Over the past week, the Lord has ministered to the hearts of more than 170 Persian-speaking teenagers through residential retreats in the Iran region.

"They are a generation hungry for the Lord," reported one of the ministry leaders. "They arrived carrying many wounds and burdens but, as they've come with open hearts, the Lord has been at work beautifully among them."

There are tens of thousands of Persian-speaking refugees in Greece, and trained Iranian Christians have a heart to love and serve them while reaching them with the Gospel.

Last month, 250 Persian-speaking refugees attended two evangelistic worship nights in Greece where many of them heard the Gospel explained in their own language for the first time.

Right now, 13 Iranian youth leaders are taking part in an eight-week training program in the Iran region. These emerging leaders represent nine churches serving 80+ youth. They would greatly value your prayers.

The group recently started their training with a one-week residential module.

Iranian Christians are giving out tens of thousands of New Testaments during the ongoing Persian New Year (Nowruz) holidays.

Eighteen of those out sharing the Good News are students currently on our three-month evangelism and church-planting course in a county near Iran. They have had many encouraging encounters so far.

There are many outreach events and initiatives happening during the Christmas period, with a vision of introducing more people to Emmanuel, our God who is with us. We would deeply value your prayers for the following:

"I have never seen love like this" said Iranian social media influencer Ahmad Moinshirazi recently in a reel shared with his 600,000+ followers.

Ahmad - a retired Iranian pro-kickboxer in exile - was talking about his experience of visiting an Iranian church in the region and seeing them pray passionately for the current unrest across Iran.

Through a recent advanced training course, 23 Persian-speaking worship leaders have developed new skills and gained a fresh passion for ministry.

The worship leaders - who had previously completed a foundational worship training program with Elam - enjoyed two weeks growing in core musical skills together. While the focus was practical, God's work went deeper into many hearts. “God really surprised us,” shares one of the mentors and teachers, Roozbeh. “There were many healings, dreams and visions. Shy students became confident. Wounded hearts were mended.”

Elnaz swung fiercely at Leila, hitting her hard across the face.

Their co-workers stared in astonishment. They had seen Elnaz and Leila argue previously, but it had never before escalated to violence. Leila was quivering in shock, shielding her rapidly-bruising cheek and damaged ear.

In June 2022, new believer Amir received his first Bible. From Iran, he left us this voice message:
“Thank you! Thank you to everyone who has got me this Bible!”
Amid his joy, Amir understood that God had used many faithful people in the process of getting the Bible into his hands.

In Iran, Bibles in Persian are not freely available because the government knows that when Persian-speaking, Muslim-background people read it, many meet Jesus.

Nasrin lives in Iran where, despite the risks, she faithfully practices her Christian beliefs.

A few years ago, Nasrin spent nearly 3 weeks in solitary confinement in Iran, facing regular interrogations about her ministry and faith in Jesus.

Afshin and Saloumeh lived in a broken marriage but were determined to stay together for the sake of their son. Then, one day, someone gave Afshin a Persian New Testament.

Golnar is from a very small, remote village in Iran. She and her husband were among twelve couples who recently took part in the launch of a new marriage course specially designed for the Iranian church. At the end of the course, Golnar shared, "When I was young, each winter we would help my dad fix the mud walls of our house. We'd fill in the cracks to keep out the cold. Now my husband and I know that...

Samira's past couple years of house church ministry have been challenging, but after attending Elam's leaders' conference recently, she felt her passion for ministry renewed. When she arrived back home in Iran, her Muslim father, who is in his 80's, looked at her inquisitively. When she asked him what he was thinking, he said, "I am thinking about your God and the change I see in you."...

All over the Iran region, Christians are eagerly sharing the joy of Christmas with others through evangelism, Scripture distribution and outreach. In one city, Armita has been faithfully participating in street evangelism. Recently, she shared the reason for Christmas with a local Iranian businessman and he asked if she would come and share the Gospel with his 60 employees. In...

After receiving a Bible for the first time, Maryam left a message for the person discipling her: 'I am forever thankful! You’ve made my heart so joyful! Thank you for this valuable gift! My heart is so happy!' There was overwhelming joy in her tear-filled voice. Maryam is just one of the thousands of new believers who have been discipled this year by another Iranian believer. She was able to...

Imagine you have been led to faith on the phone by a friend in another country and you have experienced the joy of Jesus in your heart and have a longing to read the Scriptures and hear more. But you have no Bible in the house and you have no idea where to buy one. All you know is that Bibles are banned. And you only know there are churches for Armenians and Assyrians...

Though 25% of Iranians are Azeris – ethnically Turks - they are very well integrated into Iran and are represented in all walks of life. Indeed the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, is half Azeri. And though they have their own spoken language, Azeris have the same passion for the Persian language that all Iranians have. Persian is the only language they read. Due to this...

Such is the success of Satellite TV in giving people an opportunity to learn about Christianity that the government has made their own film which attempts to warn people of the danger of tuning in the Christian channels. It would seem the warning is not being heeded as Satellite TV agencies are growing – increasing their output, taking on more staff, and most crucially...

There are about five million Kurds in Iran, the rest of the 20 million are mainly either in Turkey or Iraq. In Iran there are some reports of Kurds coming to faith in Christ, but in terms of church growth, much more seems to have been happening in northern Iraq. It might well be that their faith will impact their kinsmen in Iran, as the Gospel in the East often moves...

There is a Christian book famine in Iran. The West has hundreds of thousands of titles; the Arabic world thousands; but for highly literate Iran, there are just a few hundred titles. Despite a chronic lack of investment by the wider church in this area, some agencies have managed to expand the list in recent years, so now for example Iranians can read some C.S. Lewis...