Over the past several months the church in Iran has been experiencing increased persecution and surveillance. Earlier this year we shared about four Iranian church leaders who were arrested during a meeting planning their Christmas services but later released. Today, they are now standing trial.
In addition, another key Iranian pastor who attended our leadership conference this spring was recently arrested. Currently, his family doesn’t even know where he’s being held. He could be in prison up to six months before his actual trial date. As you can imagine, this situation is very distressing.
Please be praying for favor, safety, and for God to turn this situation around for good! As the situation unfolds, we’ll share what we can with you.
Mehar’s father was imprisoned when she was 16 for selling alcohol. Shortly after at an Islamic religious ceremony, one of the clerics there sexually assaulted her. Her father, who was in prison, found out about the incident. He subsequently suffered a mental breakdown, attempted suicide, and was transferred to a psychiatric hospital within the prison.
One day, while helping her mom clean houses to make ends meet, Mehar heard a conversation between the homeowner and his friend—talking about God in ways that she had never heard before. The homeowner explained that his friend was trying to convert him to Christianity, but he paid no attention to it.
Mehar asked if she could have the book he was given by his friend, and she began reading it. She cried while reading and thought, “If God cares for me and feels my pain, then this is different.” She called the phone number in the book and even began talking to her father about Jesus.
One day, her father, who was unable to speak, exclaimed “Jesus is Lord!”, and his speech returned. Today, all members of her family have embraced faith in Christ, and their once sorrowful home has become a place of joy and worship.
Although our team is wisely taking precautions to ensure the safety of everyone we can, we are also realigning and moving forward! In the midst of the increased persecution, God has continued to show us the steps to take and opening doors where it seemed impossible! Iranian Christians boldly continue to move Bibles, share the Gospel, and meet in their homes to worship together!
In times like what we are facing in Iran right now, I’m thankful my dad exampled for us what it means to not back down when things become hard. This is in our DNA at World Compassion.
With over 325,000 people reached in Iran through our Bible distribution efforts to date, we are setting our eyes on 500,000 people!
What would it be like to see half a million people in Iran receive a Bible?
Half a million people reading about the message of Jesus.
Half a million people getting connected to other believers.
Half a million people beginning a discipleship journey.
While the Iranian regime may be trying to silence the Church and stop the Gospel from moving forward, the stories that we continue to hear of lives changed prove otherwise.
Hear a special message from our founder, Dr. Terry Law!
In addition to our in-person conferences, our team holds weekly Zoom training sessions for our house church pastors in Iran as well as one-on-one calls as needed. We are working to double the number of house churches in our network from 56 to 120 by 2025.
The cost for our team to train, equip, and resource one house church planter is $125 (£99) per month [$7,000 (£5,544)/month for 56 pastors]. We are meeting their willingness to say ‘yes’ to God’s call on their life with support, leadership training, and ministry tools. But we can’t do it without your financial support.
Update on Bibles into Iran: We have 22,322 left to fund to cross our year long goal of 120,000 Bibles into Iran by this summer – leaving us with $200,904 (£178,576) left to fund.
$9 (£8) reaches 1.
$90 (£80) reaches 10.
$900 (£800) reaches 100.
Help us double the number of house churches in our network from 56 to 120 by 2025. It costs $125 (£99) per month to train, equip and resource a house church planter.
Our current need is $7,000 (£5,544) a month to continue to train the 56 house church planters in our network.
We need $15,000 (£11,880) a month to train 120 monthly – and we need your help to equip them!
World Compassion Terry Law Ministries d/b/a World Compassion and its affiliates are not a part of nor associated with Compassion International. Your gift will be used for these projects and many other outreaches of World Compassion.
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