An Iranian man who abused his wife for 25 years shares with an Elam graduate,
“My heart is truly wicked and I need help” and then happily agrees to study the Bible.
The patriarch of a large Iranian family brings 27 family members to church and 11 become Christians on one Sunday.
A police officer in Tehran says he wants to read a New Testament, but is concerned he is being watched.
Three men are given a Bible and visit a church saying, “We want to know about Jesus. We’ve seen Christian TV programs and have been looking for a Bible for a while.”
These and many other amazing testimonies of God’s grace among Iranians have been the result of a summer of major Scripture distribution and outreach in the Iran region by Elam graduates and church planters.
“You cannot imagine how excited almost every Iranian is to receive their own copy of the New Testament,” shares an Elam graduate whose church distributed more than 3,500 New Testaments in July and August.
He is right; the normal reaction is one of great reverence followed by kissing and honoring the book. Forty-six people repented in this man’s church within days of reading the New Testament. He believes many, many more will come to faith in the coming months as they read and encounter Jesus.
Elam’s goal is to print and distribute at least 500,000 New Testaments in the Iran region by the end of 2010.
Please pray for those distributing Scriptures. Pray also that we can raise the support needed for this project – it costs just $5 or £3 to print and distribute one New Testament.
Persecution leads to courage
The church in Iran has faced increasing pressure and persecution in recent months. Christians are being interrogatated, imprisoned, and physically abused. One couple died this summer after they had been severely beaten. The church needs our continued prayers and support.
At the same time, many Christians have grown in boldness to proclaim the Gospel, just like in Philippians 1:14 where Paul says that because of his chains “most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.” One house church network has doubled in size in just two months.
Please pray for this continued church growth in the face of opposition.