Joel DeHart was captured and held hostage for 6 months in Afghanistan. He shares his story of God’s faithfulness and how he grew to love the people of Afghanistan.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Held Hostage in Afghanistan!:
Alright. We’re back. It’s been a long time. Yeah. It’s been almost 2 months for Truth About Muslims podcast, but we are back.
And you guys are probably wondering where we’ve been. We know that you’re wondering where we’ve been because we’ve received your emails and they’ve been, for the most part, kind, a little bit demanding. Yeah. But we appreciate it. I keep getting these notices that are saying we want more.
We want more. So what Howard and I have decided, we took a long break, reflected about our lives, considered the fact that I’m still homeless. It’s going on 5 months now for those of you that are interested. And here’s what we’re gonna do. We are relaunching this podcast.
We’ve got a big announcement. We’re joining a podcast network because there’s been a huge demand for this sort of stuff and the audience is gonna grow and we’re excited about it. And you mean this kind of stuff. What are you what are you saying? I’m saying that people want to hear an alternative narrative about Muslims and about Christians and about the interaction of these 2 faiths and how, basically what we’ve been talking about for the last year.
I was gonna say, hey, we fit that bill. That’s right. Boom. So in that sense, we’re excited because we’re gonna be doing some new things. Some of you will not follow us over to the new show because, it requires going on back on Itunes and signing up for a new podcast and I know that’s really, it can wear you out.
Nope. Nope. But we’re hoping most of you, join us with the new show. It’s got a new name which we feel like we need to explain. Yeah, please.
You guys might want to take a seat. No, I think we better just start with this show, this podcast, and then at the end we’ll explain where we’re going, what the new name will be, and how everybody can join in. So I think we should just get started with this show. Yep. Hope you enjoy it.
My name is Joel DeHart, And about 25 years ago, I had an experience where I was working in Afghanistan, and I was taken captive and held for a period of 6 months. Hey, this is Howard. And I’m Trevor. And I don’t know about you, Howard, but I am excited about the show today because of that intro. I’m compelled.
We are privileged to have people like Joel DeHart come in and share their story in the studio. So before we get into Joel’s story in great detail, you gotta understand something about his background. He’s not, your typical American, I guess you’d say. Yeah. He was born and raised in Pakistan.
His parents were actually missionaries. So my father was, a keen traveler, and then flew to Iran, and that was when I was in just finished 3rd grade. Then my brother and I traveled in 1979. We traveled by road through Afghanistan, through Iran, all the way to Europe. So that was the era when lots of people were traveling.
There were lots of Europeans on their way to Kathmandu and going back and forth. Yeah. So obviously, he’s not a typical kid growing up. Right. Not the typical childhood.
I mean, I have a 3rd grader. Disney was about the most exotic thing that we’ve done here in the United States. So in that sense, Joel, in some ways, feels that he was born and bred for this experience. And as a as a child growing up, I’d always had a fascination for, Afghans, Pashto speakers, because we would see them often in Pakistan. And I just felt like this is something that God had prepared me for.
So why all the Afghan speakers in Pakistan? Well, when you have, Afghanistan as sort of being the buffer between the spread of communism and the Soviet invasion into Central Asia. You had all of these refugees fleeing outside of Afghanistan and going to places like Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and they’re all fleeing for their lives and looking to start new lives until the government can settle down in Kabul. So as a kid, he’s grown up in Pakistan, but then he gets to meet all these Afghan refugees that are coming in from the border, and he’s exposed to all this culture and these ideas and these thoughts and this language. Right.
And he hopes one day that he’s gonna get to actually go to Afghanistan and work with these people, and that day comes. Because he knows the language, because he knows the culture, he gets to work as a translator for a veterinary clinic that’s doing a vaccination program in Afghanistan. For 2 weeks, we’ve been going around to different villages, but we knew this was our last day. So we planned one village and going from house to house doing some vaccinating. And we were kind of gathered back to our vehicle when suddenly we saw these 2 jeeps come over the hill and they’re just going so fast that it was unusual.
So we wondered who these guys were. But then when they jumped off their guns and stuff, then we knew something was this wasn’t the way things were supposed to be. So something had gone wrong or we didn’t know what was happening, but it we didn’t really have time to think. They just said, okay. You guys hop in the jeep.
It’s immediately obvious that these guys mean business. Right. This was not the way it was supposed to be, and apparently, word had gotten out that this was their last day, and they didn’t want them to leave. According to Joel, they have no idea at this point why they are being taken captive. We we drove for several hours, parked the jeep, and then they said, come on.
Let’s walk. We’re going. So while we were walking, then things started coming out because they said, so we know you guys are being unfair. You’re helping some people and not others, and this is why we’re taking you. Yeah.
I was scared. I mean, I’d never faced something like this before, and it just took a while to get used to the idea that now we weren’t in control of our circumstances. Somebody else was. Okay, so I actually feel really bad about doing this and I know it’s gonna drive some of you crazy. We’re sorry.
So if you want to keep hearing the rest of the show, you have to stop what you’re doing. You have to go to truthaboutmuslims.com. We’ve set up a GoFundMe page. So those of you that like what we’re doing, you wanna keep hearing more shows, you’re able to donate because we are 100% listener supported at this point. Yeah.
And Trevor and I, we, I’m just gonna be frank. We have a lot of mouths to feed. Yeah. Howard’s got 5 kids. Woah.
Woah. Woah. Don’t make it sound like it’s weird. It is a little bit weird. But I have 3.
So There you go. Yeah. But we we are also doing some new things that we’re really excited to share with you guys. We’re gonna be rebranding the show. We’ve got a new name.
A new name. We’re gonna be having the same content. It’s gonna be better though. It’s going to be better. Right.
Because we’re gonna invest a little more time in this. And a lot more heart. Because honestly, a lot of people are starting to write in and say, Hey, we like it, and so we’ll just see if that’s actually true, I guess. So, when you go to truthaboutmuslims.com, you’ll see the GoFundMe page. If you can’t afford to donate, that’s fine.
If you can only afford to give a dollar or 2, that’s awesome too. If enough people give, then we’re able to raise the funds that we need to keep going, and we’d be really excited about that. Really, really excited because, Trevor and I talk about this all the time, but we actually love doing the show, and it’s one way to be able to connect with a huge audience that, that we ordinarily wouldn’t be able to. So please, if you can and you enjoy the show, and tell others too, just to give. Just give some and, you know, we don’t really ask for money.
I don’t think we’ve ever asked for money. No. Yeah. So we did this for a year and now we’re We volunteered for a year. We volunteered for a year.
But now we’re at this place. So, but we’re really excited about what’s coming in the future just like Trevor said. And so when you see the name of the new show, don’t panic. The name of the new show is really cool. We’ve done some market research, and we’re really pretty confident that we’re gonna grow a pretty big audience here.
And we’re gonna keep discussing these same issues that need to be discussed. So we just hope you guys stay with us and stay excited and continue to be encouraging. And if you hate the name, it’s it’s still the same. We’re gonna be hanging out with you. It’s gonna be us, me and Trevor.
So It’s just a name. Yeah. Don’t worry about it. I mean, Howard’s name is Howard, and he’s okay. And that’s awesome.
It was number 2 in the US census of popular boys’ names in 1930. Are you that old? No. No. That’s just the name.
It’s it’s it has heritage, brother. Korean heritage. I don’t I don’t know. Okay. And, there is one more thing as well.
Since we’re doing a new show and we’re gonna have a new name, we’re not gonna have any reviews. And so, we would really, really appreciate those 48 people that left reviews. Please rewrite your review for us. We really find it encouraging and it gives a good idea what the show’s about. And, if you don’t rewrite the review, those of you that have been saying, hey, I’m gonna send in a review, and you haven’t, there’s gotta be more than 48 of you.
And, we really need this because, that’s what gets us exposure. And if you like the message and what we’re saying and you think it’s important, then this is the way to do it. Anyway, thanks for listening.