Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago, an Oklahoma church has worked to serve its new neighbors.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
OKLAHOMA CITY — The chaos at the end of a long war. The frenzy to leave a troubled homeland. The challenge of a new and different culture.
Hong Kluver identifies closely with the Afghan refugees she has worked so hard to help.
In their experiences, she sees her own.
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“Our situation is a lot alike, and I have a lot of sympathy for them,” said Kluver, 63, a member of the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.
Just a week before the April 30, 1975, fall of Saigon, Kluver and her family fled Vietnam aboard a U.S. military aircraft. Her father had labored with the Americans for years before Vietnam fell to communist rule. She was 15 years old.
Nearly half a century later, the former Buddhist provides a loving, steadying presence for a family who escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power two years ago.
The Hashemis made it inside the U.S.-controlled Kabul airport just 30 minutes before an Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at an airport gate.
But they heard the explosion that killed an estimated 170 Afghans along with 13 U.S. troops.
“That’s what’s really sad,” said Mohammad Hashemi, a 35-year-old father of three.
This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
Photo by Audrey Jackson
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