When a team of evangelists went to a marketplace in Qom to share the gospel, they met a young boy who was selling socks in the bazaar. As they were talking with the boy, they discovered that he had a cellphone, so they gave him a micro-SD card loaded with Christian materials.
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Many Christians are afraid. They are afraid as they watch American culture and society continually turn away from the biblical teachings and Christian values they hold dear. They are afraid that the persecution our brothers and sisters face in nations like China, Nigeria, North Korea and Libya may soon be much more than something we read about. It may be the path that we — Christians in the “land of the free” — are called to walk. The problem with this attitude is that the Bible tells us not to be afraid. When communist authorities in Romania forced VOM’s founder, Richard Wurmbrand, into a van as he walked to church on Feb. 29, 1948, he had good reason to be afraid. Here’s how he recalls his thoughts that morning in his book In God’s Underground: I knew that I faced questioning, ill-treatment, possibly years of imprisonment and death, and I wondered if my faith was strong enough. I remembered then that in the Bible it is written 366 times — once for every day of the year — “Don’t be afraid!” 366 times, not merely 365, to account for leap year. And this was February 29 — a coincidence that
Read MoreThree Christian men who converted from Islam were recently sentenced to five years in prison after they refused to renounce Christ. In November of last year, Iranian authorities raided the homes of the three men and seized Bibles, cell phones and computers, ordering the men to stop all Christian activities.
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Every morning, Pastor Navid and his wife, Shadi, wake up knowing they could be behind bars by nightfall. In Iran, where authorities infiltrate house churches and tap believers’ phones, Christians must always be prepared for the possibility of arrest and imprisonment. For Navid and Shadi, however, the threat of imprisonment means little compared with their burden for those around them who don’t know Christ. Fortunately, the more they secretly share Christ in Iran, the more people they find who are ready to hear. Before the couple married, Navid witnessed firsthand the persecution of Christians by Iran’s authoritarian Islamic regime. While serving in seven different cities, including the capital, Tehran, he saw more than 40 Christians arrested. In one city, several Christians were arrested after the intelligence agency tapped a woman’s phone to identify local believers. In another city, Christians were arrested after a neighbor called police to report hearing Christian worship music. Elsewhere, someone pretended to be a Christian in order to infiltrate a house church. And at another location, a book of Christians’ names and church locations was stolen and given to police. Navid said the Christians he knows haven’t denied their faith when confronted by authorities. Most of
Read MoreNadia is a Christian who was concerned about her roommate’s health. Her roommate had been involved in occult and voodoo practices, and she was experiencing anxiety and feelings of hopelessness. Nadia shared her concerns with a few other believers, and they began to pray for the roommate.
Read MoreA VOM-distributed micro-SD card loaded with a digital Bible was recently received by a Kurdish fighter in the mountains of Kurdistan.
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Prison Fixed HIS theology When 36-year-old Reza placed his faith in Christ 12 years ago, after comparing the Jesus of the Bible with the Jesus he had read about in the Quran, he began to live out his new faith with abandon. He worked with other Christians to get God’s Word into the hands of Muslims throughout Iran, which decades earlier had adopted Shiite Islam as its official state religion. And he and a friend even duplicated and distributed thousands of CDs and DVDs containing the gospel message. Reza wanted to lead people to Jesus and help build God’s kingdom, but his motives became increasingly confused. He grew more concerned with the number of people he was reaching than the people themselves. Then, one day, he was arrested and imprisoned for his evangelism. “When I look at that now, I am grateful to the Lord for going through that because it really built my Christian character,” Reza said. “I knew there were so many things in my Christian theology that needed to be fixed. I think God used that point to fix that.” Misplaced Hope One summer day in 2011, Reza and a Christian friend rode a motorcycle through a
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Knowing that a return to Iran would come at great risk, Soro and Ali faithfully followed the Spirit’s call to share the gospel with those who might otherwise never hear it in one of the world’s most restricted countries. Soro drew the curtains against the sun in preparation for the evening gathering. The believers arrived a few at a time, knocking quietly on the door before entering the room and slipping off their shoes. Some of the women removed their head scarves before taking a seat on the intricately patterned blue rug, and at the appointed hour Soro locked the door and placed rolled-up towels at the threshold to block sound. The door would remain locked for the next hour and a half, no matter who knocked. At the click of the deadbolt, those with Bibles brought them out in the open. The group prayed, read Scripture, listened to teaching, celebrated Communion and sang worship songs with muted voices. All the while, other group members stood watch near the windows. As the meeting concluded, the group members left as they came, staggering their departures to avoid drawing attention. After their last guest left, Soro locked the door and she and
Read MoreEconomic conditions in Iran have led to extremely high inflation and increased unemployment. Many who have lost jobs and financial stability are living on the streets, and front-line workers have observed children foraging for food in trash bins in order to relieve their hunger. As a result, pastors and workers in the Iranian house church network have begun ministering to those on the streets.
Read MoreA Persian house church leader had two boxes of Farsi New Testaments in the trunk of his car. When he saw that he was approaching a police checkpoint, he pulled over and left the boxes of Bibles on the side of the road. Later that night, the police chief saw the boxes on the roadside and thought they might contain contraband, so he put them in his truck and took them home.
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