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FEBRUARY 2015
PERSECU ION
Freedom In
Chains Iranian Believers Set Free in the midst of prison and persecution by discovering that Jesus is worth it all.
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Table of Contents
In This Issue OVERVIEW
16 | Iran in Chains
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An alarming rise in the number of house churches and Muslim conversions to Christianity has enraged the Iranian regime and launched a new wave of persecution against the Church. FEATURE
18 | Saving Naghmeh ICC recently spoke with the wife of Saeed, an imprisoned pastor in Iran. She shared with us how her husband’s imprisonment has strengthened her faith and the faith of her two young children by drawing them closer to the Father. FEATURE
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24 | Testimonies of Freedom Three Iranian families share miraculous testimonies of finding Christ, facing persecution and ultimately turning the world upside down.
Regular Features
3 Note from the President A few words from ICC’s president, Jeff King, on the cost believers in Iran pay to follow Christ. 4 World News A snapshot of the persecution that impacts our brothers and sisters daily, in every corner of the world. 8 West Watch A look at recent news reflecting a growing opposition to Christianity in the United States and the Western world.
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10 Your Dollars At Work Learn how your gifts are helping strengthen and comfort displaced and suffering families around the world.
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FEBRUARY 2015
A Note from the President A young man came to Jesus and said, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him to continually keep the commandments. The young man said to Jesus, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Matthew 19 (ESV)
Jeff King, President Friends,
International Christian Concern
Have you ever considered that almost all the victims of persecution we introduce you to are in control of their own fate? That is, if they were simply to walk away from Jesus, all the pain would stop. But in the words of Peter, they ask, “Where can we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life.” For a large number of believers in the world, there is a real cost to following Jesus. In freer countries, Christians may be mocked or experience light discrimination, but in persecuted countries, Christians are at the bottom of society’s heap. They will be crushed financially, their kids will get a very poor education, and they may be raped, imprisoned, tortured, or killed. As Jesus promised, there is a cost to following Him. This cost for following serves to weed out the lukewarm and worldly from the Body. It is why persecution strengthens the Church and why the Church grows fastest where there is persecution. Persecution speeds up the process that the Lord wants every believer to go through. It makes the believer face the same dilemma as the rich young ruler. The Lord wants true devotion. We cling to far too many idols and treasures. The Lord wants to be your treasure. First and foremost. This is why Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything. In essence, he said, “Your wealth is your treasure, but if you want real treasure (eternal life), you must let go of your false idol and cling to me.” This newsletter is full of stories of great loss. But as you read, you will see how the most dangerous chains for the believer are not found in prison but in the false idols to which we so desperately cling because we think they bring us life. You will see how loss actually creates true spiritual wealth. As you read these stories, take stock of your life and ask the Lord to show you where your treasure is. He must be first. All of us are sheep that wander and lose sight of this truth, but the Lord will always be working to be first in your life. If you have wandered away and find yourself lost spiritually, come back to your treasure. Please join me in serving this amazing community of those who have lost all to hold on to Jesus. As always, your donations will be used efficiently, effectively, and ethically. I promise!
Jeff King
President, International Christian Concern www.persecution.org
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News
World
Christian Girls Abducted and Raped
3 | PAKISTAN According to reports from Pakistan, two Christian girls from Pakistan’s Punjab province were abducted and gangraped at gunpoint by a local landlord.
PAKISTAN
‘She was forced to sign blank papers at gunpoint.’
“I did not want to,” she said. After her escape, she attempted to bring charges against her captors, but the authorities would not register the case. She then turned to the courts in an effort to force the authorities to bring a case against her captors. She continues to find neither the local police nor the court accommodating.
Pastors Arrested In Bangladesh A Christian woman who was abducted and repeatedly raped by Muslims in Pakistan said her captors held her at gunpoint and forced her to convert to Islam.
Woman Forced to Convert at Gunpoint 1 | PAKISTAN Forced conversion continues to be among the major abuses Christians, especially women, face in Pakistan. According to reports, a Christian woman from Nishtar Colony was forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint after being abducted and raped several times. She claims she was forced to sign blank papers at gunpoint. Based on previous cases, these papers could be falsified into “legal” statements of her “conversion” to Islam or marriage to her captor. She was also forced at gunpoint to recite Muslim prayers and verses from the Quran.
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2 | BANGLADESH Two pastors in Bangladesh were sharing the Gospel with a small crowd when they, and all 41 people listening, were arrested. Local Muslims were enraged and demanded to know who gave the pastors “permission” to share the Gospel. When the pastors told them that they did not need permission to share their beliefs, the Muslim mob became violent and the police arrived to arrest the pastors. If convicted, the pastors could face up to two years in prison.
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The girls, 14 and 16 years old, were found lying unconscious on the road several kilometers away from their village. Once found, they were quickly rushed to the hospital, where they were declared to be “out of danger.” Christian women often face their own unique brand of persecution in Pakistan for being both the wrong religion and the wrong gender. They are seen as easy targets for sexual assault and forced conversion because of their low social status. Sadly, this means situations such as the one these two girls experienced are not a rarity in Pakistan. The police have arrested the landlord; however, at the time of printing, the three accomplices remain at large.
FEBRUARY 2015
A letter from a
nun in Iraq reveals that Christians in Iraq are “living a nightmare” and depend on our prayers to carry them to Jesus.
Christians Are Bleeding
4 | IRAQ “We have been living a nightmare. Christianity in Iraq is bleeding … many still are forced to stay in unfinished buildings on construction sites. In one place, a mall has been remodeled to accommodate families, with the hall divided merely with partitions. Although they are better than tents, they resemble dark, damp cages with no ventilation. … We desperately count on your prayers, and we need you carry us to Jesus like the men who brought the paralytic to Jesus.” — Portion of a letter from Sister Maria Hanna, Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in Iraq
Boko Haram Kills Scores With AK-47s 5 | NIGERIA Boko Haram, a radical Islamic insurgency bent on eradicating Christians in order to establish a separate Islamic state in Nigeria, killed scores of people in the predominantly Christian town of Shani at the end of 2014. A survivor, one of the thousands who fled during the attack, recounted, “They came on about 10 motorcycles, well armed with AK-47 rifles, improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs, wreaking havoc without confrontation as there was no military operatives nor police to assist the unarmed civilians who were running for their lives.” Boko Haram is the group most recently infamous for the mass abduction of more than 270 predominantly Christian schoolgirls from Chibok in April of 2014.
Boko Haram gunned down scores of people in the largely Christian town of Shani, Nigeria.
Liquidate Your Churches 6 | AZERBAIJAN Churches in Azerbaijan have been told that their previous applications for registration are no longer valid. Not only do they have to fill out an entirely new application (an arduous process), they also have to “liquidate themselves as an existing community, form a new community and apply anew.” In the last count of religious communities whose registrations have been approved, 555 were Muslim and 21 were a mix of other faiths; the bias is obvious.
Threat Against Churches Growing 7 | SUDAN The Sudanese government continues its persecution of Christians. In mid-2014, a Sudanese government official in support of a ban on new church buildings said that there were “enough churches” for Christians. An alarming trend in 2014 saw a rise in churches being closed and demolished by Sudanese officials. The Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church saw authorities break in, beat worshipers, arrest 38 believers, and partially demolish the church building. Though a judge released the Christians, saying they had done nothing wrong, another judge levied a large fine on each of them. Not long after, authorities tore down the entire building.
The Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church was demolished by government authorities.
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News
World
A rise in radical Hinduism is threatening the Church in India.
Radical Hinduism on the Rise 1 | INDIA As extremist Hindu ideology sweeps across India, radical Hindu organizations are passing laws and ordinances against Christianity in certain states, and Christian communities are under continual attack.
last May. Attacks on Christians, churches and other minorities have skyrocketed while arrests and convictions for these crimes have plummeted. Even the Christmas holiday was not safe. In the weeks before Christmas, leaders of the radical RSS group in India claimed they would reconvert thousands of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism over the Christmas holiday in a massive re-conversion ceremony. Across India, reconversion campaigns have been led by Hindu radical groups and, in many cases, entire communities of religious minorities have been forced to convert to Hinduism or face dire consequences. In the past, these consequences involved beatings, murder, being cut off from government aid, being ostracized and being expelled from the village.
In late October, a Christian family in India’s Odisha state were lured to a public meeting where they were beaten nearly unconscious by Hindu extremists. Religious violence and anti-Christian sentiment has continued to escalate under the new BJP government that took power
Will the government of India step in to ensure freedom of religion is being upheld, or will these massive re-conversion movements and this wave of persecution continue to wash over Christian communities? It remains to be seen if the government of India will step in to secure the rights of all of its citizens. So far, it has remained disappointingly silent.
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Recently, in Maharashtra state, four Christians were beaten and jailed for two weeks after being accused of “rioting.” The incident stemmed from Christians refusing to donate money to a Hindu festival. After refusing to donate, the Hindu extremists attacked the Christians, forcing them to flee into the forest and await police assistance. Unfortunately, the police arrested the Christians instead of their Hindu attackers.
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
Asia Bibi Remains on Death Row 2 | PAKISTAN
Release Unlikely Without Pressure The lawyer who represented Asia Bibi before the Lahore High Court has urged the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to release her and reform the controversial blasphemy laws.
Muslims Protest Election of Christian 3 | INDONESIA Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is the first Christian to hold the position of governor in 50 years. Not everyone in Indonesia was happy when a Christian was elected as governor. Muslims reacted, saying, “It is forbidden to have an infidel as the head of Jakarta [president of Indonesia]; Muslims took to the streets we reject him to be the to protest the election of a governor of Jakarta.” Christian governor. Many took to the streets INDONESIA to protest. They chanted, waved flags and batons, and even burned the governor-elect in effigy. Despite their protests and demands that a Muslim hold the position, the Christian, Purnama, was sworn in as governor at the end of 2014.
‘We reject [the infidel] to be the governor of Jakarta.’
FEBRUARY 2015
News
Four Christian Children Beheaded By ISIS 4 | IRAQ Four Christian children were beheaded by ISIS militants in Iraq when they refused to deny Jesus Christ and convert to Islam. “ISIS turned up and said to the children, ‘You say the words that you will follow Mohammed,’” said Canon Andrew White, a leader in the Anglican church. “The children, all under 15, four of them, they said, ‘No, we love Yeshua [Jesus], we have always loved Yeshua.’ ISIS chopped off all their heads.”
Four Iraqi Christian children (not pictured) were beheaded by ISIS militants for refusing to recant their faith, saying, “No, we love Yeshua [Jesus], we have always loved Yeshua.”
Al-Shabaab Kills 64 People in 11 Days
Pastor Still Under House Arrest
5 | KENYA Al-Shabaab, a radical Islamic insurgency with ties to al-Qaeda, massacred 64 people, most of whom were Christians, in just 11 days at the end of 2014. In all of these attacks, the militants separated Muslims from nonMuslims by having passengers either speak in Somali or recite an Islamic creed. Those who failed were executed on the side of the road — either shot through the head at close range or slowly beheaded with a machete.
6 | KAZAKHSTAN A pastor arrested for allegedly putting hallucinogens in the communion juice remains under house arrest, but has relative freedom of movement, a source told ICC. The false accusations are widely believed to be a cover for the pastor’s true “crime” — leading many Muslims to Christ.
Many Christians were among the 64 people massacred by AlShabaab in an 11-day span.
Christians Unsettled After Burning of Church 7 | INDIA St. Sebastian Church, located in the Dilshan Garden area near India’s capital, New Delhi, was burned down by unknown assailants in the early hours of December 1, 2014. Witnesses noticed flames and smoke coming from the church at about 6 a.m., but by then everything inside the church had been burnt to ashes, including the pulpit, altar, benches, Bibles and other Christian literature. Eyewitnesses said they found a kerosene container and also smelled kerosene fumes coming from the church. A Christian leader said, “The incident has shaken the whole Christian community, particularly the independent and house churches. …If they can attack a well-established and one of the largest churches in New Delhi, we can understand the vulnerable status of small independent churches. Many Christians in India are driven by a fear that the Hindu radicals could come and attack at any time.”
St. Sebastian Church was burned on December 1.
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est atch Feature
News
Judges in NC Told to Officiate Same-Sex Marriages or Resign
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For the judges, this meant giving up more than $50,000 a year in income.
When a formal request to exempt officials with certain religious convictions was denied, six judges chose to resign, refusing to be compelled by law to violate their faith.
When Magistrate Bill Stevenson was asked why he gave up his livelihood over the law, he responded, “It was something I had to do out of conscience. I felt that to perform same-sex unions would be in violation of the Lord’s commands, so I couldn’t do that. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul?”
n October, the state of North Carolina legalized same-sex marriages. Soon after, the state’s 670 county magistrates were given notice that they should begin to officiate same-sex weddings as a part of the legal responsibilities for their position.
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship “De-Recognized” in California
S Chase Windebank
After three years of leading fellow students in prayer and worship at his high school, Chase Windebank was ordered to stop by his assistant principal.
tarting in the fall semester of 2014, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a large, evangelical Christian college campus group, was officially “de-recognized” by the entire California State University system. The “de-recognition” came after the group refused to remove several core belief requirements from its list of qualifications for leadership, including the requirement that
Colorado School Orders Students to Cease Praying, Singing During Free Time
A Christian legal organization is taking the case to court in the hope of reversing the ban on Chase and his fellow students.
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The “de-recognition” will potentially leave 450,000 students of the nation’s largest university system without access to InterVarsity Fellowship. Raise your voice in support of Christian students across California today. Call the Chancellor of the California State University system, Timothy P. White, at 562-951-4800 and politely but firmly let him know how strongly you disagree with this decision.
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or three years, Chase Windebank led a group of fellow students in prayer and singing inside an empty choir room on the campus of Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs. Suddenly, in September of 2014, the assistant principal summoned Chase and informed him that the group had to immediately cease praying or singing Christian-themed songs while on campus. Citing state law and school district policy, the principal told Chase that students were only permitted to pray before or after school, but not during “instructional time,” even though the group only met during free time in the afternoon. Chase was told the group could still meet, as long as they didn’t engage in prayer or religious song.
leaders be professing Christians. The state argues this qualification is discriminatory, essentially asking Christian clubs whose entire purpose is to promote Christianity to allow their groups to be led by nonChristians or by those who don’t support orthodox Christian values.
UK Street Preacher Charged with “Religious Aggravation”
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n October, police in the United Kingdom took their investigation into street evangelist Mike Overd to the next level by charging him with “religious aggravation.” While preaching, Overd compared the perfect life of Jesus with the life of the prophet Muhammad. A complaint was filed, and the police informed Overd they would be charging him with three violations of the Public Order Act. Before the charges were filed, a local police sergeant gave an interview to the BBC urging residents to film Overd preaching in an attempt to catch him making offensive statements.
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Modern-day silencing of street preachers in the United Kingdom is not new. Two other street preachers, including one American citizen, have been detained by UK police in recent years.
FEBRUARY 2015
News
Mayor of Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons
Oklahoma Man Threatens to Behead Christian Coworker
n October, Christians across the United States were shocked when the city of Houston sent subpoenas to five area pastors demanding they hand over emails and sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity, or the city’s first openly lesbian mayor, Annise Parker. If the pastors refused, they would be held in contempt of court.
n September 25th, Alton Nolen, a recent convert to Islam who kept photos of Osama bin Laden and beheadings on his Facebook page, attacked his 54-year-old coworker, Colleen Hufford, and severed her head with a knife. He then tried to behead a second coworker before being shot by an off-duty sheriff. The police department decided the motive for the attack was Nolen’s anger at being suspended from work earlier in the day, though the FBI was brought in to investigate a terrorism connection.
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The subpoenas were issued in an aggressive legal attack by the mayor’s office as a bid to crush resistance by the churches to a new city ordinance allowing adults to use public bathrooms of the opposite gender if they self-identified as that gender. The move was met with a wave of backlash by Americans and other concerned citizens around the world. Rallies were held and prominent Christian leaders voiced their support for the pastors, who refused to hand over the sermons. Less than two weeks later, Houston’s mayor backed off, instructing the legal team to withdraw all of the subpoenas. The battle over the city ordinance, however, continues.
Annise Parker
Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor issued subpoenas demanding that area pastors hand over sermons dealing with homosexuality or gender identity.
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Ministers Faced Jail in Idaho for Refusing to Perform Same-Sex Wedding
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wo ordained ministers in Idaho, Donald and Evelyn Knapp, were facing a 180-day jail term and a daily $1,000 fine after politely refusing to perform a same-sex wedding in the wedding chapel they have owned and operated for more than two decades. The city, Coeur d’Alene, had declared the privately owned wedding chapel a “public accommodation” and therefore subject to Idaho’s “non-discrimination” statute. Christian lawyers for the wedding chapel sued the city in a preliminary attempt to stop any form of prosecution, and Christian media outlets began picking up the story. ICC also issued a call to action, asking concerned followers to call the city’s mayor and voice their support for the wedding chapel owners. A little less than 24 hours later, the city backed off after “taking a closer look” at the non-discrimination ordinance and decided the wedding chapel, as a religious corporation, was exempt. Thank you to everyone who took the time to make a call. Your voice makes a difference.
The very next day, Jacob Muriithi, a Kenyan native also living in Oklahoma, was arrested after threatening to behead a fellow coworker. He reportedly told a female coworker that he represented ISIS and that they killed Christians. When asked why, he responded, “This is just what we do,” before telling her he planned to “cut her head off” after she left work. The coworker called the police and Jacob was arrested.
Colonel’s Column Removed for References to Jesus
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or 36 years, Colonel Florencio Marquinez served faithfully in the U.S. military. In an article for the Air National Guard’s newsletter last year, Colonel Marquinez attributed much of his success in life to his faith in Christ, saying, “I would not be the man that I am today if it wasn’t for my mother leading our whole family to Jesus Christ.” He went on to advise members of the military to cast their burdens on the Lord and pointed out that “In God We Trust” is the national motto. Not long after the article was published, advocates from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation contacted the Pentagon and demanded “that odious and offending proselytizing commentary” be stricken from the record. The Air National Guard complied, pulled down the article, and sent a base-wide email letting everyone know the article had been removed from the newsletter.
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Your Dollar$ at Work Goats Help Restore Hope to Grieving Family
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Hand of Hope
awzy traveled to Libya to find work so he could send money back to support his elderly parents. An Islamic extremist group raided the compound where he was staying and went door to door in search of Christians. Fawzy was taken with six others and killed. Through ICC’s Hand of Hope fund, we’ve provided a small herd of goats for Fawzy’s family. The goats are helping them provide milk and cheese that can be sold or eaten by the family. When Christians are in need in a region, our Hand of Hope fund allows us to find a way to care for their needs.
Keeping Christians Warm in Iraq Community Rebuild
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s winter set in on Iraq, more than 200,000 Christians had been driven from their homes. Most had found shelter in buildings that lacked windows, heat, or any kind of insulation from the cold. For hundreds of families, ICC provided heaters and blankets to help keep them warm. ICC’s Community Rebuild fund helps provide crucial aid to entire communities of Christians who have been devastated by persecution. Right: A displaced Christian family in Iraq receives blankets and supplies to keep them warm through the winter. These provisions were only possible through your generous giving to our Community Rebuild fund.
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FEBRUARY 2015
Bibles for India’s Christians
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Bibles to the Persecuted
s India’s Christian community faces a new wave of persecution, being able to turn to the Word of God and His promises for His followers is becoming increasingly important. For many Christians in India, purchasing a Bible of their own is a dream out of reach due to their poor economic standing. To meet this need, ICC has purchased and is helping its partners in India distribute 150 Bibles translated into Telugu. These Bibles will be given freely to Christians who hunger to grow deeper in their faith. “The cost of a Bible is very high now,” ICC’s partner in India said. “It has been very difficult for us meet the demand in the field, but ICC’s assistance is really a great help.” Feeding the spiritual appetite of India’s Christian community will continue to be a priority for years to come. Consider giving to ICC’s Bible fund to help feed these who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
Medical Assistance to Pastor’s Wife Save Our Sisters
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n November 2014, local authorities began demolishing Elim Fire Church in India after they claimed the building was illegal. At the same time, these authorities arrested Elim Fire’s head pastor, S. David, and brought him to prison. In response to this sudden assault, the Christians of Elim Fire turned their focus to God and gathered in their semi-demolished church to fast and pray. While at the church, a cinder block fell on the head of Pastor S. David’s wife, Preethi Krupa David. Though the pastor’s wife was severely injured, the congregation’s poor economic status prevented them from being able to afford proper
medical attention for Preethi, who languished at home despite her clear need for medical attention. Through ICC’s Save Our Sisters fund, ICC was able to provide proper medical care for Preethi. After several medical visits, Preethi has returned home in good health and in high spirits. “I am so thankful to God and to ICC for helping me with the treatment,” Preethi told ICC. “On behalf of my family members, I really want to thank ICC and express our deepest gratitude and appreciation for the financial assistance. The help means a lot to us and the church knowing that we are part of the larger Christian family. This has strengthened us as a church and me as a person to continue to endure persecution.”
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Your Dollars At Work
Flock of Sheep Helping to Bring Hope to a Widowed Mother Fired for Her Faith in Christ
Hand of Hope
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hen Betty stood before the village council in a room full of angry villagers demanding she be fired from her teaching position because she was a Christian, she refused to renounce Christ. When the council members agreed with the villagers that her faith made her somehow unfit to teach the village’s children, Betty, a widow, found herself unemployed with no way to feed her children. ICC stepped in and provided Betty and her children with sheep so they could have a sus
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-tainable income. Now she can feed her family and raise her children. She knows that she is not alone, and that there are believers who stand with her. Betty says she feels motivated to help other believers who suffer persecution as she does. “All Christians in the villages in my country suffer persecution,” she says. “We are seen as evil and as betrayers. We are rejected. Now I have hope.” She wants to share that hope, in the form of her first lambs, to another family suffering persecution.
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‘All Christians in the villages in my country suffer persecution. …We are seen as evil and as betrayers; we are rejected. [But] now I have hope.’ – A Christian villager fired from her teaching position for refusing to renounce Christ
FEBRUARY 2015
Your Dollars At Work
Sheep Provide Sustainable Income for Ostracized Family
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Hand of Hope
appiness and Peace have suffered great persecution since becoming Christians. Once, a neighbor who did not want Christians living next door doused Peace and her children with gasoline and attempted to light them on fire. It was only by the grace of God that they escaped. Their family is ostracized by their village because of their faith in Jesus. No one will hire them, and it has been difficult to support their family without any means to earn an
income. ICC provided their family with 10 sheep that they are using to generate a sustainable income for the future. Their spirits have already been raised since they know that they are not alone when they are under persecution. They know that believers from all over the world are with them. Happiness and Peace have already begun to encourage other persecuted believers in their village and plan to give them their first lambs so that they might also have their own sustainable business.
Underground Churches Growing in Central Asia
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Underground Pastors
ne of ICC’s underground pastors in Central Asia recently shared exciting news with us. His house church grew from a congregation in the single digits to a congregation of 18 people in the last three months alone. He told us that last month, “We conducted baptisms for those who decided to devote their lives to Christ. Glory to God!” One of his church members shared with us part of her testimony. “I met Jesus in March of 2014. My sister shared with me about Jesus. She met Christians at the hospital when her son was in a car accident. There were lots of people ignoring and rejecting me for my faith since I became Christian. Some people say I am a betrayer. I shared about Jesus with one of my closest friends, who had a hard life, and, glory to Him, she received Jesus in her life, as well. We struggled lots of times because of the persecution, but no words could break our faith.” Thank you for supporting our underground pastors!
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Your Dollars At Work
Food, Medicine and Education for a Forsaken Convert and Her Son Suffering Wives and Children
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ife is very hard for me because everybody had forsaken me when I decided to follow Jesus Christ,” Mounirath said to John between sobs as he interviewed her at the church. Mounirath lives in Niger, a 97 percent Muslim country located in West Africa. For female Christian converts like Mounirath, leaving Islam is like choosing to die. Everyone, including Mounirath’s family and best friends, excommunicated her after learning of her faith. Her husband even divorced her, leaving her and their then 10-year-old son, Maoulé, to starve.
‘Life is very hard for me beca forsaken me when I decided
– Mounirath, a Christian convert from Islam who was aband
By the grace of God, the local church and a sympathetic sister were able to keep them alive until ICC could provide support. Thanks to your generous donations to our Suffering Wives and Children fund, ICC was able to provide the help and comfort this mother and her son desperately needed. We supplied Mounirath and Maoulé with three months of food, put Maoulé back in school with all new supplies, and paid to cover
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FEBRUARY 2015
Your Dollars At Work
Training Pastors to Fight Injustice
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Underground Pastors
n countries across the world, the church faces immense hardship. Unwelcome in more and more parts of the world every day, pastors and their congregations are being threatened, beaten and forced off their land. Regrettably, radicals in countries like Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Sudan have laid waste to churches, in some cases spraying bullets through the walls, in other cases, simply tearing them down. For too many Christians across Africa, attending church could cost them their lives or the life of a loved one. That’s why, in
preparation for our coming First Responders Network, ICC is committed to training pastors across Ethiopia and India to prepare for persecution and to fight for justice in its wake. While in Ethiopia in October, ICC staff held the first two trainings with around 50 pastors from across the country, teaching them the basics of how to document human rights abuses, how to report them to police and how to contract a local Christian lawyer. Your donations to ICC’s Underground Pastors fund enabled our staff to equip dozens of Christian pastors to educate their congregations and to protect every Ethiopian’s right to religious freedom.
ecause everybody had ed to follow Jesus Christ.’
abandoned by her husband and left to starve
the cost of Mounirath’s diabetes medication — treatment she had not been able to afford for years. Because of your gifts, Mounirath can now say, “I would like to thank heartily all the donors I do not know the names of for the food and brotherly love which they have shown us … my joy is overflowing!” And according to Maoulé, you gave him “the best day of [his] life.”
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IR AN IN CHAINS
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Overview
he IslamIc RepublIc of
IRan is one of the most difficult places to be a Christian. The regime has imprisoned 50 to 100 Christian leaders who are facing prison terms of six to eight years, torture, and even the threat of the death penalty for their faith in Jesus. The government views conversion to Christianity as treasonous and a threat to its national security. Several of its leaders have made public statements concerning the large numbers of house churches and Muslims converting to Christianity. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard regularly harasses and tracks down Christians, doing all they can to strike fear into the hearts of those who would so much as think of following Jesus. They will often confiscate the homes of Christians. As a result of these constant threats and imminent arrest, hundreds of Christians are forced to leave the country every year due to persecution.
The Rest of the Story
The story behind the story is that God is doing something incredible in Iran. “Something is happening here, like nowhere else in the Middle East,” a church leader recently told ICC. People are coming to faith in Jesus by the thousands. It’s this fact that is actually causing the persecution. The Iranian regime is trying to keep Islam’s grip on society, but the masses have found life in Iran empty and meaningless. Heroin use and prostitution are at epidemic levels and the people are desperately searching for something real that would give purpose to life. “The situation for Christian converts is really troubling,” said Faraz Sanei, an Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But any group that is growing and popular among young people is under the microscope. They’ve used very repressive activities to crackdown on [Christians].”
An alarming rise in the number of house churches and Muslim conversions to Christianity has enraged the Iranian regime and launched a new wave of persecution against the Church in Iran. The Church is experiencing massive growth in Iran, especially among the youth. The government is doing everything in its power to strangle it, but nothing they have tried has worked. In fact, their efforts have probably only led to a swifter rise in the numbers of Muslims converting to Christianity.
Driven Underground
Despite a constitution that provides freedom of belief, association, and public assembly, the persecution from the government has driven the church underground. In Iran, it is essentially illegal to be a Christian. The only churches allowed to meet openly are those of ethnic Christian groups such as the Armenians and Assyrians, yet even they are prevented from performing almost any service in Persian, the language spoken by most Iranians. All of the Persian speaking churches have been shut down by the government, and the intelligence ministry closely monitors the churches to ensure no Persian speakers attend services. The government is spying on the house churches to prevent them from meeting, and sending agents in to infiltrate the Christian networks. As you will read in the stories in this magazine, the intelligence agencies go to great lengths to discover those who are sharing Christ with others.
In the coordinated raid that arrested Arezoo (page 24), 20 agents stormed her house, and just as many raided six other houses across the city. More than 100 agents were believed to be involved in arresting just seven Christians who had dared to meet with others who shared their faith. But despite the risks, people continue to turn to Christ because they have found – Iranian agents threaten the a peace they never had 15-year-old son of a Christian before. They hear about a pastor who had left Iran to serve name that is able to bring a church in another country freedom and healing, and
‘If they keep preaching, when they return to Iran, we will kill them.’
that is something that they could never find in Islam. They know they are playing with fire, that there are risks, but they keep sharing the message because they believe the cost is worth it. The regime is trying to strangle the voice of those who have found life, but the newly reborn shout from the rooftops about how they found God. The best the government can hope for is to lock up some of the leaders and drive others to leave the country.
A Church in Exile
Vahid and his family left Iran to go serve in a church in the country of Georgia, but that was not far enough. Iranian agents hunted them down there and threatened the family. “Tell your father to be silent and to say no more about Christianity. If they keep preaching, when they return to Iran, we will kill them,” they told Vahid’s 15-year-old son. For Fahim and his wife Derya, the government closed their business, blacklisted Fahim from ever owning another, and went door-to-door telling their neighbors they were apostates and enemies of God. Fahim and Derya made the heart-breaking decision to leave Iran — never to return. Now they, like so many others, are in a place of waiting. They’ve escaped to surrounding countries and applied for refugee status and must now wait for the UN to approve their application and resettle them. As they wait, the church continues to grow. Out of Iran, they are able to worship freely. While they struggle with having lost everything, they see that their relationship with God has only grown deeper. As Naghmeh Abedini (page 18) shared, “Jesus is worth it” and there is an incredible lesson to be learned from the persecuted. There is a cost for following Jesus, but the cost is never too high. He’s worth it!
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Feature Article
Saving Naghmeh The Lord Uses Suffering to Help the Wife of an Imprisoned Christian Find Her Treasure
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n septembeR 26, 2012,
life changed dramatically for the Abedini family. Saeed, who grew up in a Muslim family in Iran and became a Christian in 2000, was arrested at his family home in Iran and taken by the secret police to the notorious Evin prison. He had lived in the United States since 2005 with his wife Naghmeh, and became a U.S. citizen in 2010. Naghmeh’s family had moved to the U.S. when she was in the fourth grade, but in 2002 Naghmeh met Saeed in Tehran, and they were married two years later. While they lived in Iran, Naghmeh and Saeed were part of the leadership of a house church ministry that saw thousands of people come to Christ, but in 2005 they made the decision to move to Idaho, where Naghmeh’s family lived. Saeed returned to Iran multiple times. In 2012, he had returned to finalize arrangements for a government-approved orphanage when he was arrested. On January 27, 2013, he was convicted of “crimes against the national security of Iran” for his involvement with the house churches from 2000 to 2005 and sentenced to eight years in prison. ICC (questions in bold) recently spoke at length with Naghmeh (answers in plain text) about how persecution has changed her and her relationship with God and the church. REGARDING SAEED’S CASE, WHAT IS THE STATUS? CAN ANYTHING MORE BE DONE? There are no legal avenues left. They’ve rejected our appeals, so all that is available would be for them to grant clemency. CAN YOU SEE WAYS IN WHICH GOD WAS PREPARING YOU AND SAEED TO GO THROUGH SOMETHING LIKE THIS? The Bible tells us that we grow from faith to faith. I really think that God has been using [our whole life] to build faith or trust in Him. From living in Iran, facing persecution and [our own] arrest, we saw the Lord deliver time
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Feature Article after time. But [we also saw that] in normal, everyday life. We left Iran in 2005. It was a really hard time, just to make ends meet. I was working, and Saeed had to stay home with the kids. We were learning to really get our [identity], our everything, from God; to trust Him. There was a season where we had been in the house church movement, and it was beautiful and it was awesome. Then that faded away. It was a really hard time. The Lord allowed us to refocus and realize that life is not about building a ministry, it is really about knowing Jesus. You can be doing an eight-to-five job or be the pastor of this amazing movement, either way, you are still a child of God. Another way the Lord was preparing us was through our marriage. Right before Saeed was taken, we had finally gotten the hang of building a strong marriage and really enjoying each other and being united as a team. I wondered why he had to be taken when we were at such a good point in our life. I feel the Lord was preparing us and making us one before Saeed was taken. The biggest lesson was learning to let go. We went from Saeed being the pastor of a big movement to just a crash, and it brought us to focus on God. We didn’t like that time, but we looked at it and said it was a great lesson. We don’t ever want to cling to any job, person, or ministry where its loss leads us to be mad at God or our life to become a mess. The relationship with Jesus is still there. That’s what he needed, that’s what I have needed. In a way, now I’ve lost everything. When the ministry was gone we thought we’d lost everything. We both had to learn that we have Jesus and that’s enough. WHAT TRUTHS ARE YOU HOLDING ON TO IN ORDER TO SUSTAIN YOUR FAITH WHILE LIFE IS SO HARD? I’ve always been afraid of losing things. I struggled with a lot of fear and anxiety. This experience has really shown me that whatever comes is used to draw me closer to Jesus. I’m not afraid of bad news. With Saeed’s situation, I’ve had a lot of bad news. For me it has been learning to embrace suffering and allow it to draw me closer to Jesus. Instead of fixating on the loss and why would
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Jesus allow this, it is seeing that, “Wow, this is to keep me awake until Jesus returns.” When you are going through suffering, you are definitely not asleep. You are alive in the Lord and clinging to Jesus. You need Him even to breathe. You need Jesus. It is a good thing to have such a deep intimacy with the Lord. He is real. It is not just a story, He is real. That has been amazing. AS A MOM, WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR KIDS WHEN THEY ARE ASKING WHY THIS HAS HAPPENED? I thought they were so young it might drive them away from God. Rebekah (age 7) told me one day, “God says when we pray to him, [He says] yes, no, or wait. I think he is telling us with Daddy we just need to wait.” I never thought that a 6- and 7-year-old would learn or even could comprehend such lessons. But their faith has grown. They trust God in the midst of their pain. They are in a lot of pain, missing their dad as anyone would imagine, but they are learning and they are growing in their faith with Jesus. Something Saeed would do with the kids, when he would go to orphanages in Iran, is that he would open up a suitcase the night before and say, “Go get me your toys and clothes.” The kids would go and get their old clothes and toys. He would say, “No, no, no, go get me your best. The one that is your favorite, the one that you love.” The kids would cry, but then would go and grab their favorite toy or clothing. He would say “We always give God our best.”
‘Do you realize that by marrying me you don’t know what might happen? You might lose a husband, you might be a widow. … Are you ready?’ – Saeed asks Naghmeh if she is ready to potentially face persecution with him
Naghmeh testifies before Congress with Jordan Sekulow of ACLJ.
I would say to him, “Why would you do this? They are so small!” Something Saeed would teach them is that Jesus paid a price. Following Him, we give our best. Following him might cost. It might be very costly. It might cost our lives. It might cost imprisonment. I remember when Saeed and I just met. In our dating stage, he said, “Do you realize by marrying me you don’t know what might happen? You may not have a husband. You might lose a husband, you might be a widow. Have you decided that by marrying me this is the life you might face? I knew when I followed Jesus I would face things. Are you ready? Are you ready to face things with me?” I decided Jesus is worth whatever the cost.
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I remember having those really hard conversations. I had to really process what Saeed was saying to be able to reach a point to say, “Yes, I accept that in my life as well.” I saw that was the thing he was trying to teach the kids. To realize that there is a cost to following Jesus. That’s what they understand right now. Daddy is in there because of what he told them before: there is a cost for following Jesus. YOUR FAMILY, YOUR IN-LAWS, AND MANY OTHERS HAVE HAD TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE FOR THEM? WHAT ARE THE DECISIONS AND CHALLENGES THEY FACED IN DECIDING TO LEAVE? It’s hard when you lose everything, leave
everything behind. You just have to keep an open hand and say, “Okay, Lord, it wasn’t out of Your control.” It wasn’t out of his control that Saeed was put in prison. You just open your hand and say to the Lord, “Whatever I have, my hands are open.” Embrace that time in your life instead of fighting it and looking back to the life you lost. We did that for years. We really missed the church. We didn’t realize that the Lord was really doing a work in us. God’s focus is not on what we do for him. In the times when we thought we had lost everything, really the Lord was working on our character. Within a moment, God can build a ministry. Within a moment, when I was not even
looking, I was going to the UN, speaking in churches, and [seeing] just how the Lord has used my life to reach hundreds of thousands of people for Christ. I didn’t choose this message, but in a day I realized God can make a ministry. I think a lot of Christians lose their focus. [We must] trust the Lord in the desert season, when there is nothing. Realize the Lord is doing a work. He is building a vessel. God doesn’t throw away a vessel he is making. He is making a vessel for a bigger work. When people have to leave their country and are in the middle of nowhere, it seems foolish. Why did they have to get in trouble because of their Christianity? Why do they have to be so poor in these refugee countries? Why did I end up here?
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The answer is Jesus. It is following Him. Then you reach the final answer: it is worth it. HOW HAS YOUR’S AND YOUR FAMILY’S EXPERIENCE AFFECTED YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE IRANIAN CHURCH?
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When we were in Iran, I didn’t know how to minister to people. When people were arrested, when their houses were raided, I didn’t know what to do. Other than getting together and praying, I didn’t know what to say as a pastor’s wife. I thought, “Oh no, they are going through suffering — what if it comes to me?”
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[My experience] has helped me to minister to the hurting. I had lived in Iran, served in Iran, but I had no idea how to minister to the persecuted, to someone who was suffering. This time has [given] me the answers. This is what the Lord has done in my life in the time of suffering. This is [why] you can FEBRUARY 2015
embrace Him in a time of suffering. This is the beautiful way God works. When we suffer, we are able to speak into other people’s lives who are going through similar things. In many of the persecuted countries, fear controls [Christians]. Now I can say, “This is how to overcome fear.” WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE IRANIAN CHURCH AND THE INTENSE PERSECUTION THEY CAN FACE, ESPECIALLY THE LEADERS, HOW CAN CHRISTIANS PRAY FOR THEM? The enemy wants to use the hard times, the persecution, to lie and to cause people to walk away from Jesus. God wants persecution to draw us to him. I would pray that those in prison and their families draw closer to Jesus, and that God would protect their minds from doubt and fear. They [ask themselves], “Why am I paying this cost? Is it worth it?” In many Muslim countries, the government goes after [pastors’] wives and puts lies in their minds. So a pastor may [be released], and his wife will have left. The children don’t understand; they wonder why their father chose God over them and they resent God. The enemy wants you to crash. He knew that I struggled with anxiety and fear. I could have become bitter and angry, but it has led to me actually clinging to God more. Pray that God would use [pain] to reveal Himself even more to the prisoners and their families. Pray that they would shine even brighter inside prison and carry the torch of the Gospel even more. Wherever there is persecution, the church is growing more. The enemy wants to crush, but the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church. Pray that there would be relationship to refresh them; that they would get a message here and there to encourage them. I know the prayer of the persecuted, from many who have been in prison. They pray for the furtherance of the Gospel. They are there because of the Gospel, so they pray for the Gospel to be spread. The enemy is trying to [silence] them, but they pray that God would use them even more.
Letter from Prison In December, Jordan Sekulow released a letter Saeed had written ahead of the 2014 Christmas season. Below are just a few excerpts from his letter.
Prison Conditions These days are very cold here. My small space beside the window is without glass, making most nights unbearable to sleep. The treatment by fellow prisoners is also quite cold and at times hostile. Some of my fellow prisoners don’t like me because I am a convert and a pastor. They look at me with shame as someone who has betrayed his former religion. The guards can’t even stand the paper cross that I have made and hung next to me as a sign of my faith and in anticipation of celebrating my Savior’s birth. They have threatened me and forced me to remove it.
Living the Gospel The fact of the Gospel is that it is not only the story of Jesus, but it is the key of how we are to live and serve like Jesus. Today we, like Him, should come out of our safe comfort zone in order to proclaim the Word of Life and Salvation though faith in Jesus Christ and the penalty of sin that He paid on the cross and to proclaim His resurrection. We should be able to tolerate the cold, the difficulties and the shame in order to serve God. We should be able to enter into the pain of the cold dark world. Then we are able to give the fiery love of Christ to the cold wintery manger of those who are spiritually dead. HOW HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR FAMILY’S EXPERIENCE OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS AFFECT THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES? I’ve seen an awakening of revival in people’s lives. I have so many testimonies. Even marriages. I had people say, “Our marriage was falling apart and we heard your story and said, ‘What are we doing? Why are we fighting? We can’t even get over our own
selfishness. There are people paying a price for Christ.’” In Hebrews 13:3, the Bible says to “remember those in chains.” It is not necessarily just praying for the persecuted. There is a wisdom, a mystery that when praying for the persecuted there is a revelation. When the Bible says remember those in chains, it is twofold. One, those who are in chains, those who are persecuted, need to know that they are remembered, that the body of Christ has not forgotten about them. That’s the number one thing they need to know, more than anything. Two, I think at the same time, the Lord is doing something when you remember the persecuted, the Lord is planting a fire in you. He is saying, “I have a word for you. From that story, I have something for you.” I’ve seen that. I’ve seen both the unity of the body of Christ and awakening lives, starting a fire in people’s hearts and lives. DO YOU HAVE ANY LAST THOUGHTS? The number one thing I’m instilling in my kids, what Saeed was instilling in them, is there is a cost in following Jesus. There is a death to self. There is a cross. Jesus said, “You die to yourself daily and carry your cross.” Being from a Muslim background, Muslims see the cross as a sign of pain and death. “Why would you even wear that cross on your neck? That is where your savior was crucified, that is where your prophet was crucified.” The world is telling us as Christians to throw away the cross. “It is painful, you don’t want to die to yourself,” they say. That is what is different for us. When we carry the cross, there is pain, there is a cross in following Jesus, but there is life in it. There is true joy and there is true peace. That’s what the Lord is teaching the body. There is a cost, but that cost is worth it because Jesus is worth it. The cost [is high], but He doesn’t leave you alone. What Saeed was teaching the kids with the suitcase was that you give Jesus your best with everything, with your things, your life, everything. He deserves all of our life. He deserves all of it. We should be able to let go of treasures and follow him into the dark parts of the world. He is worth it.
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Testimonies of Freedom
Iranians share testimonies of finding Christ, facing persecution and turning the world upside down. *names have been changed for security
“Arezoo”
A Journey Toward Freedom Twenty intelligence officers burst into Arezoo’s* home in the early morning of May 8, 2013.
“You are guilty of Christian evangelism — a crime threatening the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran!” They pointed at a candle with a Scripture verse on it and at a picture of Jesus, “This is a crime! And this is a crime!” The officers took Arezoo to the police station and ensured her they would charge her with the highest possible penalty for her crimes. Little did Arezoo know, that morning there were raids at seven homes across Mahabad, a largely Kurdish city in western Iran. Two men and four other women had also been arrested the same day. They were part of the house church Arezoo and her family had been attending. She was caught up in a massive operation to stamp out the church in their city.
A Month of Interrogation Arezoo was held in prison for a month and interrogated for as many as 12 hours in a day. “How did you become a Christian? Why did you leave Islam?” the guards would ask her. “What are the names of other Christians? Who is supporting you? Where are you getting your materials?” The interrogations were full of mental games. The guards would claim her friend had already told them everything, and they were only holding her because they wanted to torture her. They also called her 22-year-old son, Armen, into the prison for interrogation 15 times during the month Arezoo was held, each time placing him in a room next to his mother so she could hear what was happening.
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“It was so difficult,” Arezoo said. “I started to tell them about Jesus Christ, [but] they kept beating me and saying, ‘We will prove your faith is wrong!’” A month later, Arezoo was released to await trial for her crime, her faith unshaken.
Conversion from Islam We asked Arezoo many of the same questions the guards did, “How did you become a Christian? Why did you leave Islam?” Arezoo said her journey started 13 years earlier when she began to watch a Christian satellite channel because she felt an emptiness in her life that her religion did not satisfy. She found meaning and truth in the program’s teachings and began watching regularly. One day, she decided to pray as the preacher invited people to give their lives to Jesus. She started to share her new-found faith with her husband, the son of an Islamic leader, but he would not come to faith until four years later. Armen, then only 15 years old, was a more devout Muslim than anyone else in his family, and followed the extreme teachings he learned at school. When Arezoo started to show her son some of the Christian programs on televi-
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sion, he told her, “I can kill you because you are an apostate.” Despite his radical stance, Armen secretly started to watch the programs himself after a few months, all the while keeping up the façade of being a hardline, extremist Muslim. “I was too proud to admit it was affecting me,” Armen said, noting that his attitude changed one day when the pastor of a house church invited him over for a visit. “He told me I needed to repent. I prayed with him and confessed my sins. I admitted God is who He says He is, and my life was really changed.” Armen became active in a house church that grew to more than 20 members before splitting into smaller cell groups and eventually being shut down by authorities.
‘I prayed with him and confessed my sins. I admitted God is who He says He is, and my life was really changed.’ – Armen, Arezoo’s son, describes the day he gave his life to Christ.
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‘I was content with Islam; I thought I was complete. But I had some Armenian Christian friends that seemed to have a peace that I didn’t have.’ – Fahim’s wife, Derya, explains her journey to finding peace in Christ
hours, three minibuses arrived to transport them to a larger city where they could officially register with the United Nations (UN). The UN sent the family to a small town in western Turkey where they found a church community of other refugees that has taken them in while they wait to learn the next step.
Is This a Crime? Fahim and Derya are a smiling and friendly couple with a rambunctious little boy. After ten years of running a real estate company in Tehran, Fahim has been blacklisted by the government and banned from ever owning another business. Their neighbors turned on them, and even the church said it was best for them to go.
“Fahim”
A Courageous Journey Arezoo waited eight months after her release from prison before the prosecution convicted her of crimes against national security. She was released on a bond of 500,000,000 rials (about $18,000 USD) for nearly four months before the courts finally sentenced her to four years in prison. The family made a plan to leave everything and flee to safety. Armen, who took the lead in the journey, recalled selling their car, taking all the money out of the bank, destroying their cell phones and finally leaving to meet a person who would smuggle them out of Iran. At nightfall, the family was driven into the mountains, stopping occasionally to switch vehicles. The smugglers were careful to avoid the checkpoints of Sepah, the intelligence police, helped by the fact that some of the drivers were Sepah agents who profit from smuggling people out of the country. At each exchange, the group seemed to grow. After the last car ride, Arezoo’s family joined a group of nearly 80 others, including many Afghans and Baha’i, all making an escape from Iran. The group travelled the next eight hours on foot before finally crossing the border. A Kurdish man met them on the Turkey side of the border and led them down to a farm outside the village. After a few
But how did they come to such a place?
A Life Without Peace “I was strongly religious, but I had no personal relationship with God,” Fahim said. “I was running a business, but still was missing something. I would ask questions of God, but never received an answer.” Derya was also very religious. “I was content with Islam; I thought I was complete,” she told us. “But I had some Armenian Christian friends that seemed to have a peace that I didn’t have.” When one of the employees who worked for Fahim became a Christian, he started to share the Gospel with Fahim, telling him that he talks to God and God talks to him. Fahim would come home at night and tell Derya about what his employee had said, but they tried to dismiss it. Eventually, however, Derya decided that since she believed Jesus was a prophet, it couldn’t hurt to investigate him further. She found a Bible from one of her Armenian friends and started to read.
“I was shocked! It was really different. I realized Islam lied to me about who Jesus is. He is more than a man,” Derya said. “Jesus said, ‘I am God. I am the only way, the true way. After me many lying prophets will come.’” After just 20 days of reading the Bible, Derya realized it was true and that she needed to believe its message and share it with Fahim, who had become addicted to drugs, because she realized it was the power he needed to turn from addiction. Fahim believed, was baptized and saw God transform his life.
Playing With Fire Within two months of their becoming Christians and beginning to share their faith, Derya’s sister, nephew and nieces all became Christians. So many came to faith, in fact, that the couple started a house church and reached out to Christian leaders in Tehran for training. “We took everything we learned and immediately taught it to our family and friends who had become believers,” Fahim said. Not everyone was happy with their new faith, however. When they shared it openly at a family gathering, Fahim’s sister became very angry. Derya’s brother warned her that she was “playing with fire.” The real estate office became a very active evangelistic place. Three of Fahim’s employees were believers who would share with clients whenever they could. Then one day, without any prior warning, the authorities came and shut down the office and arrested the three employees. Fahim was summoned to the police station to meet with the authorities. “I was so nervous and worried,” he told us. “In the interview, I told them, ‘We love God; is this a crime in Iran? We are just Christians, and we love God.’ They answered, ‘You tell others about Jesus, this is a crime in Iran.’” The government closed Fahim’s business and revoked his real estate license. The execu-
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tive director of the intelligence police issued a letter stating that Fahim was guilty of “publicizing Christianity, distribution of the Bible, and Christian literature.” He was barred from ever running a business in Iran again.
You Should Leave Iran Fahim and Derya were torn. They were seeing God work in amazing ways, but were uncertain of what to do next. Fahim remembered that the morning the office was raided, he was actually praying, “God, the economy is really bad right now. Help me get out of running this business.” The raid by the police was not the answer for which he had hoped. Not long after their business was closed, the police helped Fahim and Derya make the decision to leave Iran by turning their neighbors against them, telling them that Fahim and Derya were “apostates, enemies of God.” “It seemed almost overnight people changed,” Derya said. “They stopped speaking to us, ignored us …” Even the church pulled away, afraid it was too dangerous for them to associate any longer. Friends stopped calling or visiting, and despite Derya’s plea that she wanted to continue to go to the church and “worship Jesus,” their pastor told them they would “put the church in danger” by attending. The most difficult one for the couple to be forced to leave was Derya’s mother, who was on her death bed. Fahim was able to visit Derya’s mother one last time in the week before they left, and he took the opportunity to share the Gospel with her again. This time, she nodded, and made a sign of the cross — the only thing she still had the strength to do. Derya was in tears as she told the story, “I’d prayed for her every morning. My mother was so close to Fahim that she wanted him to be the one who would wash her body after she died. We had to leave before she passed away, so we were so sad when we received the phone call that she had died.” “I wondered why Fahim wasn’t there,” Derya said, “We realized, though, that it was Fahim who got to see her washed in the blood of Jesus.”
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Saved and Sent
“Vahid”
As we sat in the living room with Vahid,* his wife, and their three sons, the story that would unfold was incredible. For this Iranian family, the story of their life had taken them from the brink of suicide to being sent as church planters to another country where the Iranian intelligence continued to hunt them, and finally led them to a Turkish border town with just $160 USD, some of their belongings, and almost no contacts. Ten months later, they had found odd jobs earning about $450 per month, working 12 hour days, and were anxiously awaiting a decision from the United Nations to learn where the next chapter in their story may lead.
“That’s the Name!” Vahid and Mojgan were a typical Muslim family living in a suburb outside Tehran, but something strange started happening about two months after the birth of their second son, Atash. Mojgan began to have visions, dreams that were often of Satan or demons threatening to kill her or her son. At first they were just dreams, but eventually Atash became ill and Mojgan would wake up many nights drenched in sweat from the terror of the dreams. Though she sought the help of doctors and mullahs (Islamic teach-
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ers), none could offer any help, and the dreams began to occur as visions during the day. “I woke up one morning. I fell to my knees and saw a bright light come through the window,” Mojgan said. “I could not see anything. I could not speak. I heard a voice that said to me, ‘Do you know who I am? I am who I am.’ After that I woke up crying.” Mojgan knew nothing of the Bible, had never read the Scriptures, and had no idea what this meant. She told no one save her father-in-law, who replied, “God loves you very much, but keep this in your heart. Tell no one.” For more than five years, Mojgan hid the dream in her heart, until one day she had another dream of an old man who came to visit. At first, Mojgan turned him away because of his appearance. Then he said to her, “Your problems can be fixed just with my name. There is no need to go to the mullahs.”
“I heard a voice that said to me, ‘Do you know who I am? I am who I am.’”
– Mojgan describes a vision that led her on a journey to find Christ
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Mojgan began to wonder what name the man meant and searched everywhere for answers, even occasionally turning on the Christian satellite broadcasts her family had started to receive while everyone else was away from home. One day, she heard the pastor on one of the programs say, “My daughter, you are worried. The name of Jesus can heal you!” Mojgan rushed to the television to hear the name again. It was the name of Jesus, and she instantly knew that He was the one who was able to bring freedom and healing. She placed her faith in him. While for Mojgan her personal faith was settled, life did not seem to improve for the family. Vahid was facing his own battles and losing. He’d started to use drugs and had reached the point of suicide.
Not all believers escape prison in Iran. Please pray for these prisoners below.
“This is the time!”
Benham Irani, arrested in 2010 and sentenced to six years in prison for leading a house church, recently required surgery for internal bleeding and stomach ulcers.
“I said, ‘Who are you?’ and he said, ‘I am who I am,’” Vahid recalled. “I went and picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels. When I came to the Christian channel, the remote stopped working. After a minute, I heard the man say, ‘Vahid, I want to speak to you. Only the name of Jesus can save you from suicide.’ I was amazed.” Mojgan, who was in the next room, came running when she heard the name, shouting, “That’s the name!” That night, Mojgan and Vahid bowed their knees and gave their lives to Christ. Over the next two years, over 20 friends and family had come to Christ and joined a house church in their home. About seven months later, after being joined by a pastor who knew many other believers in the city, the church grew to more than 100 people, and made the decision to split into three smaller churches. The church shared their faith boldly, but they always had to be careful of watchful government eyes.
“In 2008, we felt God telling us, ‘Prepare for migration, this is the time!’ We didn’t know exactly what it meant at the time, but in 2011 we saw God leading us to go to Georgia to plant a church there,” Vahid said. “When we arrived in Tbilisi, we walked around and saw Orthodox and Catholic churches and dreamed of starting a Persian church. Georgia has a large influx of Iranians who have relocated to the country, at the pace of 100,000 a year.” “We started with 10 people. After one month, the house couldn’t hold the congregation,” Vahid said. “The church needed a new place to meet. We found a building to remodel and spent weeks repairing it, placing a cross on it, and a sign of the Iranian Church in Georgia.”
“I thought I was the problem for my family. I thought I would rescue them by committing suicide,” Vahid said. “I decided that night at 5:00 p.m., I was going to do it.” He still remembers the date. It was November 14, 2003. Realizing that suicide was a sin, Vahid cried out to God to help him. To his surprise, the Father answered and directed him to turn on the television.
Vahid and Mojgan lived for almost eight years as Christians under the eyes of the government. They started a bakery that they used as cover for the church to have a place to meet. They were heavily involved in the church, but God had another plan for Vahid and Mojgan.
Farshid Fathi, arrested in 2010 and sentenced to six years in prison, was beaten so severely by guards in April of 2014 that he was transferred to a hospital. In August, he was moved to the “dangerous prisoners” section of Rajai Shahr prison.
Maryam Naqqash Zargaran (known as Nasim), arrested in 2012 and sentenced to four years in prison, has a history of heart problems and has been hospitalized due to physical and mental abuse by guards.
Saeed Abedini, arrested in 2012 and sentenced to eight years in prison, has suffered internal injuries from abuse and been denied medical treatment.
After two or three months, even their new building was packed. Many Iranians in Georgia were exposed to the Gospel for the first time. The church, which was featured in international news broadcasts, had set up a booth in downtown Tbilisi and was passing out New Testaments and Gospel literature to hundreds of people every day. The livid Iranian government asked the Georgian officials to pressure Vahid into closing the booth. When that failed, Iranian intelligence police came to their home and told the couple’s 15-year-old son to tell his father to “be silent and say no more about Christianity” and threatened to kill them when they returned to Iran if they continued to preach. From that point on, the family received phone calls making death threats against Vahid and his family. While the ministry was going well, they struggled to make it financially. After some time of struggling to keep food on the table, a $400 gift came in, and one of the church leaders told Vahid, “It’s time. Your ministry here is done. It’s time to go to Turkey.” Spending more than half of their money on bus tickets, the couple moved and swiftly found a new church family of other Iranians who have all faced their own stories of persecution and salvation.
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