ICC's February 2015 Persecution Magazine 3/4

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FEBRUARY 2015

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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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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

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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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Feature Article

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.

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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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