there's a hope for the future."

Needy widows sewed, washed clothes and did other projects for the two Americans. At other times the two shared tea and meals in people's homes. Afghan women shared their heartaches with Dayna and Heather.

"It usually ended up in tears because their lives are so hard," says Dayna.

People were drawn to the American workers. Children often surrounded Heather, whom Afghans called "the one with the compassionate heart."

It was compassion that drove the pair to tell Afghans about Christ.

"We shared about our faith as they shared about their own," says Dayna. "There are Afghans who want to know."

Doing time

On August 3, 2001, Dayna and Heather were among eight foreign and 16 Afghan Shelter Now workers arrested on charges of preaching Christianity to Muslims.

For the next three and a half months the women were moved from one prison to another. But one thing was constant: the presence of Christ.

"I found out about the love of Jesus like never before," says Dayna.

In one women's jail-Dayna calls it "my favorite prison"-they were held with 30 Afghan women and girls, ranging in age from 11 to 30-something. They spent their days telling their life stories, killing flies, reading books, playing games and singing. When bombing began, tensions ran high. But they continued to wash clothes, share meals, pray and worship.

"It was God who allowed us to be put in there," says Dayna. "He wanted us to be there to pray. All other foreigners were out of Afghanistan. With Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God promised that not even the smell of smoke would be on their clothes. And He did the same for us."

In Kabul, Dayna says, she even saw angels surrounding the prison with arms locked. "Every day God said, 'Dayna, I love you. Don't fear. You're going to come out of here, and I have a good plan for your life.'"

Still, Heather found herself struggling to trust God's plan:

"There were days I could not overcome fear. I said, 'I know You're there, but please help me because I don't see You.' I was so afraid that I was trying to save my own life, and I lost it. But when I chose to trust God and to get His perspective on the situation, there was so much freedom-because I realized I'm not in control."

She acknowledges that finding your life by giving it up doesn't seem logical. But she knows that's how God has worked in her life.

"Jesus became my closest friend," she said. "One night, I said, 'Jesus, would You come lie here next to me? Because I really need it.'"

Dayna and Heather knew they had diplomats, lawyers and parents working for their release-with no success. But they heard God telling them, "Trust in me, and I will do it. I am who I say I am, and I will fulfill all My promises."

The Rescue

On Nov. 13 Taliban forces took all the Shelter Now workers from their prison and left them for the night in a steel container-freezing cold with no blankets. The next day they were transferred to another jail, the fifth since their arrest. Soon they heard the sounds of war booming all around them.

"Bombs are falling, and no one knows where we are," thought Heather. "We need God to do a miracle."

Then they looked out a window and saw the Taliban running in all directions. They fell on their faces and cried, "Jesus, we need You."

All was quiet for a while, and then they heard soldiers breaking into their prison-and feared the Taliban were coming to take them to another location.

A few seconds later, though, a Northern Alliance soldier appeared in the prison. He said: "You're free! You're free! The Taliban fled. You're free!"

"It was unreal-that feeling of having someone say, 'You're free,'" says Heather.

They walked outside to see a city liberated-at least for the moment. Many women had removed the shroud-like burqas covering their faces. Music was playing. People were firing guns into the air. They clapped and hugged the Shelter Now workers-treating them like celebrities.

Even so, the former prisoners weren't sure how they would escape the country.

"If I've ever been desperate, I was desperate then," says Heather.

Northern Alliance forces guarded them until, three days after their release, they were rescued in a mission Hollywood couldn't top.

They stood in a field, waiting for U.S. special forces. When they spotted the helicopter, Dayna, Heather and the other women burned their burqas so pilots could spot them during the nighttime rescue.

"We have an amazing military with godly men and women," says Heather. "If they had followed the books, they wouldn't have come and gotten us."

Message to America

When Dayna and Heather returned to the United States, they found a nation changed.

"America is a stronger nation," says Heather. "But it's also a more desperate nation."

Heather and Dayna have learned where desperate people can find peace. Heather hears God saying to the United States, "Through my Son Jesus there is a place where you can overcome."

"He's actively reaching out to our country," adds Dayna. "He's the one they're longing for."

Heather believes God wants to communicate to our nation that His love is real and He still answers prayers. "And no matter what crises we face," she says, "we can come to Him with our pain, our hurt, our grief, our fear, and He'll give us grace to overcome it."

Message to believers

"You guys are the hero in this story," Heather says to the people who prayed for their release. "We're alive today because you prayed and didn't give up."

Dayna emphasizes that God wants to use anyone who's willing. "When the body of Christ gets together and prays, the world can change," she says. "There's power in the name of Jesus when we pray."

The women repeatedly point people back to Christ and His desire to have a personal relationship with each person-and they encourage believers to get involved in taking the good news of Jesus to the world.

"This whole story is a story about Jesus and what He can do in our lives and our nation and the world," Heather says. "He's so interested in revealing His heart and His faithfulness to all people."

She, for one, is ready to go back:

"I want to go back to Afghanistan. My heart's in Afghanistan. My home's in Afghanistan. I belong there."

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