Episode 250
LANA SILK - Iran's Secret Revival: 3 Million Christians in an Islamic Regime
Lana Silk serves as Transform Iran's Chief Executive Officer, leading efforts to bring freedom to the Iranian people through ministry and humanitarian aid. In this conversation, she shares her family's supernatural calling to flee Iran in 1988 and establish a missions organization from outside the country. The episode explores Iran's explosive underground church growth, with potentially 2-3 million Christians in a nation of 89 million, and the strategic preparation needed for Iran's anticipated freedom.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Iran may have fastest growing church globally with 19.6% growth rate
- Transform Iran operates in 19 countries supporting underground house churches
- 78+ people groups in Iran need Bible translation beyond Farsi
- Government paranoia post-12 Day War has intensified Christian persecution
- Revival concentrated in Farsi-speakers while ethnic minorities remain largely unreached
- Iran's geopolitical influence could transform Middle East if turned toward good
CONNECT WITH TRANSFORM IRAN
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Hello and welcome to the Will Spencer Podcast.
Speaker B:This is a weekly interview show where I sit down and talk with authors, thought leaders and influencers who who help us understand our changing world.
Speaker B:New episodes release every Friday.
Speaker B:My guest this week is Lana Silk.
Speaker B:Lana serves as Transform Iran's Chief Executive Officer, actively seeking to bring freedom to the people of Iran, transforming the nation into one which bears the image of Christ.
Speaker B:Through ministry and humanitarian aid, Lana hopes that Transform Iran will create divine change in the lives of the Iranian people.
Speaker B:Lana was born and raised in Iran before the Lord supernaturally called her parents out of the nation to begin a missions organization that would nurture and strengthen the rising house church movement in Iran from the outside.
Speaker B:She completed her education in the uk, gaining an honors degree in computer engineering and spent the next 20 years honing her skills as a communicator, brand developer and strategist before the Lord called her to full time ministry.
Speaker B:Today, in her role as the CEO of Transform Iran, Lana is focused on the day when she will see God's purposes fulfilled in Iran, the land that still has her heart.
Speaker B:She considers it her life calling to advocate for the people of Iran and help resource and strengthen the fast growing underground church in the nation.
Speaker B:Lana currently lives with her husband and three teenage children in Ohio.
Speaker B:Lana Silk, welcome to the Will Spencer podcast.
Speaker A:Thank you Will.
Speaker A:I'm looking forward to our conversation.
Speaker B:Me as well.
Speaker B:I've been looking forward to this for a long time and as I mentioned before and to let the audience know that I'm a bit under the weather today.
Speaker B:So please bear with me as I as I navigate this.
Speaker B:So just a just a quick question.
Speaker B:There's so much here in your bio that we can just dig into right there.
Speaker B:But I think the part that I'm most interested in, at least to start off with particularly my audience as well, you were born and raised in Iran before the Lord supernaturally called your parents out of the nation.
Speaker B:I wonder if you can just start there because that was where my thoughts immediately went.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A: So we're in: Speaker A:And we just finished the war with Iraq that took so many lives and never really came to any resolution.
Speaker A:The government is reeling from that, trying to still establish itself as an Islamic theocracy in the country.
Speaker A:And now the focus is internal.
Speaker A:Christians begin leaving the country, there is increased persecution.
Speaker A:Nothing like what we talk about now in Iran.
Speaker A:At that point people still worshiped openly that there was scrutiny from the government.
Speaker A:And technically they weren't allowed to do a lot of the things that we were sort of getting away with in those days.
Speaker A:And in that climate, of course, then the Christians start thinking, well, we need to get out.
Speaker A:There is no future for us here.
Speaker A:But also the Muslims start turning to the Lord.
Speaker A:And my parents were in leadership in the church there.
Speaker A:They were founding members of the church there.
Speaker A:And they started hearing the Lord speak to them about leaving as well and were really concerned about that.
Speaker A:They felt that maybe they'd heard wrong.
Speaker A:They really wanted to make sure only if it was God that they would do something like that because they wanted to be with the church, they wanted to continue to serve the church and also look after the many Muslims that were asking the questions and wanting to join.
Speaker A:So they went and prayed for a while and they took a month praying and fasting separately from each other just to make sure they'd heard right, came back, compared notes, everything aligned.
Speaker A:They took it to the overseeing pastor, who also was my dad's best friend, and they said, this is what God is saying to us.
Speaker A:And he said, you heard wrong, we need you here.
Speaker A:And they were delighted by that and said, that's great, we want to stay here, we'll stay here.
Speaker A:But then that night he had a dream.
Speaker A:The pastor and God spoke to him and said, no, I have something I need them to do.
Speaker A:They need to leave very quickly.
Speaker A:And I was 9 when all of this was happening.
Speaker A:So he came and woke us up early hours in the morning and said, you did hear right?
Speaker A:God's confirmed it to me.
Speaker A:And actually there's a sense of urgency to it and you need to leave.
Speaker A:So we left very quickly and suddenly you can't take anything with you out of the country.
Speaker A:They search you.
Speaker A:They strip searched my mother on the way out.
Speaker A:So really it's just, you're going on vacation.
Speaker A:That's the guys.
Speaker A:And even then, I remember every time I went in and out of the country, your suitcases are lined up in the airport.
Speaker A:They get everything out, throw it around, check every nook and cranny.
Speaker A:So you really are just going, you know, with a few clothing items.
Speaker A:So we came out like that, just waiting to hear on the Lord.
Speaker A:And then God spoke to them and told them why he'd brought them out, that the church was actually going to be driven underground, persecution was going to really intensify, and there was work for them to do from outside the country.
Speaker B:What an incredible story.
Speaker B:I mean, I'm sure you've told that many Times.
Speaker B:And I imagine that the reaction is similar.
Speaker B:People imagining just sort of like the intrigue and the excitement, but also the danger and the fear and the risk that's associated with it.
Speaker B:Like, no, we're leaving now.
Speaker B:Don't take anything with you because we're not coming back and we need the government not to know.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly that.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's, you know, I wouldn't want to elevate my family to the status of Abraham, but the story that he, you know, we read about him in the Bible, it reminds me of that process.
Speaker A:And I think God calls us all on similar journeys where he has something for us, but he doesn't give us the full picture because he wants us to obey without all the questions.
Speaker A:You know, we read about that when he says, you've got to come out of that place.
Speaker A:And only after Abraham listens and obeys and comes out and he's in that sort of middle ground when the Lord then speaks to him and actually tells him what's coming next and why he's called him out.
Speaker A:But God wants to know first that Abraham will obey him regardless.
Speaker A:And that was just definitely our experience.
Speaker A:Myself, as an adult with my husband and children, we've had multiple experiences similar to that on a smaller scale where that same principle is played out.
Speaker A:Again, are we prepared just to obey?
Speaker A:Because we know, we've heard him, we don't know what he's doing, why he's doing it, but he's taught us to do this, so we'll just do it.
Speaker B:And you may not know this, but my audience does.
Speaker B:I've visited more than 30 countries around the world, including China.
Speaker B:I've been to the Middle east, and I think the only region of the world that I haven't been to is sub Saharan Africa.
Speaker B:So I'm familiar with some of the cultural practices and how it's a very different feeling to be in a foreign country.
Speaker B:The way that security is handled, the way that the military and police are handled compared to America.
Speaker B:So the feeling of urgency and the feeling of risk is genuine?
Speaker B:Of course, not Abraham, not lot.
Speaker B:But still something very real for your family?
Speaker A:Yes, very much so.
Speaker B:So as your family exited, what motivated the setting up of Transformer On?
Speaker B:Is that when the ministry began, or was it shortly after that?
Speaker A:Well, as soon as we came out, within months, really, it was clear that there was something that was cooking in terms of what God wanted to establish from outside the country and what we then knew to anticipate for what would happen to our friends and our family inside the country.
Speaker A:And the first step is always to pray.
Speaker A:And, you know, the Lord commands blessing where there's unity, we are to going created for relationship and partnership and cooperation in this kingdom, work.
Speaker A:And so the first thought that my parents had was, who else do we know that has left the country?
Speaker A:Christians from Iran who have probably had similar journeys.
Speaker A:A lot of people had left, perhaps led by fear, but also wanting to protect their children, not seeing a future for their family in Iran, but their heart's still back in the country.
Speaker A:And there was a lot of heartache there.
Speaker A:People who were sad to see what was happening to their country and to see that perhaps they themselves had no part in it anymore in the future of Iran.
Speaker A:And my parents started gathering these people.
Speaker A:And, you know, my memories in my preteens and teens are traveling across Europe with my family event after event.
Speaker A:The Christians in Germany, in Holland, in Norway, in Sweden.
Speaker A:I mean, literally one after the other.
Speaker A:We would go from place to place, and they would gather everyone that they knew, and we would just pray together and share our hearts with each other, share our vision for the country, incite faith in each other for what God could and would do for Iran.
Speaker A:And let just gathered momentum.
Speaker A:And it was a very natural, organic growth as unity established a whole sort of a core of Christians in Europe at the beginning that wanted to work together to see change.
Speaker A:And it got to a point where it needed a name and it needed structure.
Speaker A:So it really was born out of a need, rather than, we're going to set up a ministry and then we'll work from there.
Speaker B:So you kind of saw that there was a demand and a desire to help from well outside the nation.
Speaker B:That was like, okay, we need to respond to this in a formal way.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly.
Speaker B:So just a quick step, I wonder.
Speaker B:The backstory to all of this, of course, is the Shah and the fall of that and the setting up of the theocratic government that's far too much for us to get into today.
Speaker B:And there are many movies about it.
Speaker B:But I know that's the backstory to a lot of what's going on.
Speaker B:I wonder for people who want to fill themselves in, if you can recommend some good resources for them to bring them up to the point of the story where your family enters it.
Speaker B:Because a Christian family inside Iran wasn't necessarily unusual, I think, at a certain point in time, until it became unusual.
Speaker B:But that backstory is so much for us to get into right now.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:And actually, we've done a pretty good job, if I say so myself.
Speaker A:On our website to summarize some of those things.
Speaker A:There are books that will go into great deal of depth on the politics and even the sociopolitics of the time.
Speaker A:But if you want to just give yourself a bit of a whistle stop tour, there is a section on our site called learn on transformeran.com and there are multiple articles there that will take you through different eras.
Speaker A:So the biblical times in Iran, the biblical heritage that Iran has, we've done sort of the lineage of what happens sort of chronologically as the different dynasties took charge of Iran over history.
Speaker A:And then looking at Christianity, pre Islamic revolution, post Islamic revolution, the time of the Shah, and modern day Christianity in Iran, and what it looks like with all the different limitations.
Speaker A:So that will give.
Speaker A:It's probably a good hour or so of reading there, but whistle stop for the bits that interest you, your listeners.
Speaker B:Perfect.
Speaker B:So we'll send people there to get the prequel to the conversation.
Speaker B:So as Transformer Ron begins to get set up, you're kind of seeing some of the persecution that had been maybe foretold as too dramatic of a word.
Speaker B:You're beginning to see some of that come into place as your family's traveling through Europe.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it happened gradually.
Speaker A:And really by the time things were really needing desperate intervention from outside, we were established and ready to do something about it.
Speaker A:My parents have a real anointing.
Speaker A:The Seer is strong on them.
Speaker A:They've pioneered some critical areas of ministry that at the time, everyone was saying, you know, this is way overkill.
Speaker A:We don't need this.
Speaker A:But they saw the needs, things like TV for, you know, satellite TV in Farsi, Christian programming, Christian apologetics in a Farsi, a digital church network, a lot of these things, by God's grace, they were able to establish before the real need came together.
Speaker A:And we were ready to then respond.
Speaker A:So it all kind of grew together.
Speaker A:And as people responded to what was happening outside the country, whether it was their own families in the diaspora reaching back to their, you know, cousins and relatives in the country, sharing the gospel, seeing churches born, or as we began to evangelize using media, people watching TV programs, listening to radio channels and responding to those, we were in a position then to nurture those growing churches in the country.
Speaker A:Now there are hundreds of churches across 53 towns and cities that look to us for mentoring, support, resourcing.
Speaker A:We bring out leaders to train them.
Speaker A:But the whole thing has grown as needs have arisen and we've been able to meet them by God's grace.
Speaker B:Is the church in Iran under a form of state oppression or is it just the sort of thing that is overlooked or you probably shouldn't talk about in public for, you know, say, say polite culture reasons or is there actual like.
Speaker B:No, you don't want to say anything.
Speaker B:A bit like in China.
Speaker A:Yeah, very much like China.
Speaker A:It's illegal, it's aggressive control, it's written into the law.
Speaker A:Anyone that is an apostate, which is someone who denies Islam and all Persian people with Persian roots are considered Islam Muslim by birth.
Speaker A:You know, you can't just suddenly say, well I never was a practicing Muslim.
Speaker A:Anyone who rejects that is considered to be an apostate.
Speaker A:And right, written in the law is execut.
Speaker A:I mean that's the immediate punishment for those people and for anyone that then encourages and entices people into apostasy.
Speaker A:So we've had some very well known Armenian martyrs in Iran's church where Armenians are considered Christians and allowed to practice their faith.
Speaker A:But the minute they start meddling, the government would probably call it into beyond their race, you know, reaching Muslims with the gospel and leading people to Christ, then they're just as much at risk.
Speaker A:And the government is actively seeking out the Christians to arrest them, torture them, imprison them, whether they execute or exile.
Speaker A:They just want their country to be rid of them.
Speaker B:Christians in America really have no concept of what that's like to be practicing their faith at the risk of imprisonment and real martyrdom.
Speaker B:So bring us up to date with what things look like.
Speaker B:You mentioned something like 50 towns or 50 communities that are having their house churches of their own inside Iran.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So in our network at Transform Iran, we have churches in 53 towns and cities, hundreds of churches, because there'll be small groups and they won't know each other.
Speaker A:And then beyond that, there's probably about a dozen or two dozen other communities of believers that we probably wouldn't go as far as calling a church.
Speaker A:But you know, we're getting there.
Speaker A:So there.
Speaker A:And that's our network.
Speaker A:We're probably the largest network in the country, but there are others who also serve in Iran.
Speaker A:And so, you know, there are many, many churches up and down the country.
Speaker A:There was research done five years ago by a secular organization, Gammon, who did proper scientific research on, okay, what are the religious affiliations of Christians in the country today?
Speaker A:And at that point, from their 50,000, I believe it was their data pool, their extrapolated data would lead us to believe that there were 1.3 million Christians in Iran then five years ago.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Many people talk about Iran being the fastest growing church in the world, and we've heard 19.6% is the sort of growth rate that is spoken over Iran.
Speaker A:And if we apply that, we're now talking two, three, perhaps more million Christians in Iran today in this very oppressive environment.
Speaker A:So it is revival of sorts, but all discreet, covert.
Speaker B:What's the total population of Iran?
Speaker A:89 million.
Speaker A:No one knows for sure.
Speaker A:There's been no reliable census.
Speaker A:If you Google it, you'll get anything from sort of 88 to 93, but we think 89, 90 million is about right.
Speaker B:Okay, so right now you're looking at what, 2 to 4% of the population, Potentially a pretty high rate of growth.
Speaker A:Yeah, very high rate of growth, yes.
Speaker A:We're hoping that perhaps there'll be some more research done now, five years on from Gammon's really helpful research to get more clarity, because everyone's guessing, really.
Speaker A:We don't know for sure.
Speaker A:We know the people in our own networks, but beyond that, there's so many who are hidden Christians, and we hear them about them all the time.
Speaker A:Something will happen.
Speaker A:You'll find out.
Speaker A:Someone was a Christian for years but was afraid to tell anyone.
Speaker A:So it's an exciting environment to serve in because people are hungry and there's a spirit of sacrifice and passion and focus on the gospel, and it's growing.
Speaker B:Earlier this year, I read the book Seeking Allah and Finding Jesus by Nabil Qureshi.
Speaker B:Is that still a book that you find resonates with a lot of Muslims who are coming to the faith?
Speaker A:Yes, very, very much so.
Speaker A:And that sort of.
Speaker A:That process is real, you know, because there are a lot of Muslims in Iran and all over the world who truly just want to please Allah.
Speaker A:And they are trying their best to be devout and do what they think is required of them to be pleasing to Allah.
Speaker A:And we have stories like that in our own ministry where people have come in with that intent.
Speaker A:And when you.
Speaker A:The word of God tells us, seek and you will find.
Speaker A:If they're seeking God, if they're seeking truth, if they're genuinely wanting to please God, well, our God is very capable of revealing himself to people, and he does.
Speaker A:One of our pastors, her story was exactly that.
Speaker A:Where she suffered a very traumatic childhood.
Speaker A:She was forced into marriage at the age of 12.
Speaker A:She had three children through her teens, her husband was murdered by the government.
Speaker A:Her father and her brother were murdered.
Speaker A:She took all of this to mean that she wasn't a good enough Muslim and she had to do better you know, Islam is a very works based religion.
Speaker A:You have to make sure that you do enough to please God.
Speaker A:And you can never know for sure if you have.
Speaker A:So she pressed in more and more and more.
Speaker A:And in that process she talks about how one day she went to recite her prayers, her namaz, and as she went to say Muhammad, she would accidentally say Jesus.
Speaker A:And it just kept happening and she kept catching herself and wanting to correct herself and try again and she'd go and pray again and again Jesus would come out and the more she uttered his name, the more he just, just took grip of her heart.
Speaker A:And meanwhile he'd been appearing to her in visions and dreams.
Speaker A:He'd been standing to her, standing in the doorway in her bedroom, holding out his hand, saying, you can trust me.
Speaker A:He'd been sharing things with her in her dreams, taking her on adventures.
Speaker A:So all of this collided together in this moment where she just couldn't say Muhammad.
Speaker A:It would just keep coming out as Jesus.
Speaker A:And she ended up giving her life to the Lord.
Speaker A:And she wasn't looking for Jesus, but she was looking to please God.
Speaker B:That's so incredible because you're sort of shining a light into an experience that is difficult if not impossible for a lot of Westerners to understand.
Speaker B:What is it like inside the culture and the mind of someone who lives embedded and has grown up in Muslim culture?
Speaker B:We can't really, it's impossible to understand our own culture sometimes, let alone somebody else's.
Speaker B:So I imagine the dynamics between reaching male Muslims versus female Muslims with the gospel, that can be both liberating and tricky.
Speaker B:I bet.
Speaker A:Yeah, there is a difference for sure.
Speaker A:And women have an added layer for us to peel back, which is all the lies that they have heard from every source for their whole lives about how unworthy they are of all sorts of things, how second rate they are, second class they are.
Speaker A:You know, women in Iran have very negligible rights.
Speaker A:They can make very few decisions without the okay of their nearest male relative.
Speaker A:And that will be their father when they're younger.
Speaker A:But as when they get married, that will be their husband.
Speaker A:If he was to die, that could even be their son.
Speaker A:I mean, how demeaning that this woman is literally never capable, that's what she's being told, of making good decisions.
Speaker A:A man has to speak for her.
Speaker A:So to be able to go to women like that and really help them reframe in their mind how God sees them, you know, issues of identity and worth are so important.
Speaker A:Of course, there's so many beautiful examples in the scriptures of Jesus, at a time where women were also looked down on, the way he elevated them and honored them, the way he chose to reveal himself to women first after his resurrection, these are things that Iranian women, women would really understand, the power of it, what it really is communicating, and it's life changing for them.
Speaker B:I'm so glad you said that.
Speaker B:That's one of the most moving parts of the New Testament is the way that Christ relates directly to women without.
Speaker B:Without a male mediator, over and over again, over again, whether it be the Syrophoenician woman, the hemorrhaging woman, the woman at the well.
Speaker B:And the apostles are constantly like, what are you doing?
Speaker B:And it's so.
Speaker B:It's so unique in all the world religions that that happens.
Speaker A:That's very true.
Speaker B:So do you find that there are situations where there are men who are leading families who come to Christ and the families are reluctant to follow, and the opposite, where maybe the wife gets exposed or a daughter gets exposed to the Gospel transforms herself, and then it spreads the other way to the rest of her family?
Speaker A:Yes, it happens both ways.
Speaker A:And there's so many wonderful stories of God just intervening on behalf of people.
Speaker A:And really, you know, the Lord tells us, can tell the tree by its fruit.
Speaker A:And it's often the fruit that is attractive to people when they see lives truly changed.
Speaker A:Angry people no longer angry drunks, no longer addicted to their alcohol.
Speaker A:I mean, one of our ministry leaders was himself, in his own words, an angry drunk.
Speaker A:And his wife had grown to hate him, even though they'd had a passionate love affair coming together.
Speaker A:But as he had given himself over to alcohol, she had grown to despise him.
Speaker A:And in that context, where he would go and get drunk and humiliate her in their family gatherings, this is a culture of honor and shame.
Speaker A:The way you behave is really important.
Speaker A:And he would disgrace her.
Speaker A:So she was getting ready to leave him.
Speaker A:And in all of that, he was also thinking, I need to get my family out of Iran because there's no future for them here.
Speaker A:And someone had said to him, the only way you're going to get out of here is to pretend you're a Christian and say that you're being persecuted and you need refuge.
Speaker A:They're not going to let you into a Western country otherwise.
Speaker A:So he decided to pass the Christian test.
Speaker A:Basically, he got hold of a Bible and started reading it just so that he could convince immigration authorities that he really was a Christian and his life really was in danger.
Speaker A:And when he tells his story I mean, he's this strong looking man and he always breaks down when he shares and shares how he talks about.
Speaker A:These were words of love, you know, words I'd never heard before, words of forgiveness and justice and mercy.
Speaker A:And it just totally captivated him.
Speaker A:He says, in that moment, any kind of desire for alcohol was rooted out of me.
Speaker A:And so then he goes to his wife and he says, this is a good book.
Speaker A:You have to read it.
Speaker A:But she still hates him, so she rejects it on account of the fact that it's something that he is encouraging her to read.
Speaker A:But then the fruit of the testimony of what God has done in his life starts to show.
Speaker A:She sees that he's no longer behaving in the way that he was.
Speaker A:He's no longer interested in those parties.
Speaker A:And then it sort of culminates in when his friends invite him.
Speaker A:They keep trying to get him to these events and he's not interested.
Speaker A:And finally he says to his wife, we're gonna go to one of these and I'm gonna demonstrate to my friends that I'm no longer the person that they think I am.
Speaker A:So they go to the party and his friends are trying to get him drunk and they're pouring him shots.
Speaker A:Two for him, one for themselves, because they're trying to accelerate his process.
Speaker A:And, you know, we've heard about Jesus turning the water into wine, but in this case, Jesus turned the whiskey to water.
Speaker A:And Caesar talks about how he would go to Dr. Because the Lord spoke to him and told him, it's fine, I've got this.
Speaker A:As he drank it, it was water and it had no effect on him.
Speaker A:And his friends were getting exasperated and he was able to share the gospel with them.
Speaker A:And so then his wife turns to the Lord, his children turn to the Lord, and really, by the time they get to any kind of immigration interview, they really are Christians and they really need to get out.
Speaker A:So it's a really fun story.
Speaker B:Do not try this at home.
Speaker A:Only if God speaks to you directly.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:What a wonderful story.
Speaker B:And you bring up an important detail that I learned from your website.
Speaker B:There are something like 78 languages I think I saw inside Iran, and they don't all have their own copy of the Bible.
Speaker B:Like the Bible actually has to be translated into these languages.
Speaker A:Yes, that's correct.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:There's 78, 79 people groups in Iran, more depending on how you count them.
Speaker A:And there are more than 39 languages.
Speaker A:Again, some of these languages sort of deviate into dialects.
Speaker A:So there's no.
Speaker A:It's Hard to really pin it down to a number, but we say 39 plus languages.
Speaker A:And of those, four of them have the Bible.
Speaker A:We have Farsi that has the Bible.
Speaker A:Azari, Armenian have Bibles, and Gilaki.
Speaker A:Now we've translated the Gilaki Bible.
Speaker A:There's a Bible in that.
Speaker A:But there are fragments in some of the other languages and some of them have nothing at all.
Speaker A:And there are no other complete New Testaments.
Speaker A:So there's.
Speaker A:So the Baluchi is just about coming out.
Speaker A:So, you know, we're all getting there, we're starting to chip away at it.
Speaker A:But there's still a lot of work to be done.
Speaker A:For a lot of different people who have fierce pride in their ethnicity and really the only way to truly reach them with the gospel is in their own language.
Speaker A:Particularly in a context like Iran, where the mother.
Speaker A:The main language of the country, the sort of political language is Farsi.
Speaker A:And that same language is used to oppress and control these people.
Speaker A:You know, they make it hard for them to teach their languages in their schools.
Speaker A:They make it illegal for them to wear their own, cost their dress in their streets.
Speaker A:And then you come and try to share the Gospel in that language, that's not going to penetrate.
Speaker A:And it hasn't.
Speaker A:These people are largely unreached.
Speaker A:But when you go and give them the dignity of speaking to them in their own language and saying, we have bothered to translate our holy book into your language and we want to tell you the good news here, that's a totally different story.
Speaker B:That's a really important point that you highlighted, that there's centralized cultural oppression coming from the state government that's seeking to flatten all of the different unique regional dialects and tribal identities.
Speaker B:And that's exactly the same in China.
Speaker A:Exactly the same thing, yeah, because they're afraid of nationalism rising up in these different pockets.
Speaker A:There's always been talk of Balkanization in Iran and how it might divide up.
Speaker A:Particularly now, again, as we talk about potentially more war and some sort of overturning of the government, there is a concern that Iran will break up into these different regions who want to protect their own identities.
Speaker A:And I think the way forward for Iran with any kind of new government and any kind of Christian outreach across the country, is to say we see these differences, we celebrate these differences, and we think we can still be a united country with these beautiful differences.
Speaker B:So what is the perception of many of these people groups sort of broadly towards Christianity?
Speaker B:They've never read a Bible.
Speaker B:There's no Bible available in their language.
Speaker B:Christianity is a Subject of targeted state oppression inside the nation.
Speaker B:Of course, Islam has some strong perspectives towards Christianity.
Speaker B:There's been some historical conflict there.
Speaker B:So as this revival is starting to happen within the nation, millions of people like, what, what does that look like at the contact point?
Speaker A:So the bulk of the.
Speaker A:Well really all of the revival that's happening is happening in less than 50% of the population that speaks Farsi as their mother tongue.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:So that's still the main language and that's where the growth is really happening.
Speaker A:The 55 or so percent of the country that don't speak Farsi, they're is a big majority there that would be considered unreached.
Speaker A:They have no concept of Jesus and what he has done for them and the Gospels.
Speaker A:So that's a great opportunity there for the church.
Speaker A:The government does speak against Christianity, sometimes very publicly.
Speaker A:They'll make announcements about this Christian book.
Speaker A:If someone gives you this Christian book, don't read it, it's really bad for you.
Speaker A:You'd think that they would know that that's going to spark a whole lot of curiosity.
Speaker A:But that again, most of those inter sentiments happen within the Farsi speaking communities.
Speaker A:There's a lot of illiteracy, there's a lot of disconnect from central communication from the other regions.
Speaker A:And again, that's opportunity for the church.
Speaker A:And we've seen the beginnings of that where we have translated in some of these languages.
Speaker A:One of the languages we haven't completed the New Testament there, but we're almost there.
Speaker A:But with the fragments that we have, we have seen the beginnings of church in that region that was completely unreached a year or so ago.
Speaker A:We always bring in Muslims as part of our translation teams.
Speaker A:We think that's a really good way to keep the language authentic and fresh.
Speaker A:And a lot of words have to be created from scratch that don't even exist in these languages to represent what the scriptures are talking about.
Speaker A:And we want people without Christian filters to be able to help us come up with the right words.
Speaker A:And so in one of these languages we had a woman who was a Muslim.
Speaker A:Her husband was on the team and he wouldn't allow her to take part.
Speaker A:He was afraid of the security implications of, of what the government might do if they found out what she might do if she turned everyone in.
Speaker A:And so she would sit outside the room, she would listen to the conversations and she would interject from outside, she would hear them debating words, should we use this word?
Speaker A:Should we use that word?
Speaker A:And she would jump in, you should use that word.
Speaker A:And so finally they let her in to be part of the process.
Speaker A:And she started translating scriptures and the word of God took root in her life.
Speaker A:She gave her life to the Lord.
Speaker A:And she started taking what she had translated and going to the local park and sharing it with the people that she knew.
Speaker A:And it makes me think of the woman at the well, like Sonny, this thing has changed my life.
Speaker A:I'm gonna tell everyone that I know.
Speaker A:I don't even care about any risk or how it might look.
Speaker A:For me, this is too good not to share.
Speaker A:And in that one year, she shared the gospel with 600 people and 80 of them gave their lives to the Lord.
Speaker A:So that's what's happening now as we start to translate the scripture and we involve the communities in the review processes.
Speaker A:These communities are being touched by the truth.
Speaker B:What is that like for you personally to watch the promises of the gospel be fulfilled in real time?
Speaker B:This land in the bio, it said the land still has your heart.
Speaker B:And you're watching someplace that could not be more opposed to Christ in many ways.
Speaker B:Suddenly come to him in rapid numbers, rapid succession.
Speaker B:What is that like for you personally and your family as well?
Speaker A:It is incredibly emotional.
Speaker A:There's a lot of joy.
Speaker A:Sometimes it feels surreal.
Speaker A:Is this really happening?
Speaker A:We've prayed for it, we've prepared for it, as if we really believe it's going to happen.
Speaker A:Praise God, we have done that.
Speaker A:But even still you find thinking, wow, we are literally seeing history unfold right before our eyes.
Speaker A:It's incredible.
Speaker A:And I think about my own childhood growing up.
Speaker A:You know, one of my favorite scriptures as a teenager was when Paul talks about David and he says he fulfilled the purposes of God in his generation.
Speaker A:And it just really gripped me.
Speaker A:I remember thinking as a sort of mid teen, thinking, wow, what, How.
Speaker A:What does someone do to get to a point where someone would say that about them?
Speaker A:You know, how does one even get to a point where they would know the purposes of God for their generation?
Speaker A:How do you then get to a point where it can be said that you fulfilled these purposes?
Speaker A:And so I really gave myself to praying into that and asking the Lord to reveal to me what his purposes were for my generation, for my country, and to use me to help fulfill those.
Speaker A:And so it's been really decades of humbling privilege and joy to know God's hand on my life, to.
Speaker A:To do my best, to obey.
Speaker A:It talks about the word of God lighting the path right before us.
Speaker A:We don't see the whole picture.
Speaker A:I look at where I am today.
Speaker A:Twenty years ago, I would have never believed it.
Speaker A:I think, okay, well, God just gives me a little bit at a time.
Speaker A:All I need to do is obey, give myself to discerning, letting the Holy Spirit reveal to me what is happening, and then making sure that I play my part in this big jigsaw and let God take the glory for it.
Speaker B:What an incredible way to think about things, how to fulfill God's purposes for our generation, and a good way to go about making that real, instead of expecting a grand revelation that would be too big for us to swallow.
Speaker B:Probably just taking it little bites at a time with faithfulness.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly that.
Speaker A:I think it would overwhelm us, any of us, if we know everything that God has for us.
Speaker B:Amen to that.
Speaker B:So, speaking of history, of course, Iran has been in the news quite a big deal lately.
Speaker B:It was a.
Speaker B:Of course, everyone knows the bombing raids that took place on the nuclear program.
Speaker B:And I had been talking about booking this before, and definitely that lended a different angle on the conversation, surely.
Speaker B:So did that affect your work?
Speaker B:I hope that it would affect your work positively.
Speaker B:Or what did that look like within the work that you were doing?
Speaker A:Well, life in Iran today is much, much harder now than it was before what we're calling the 12 Day War.
Speaker A:It was difficult for Christians, it was difficult for everyone.
Speaker A:It was oppressive.
Speaker A:There was no freedom.
Speaker A:We've seen the protests that have happened over the last few years, people desperately trying to regain some sense of control financially.
Speaker A:You know, economics have been bad in Iran for a while.
Speaker A:Cost of living is high.
Speaker A:There's not enough work.
Speaker A:All of that was already happening.
Speaker A:But what happened during the war was a lot of buildings, of course, affected people's work, affected supplies, affected with food and gas.
Speaker A:And when we came out of that, a government that doesn't care for its people, that should have been then busy rebuilding, caring for its people actually instead rearming, strengthening its own defenses and at the same time thinking, right, who was it?
Speaker A:Who do we blame?
Speaker A:Who were the dissidents who gave Israel enough information to be so targeted and precise in the way they came after us?
Speaker A:So there's been this almost paranoid ruthlessness that's been ravaging the country with people being arrested in their thousands, interrogated.
Speaker A:Some have already been executed in trying to figure out who the dissidents are.
Speaker A:Meanwhile, people can't get to work.
Speaker A:There's not enough food, there's not enough gas.
Speaker A:We have water shortages, electricity shortages.
Speaker A:And so it's a really, really tough living environment.
Speaker A:Just take the politics out of it, a really tough living environment.
Speaker A:But also now they've got a government who's hounding them and there's fear and down the country.
Speaker A:So as a ministry, you know, all you can do is pray and support.
Speaker A:We send a lot of aid in.
Speaker A:We're OFAC certified and we can send aid to help people.
Speaker A:And, you know, as people are listening, if God is speaking to you, if you want to support with aid, we can get that directly into the hands of those who need it.
Speaker A:There's a lot of practical needs, but also spiritually, people need encouragement, direction.
Speaker A:We've been doing some fresh programming through our TV channel to give people information and guidance on how to pray, how to prepare for the next round, which we sure will be coming.
Speaker A:So there's a lot for us to do in strengthening the church, but sadly they suffer through that, a lot of it by themselves.
Speaker B:I had hoped that maybe the government would be weakened substantially enough to allow sort of a little shoe to pop through, but it sounds like the opposite has taken place.
Speaker B:So real quick, from a theological perspective, what's the Muslim response to persecution?
Speaker B:So obviously the whole nation is suffering under this newly heavier hand.
Speaker B:What would be a Muslim response to that versus rejoicing under all circumstances which are called to do under to Christ?
Speaker B:What would the Muslim response be, by contrast?
Speaker A:What do you mean by persecution?
Speaker A:So a Muslim in Iran being persecuted by their government.
Speaker B:Sorry, yeah.
Speaker B:Meaning the government has started cracking down on basically everything.
Speaker B:It's difficult across the board.
Speaker B:Maybe persecution isn't the right word in this circumstance.
Speaker B:Maybe like the difficulty of living conditions as a result of the 12 day war.
Speaker B:So what would the Muslim response to that be?
Speaker A:Yeah, so it kind of depends on where you sit on the scale of Islam, how to what extent you hold all the teachings of the Quran to be true and how sympathetic you are to the cause of the government.
Speaker A:So at the far end, you're gonna have the people who are totally with their government.
Speaker A:They blame Western interference in their internal affairs.
Speaker A:They agree with the government that Israel must be wiped out, that Israel is the little Satan and the US is the great Satan.
Speaker A:So their physical difficulties, in their mind, will be all the fault of the west, the infidels who caused all this upset.
Speaker A:And we still need to get rid of them.
Speaker A:We still need to do something about it.
Speaker A:They by far the minority in the country.
Speaker A:There are very few committed Muslims left outside of that in Iran now, even before the war, the mosques were emptying out.
Speaker A:People had had enough.
Speaker A:They've seen the fruit of Islam in their country.
Speaker A:So by and large they would blame their government for everything that's happening on them.
Speaker A:And a lot of them welcome Western interference.
Speaker A:They want the west to come and take out their government.
Speaker A:There was a lot of celebration when Netanyahu set out the first attacks.
Speaker A:There were direct words of thanks given to him on social media to say thank you, now please come and finish the job.
Speaker A:And of course now what's happened is from the Iranian perspective, he didn't finish the job.
Speaker A:So there's disappointment and discouragement, but it's not religion related.
Speaker A:There's a lot of secularism now and hopelessness in what Islam has done to them.
Speaker B:So that actually does open the door for the gospel quite a bit.
Speaker B:To say that if you're not super, if the mosques are emptying out, what a thing to say.
Speaker B:There's certainly an opportunity, the longing to fill the gospel shaped hole in our hearts no matter where we find ourselves in the world.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly.
Speaker A:And that's where we have to make sure that as Christians we are ready to respond as these situations are developing.
Speaker A:Because when we're the other side of what's happening now, and there is freedom in Iran, and I firmly believe we will see that in our lifetimes, then it will be a different landscape.
Speaker A:And we've seen that kind of story play out in other countries where a country went through incredible oppression and then a lot of fighting and difficulty and then freedom and the opportunity for the gospel was all the way up until that freedom was offered.
Speaker A:And once people could have whatever they wanted, suddenly there was apathy.
Speaker A:So we have to make sure that the church is ready to step in in the right moment and grab the harvest while it's there.
Speaker B:Say more about that.
Speaker B:What does that look like for some of the people listening or who might watch this video?
Speaker A:Well, I think for us as an indigenous ministry, we welcome help to help us get there.
Speaker A:You know, there's only so much that we can do in and of ourselves.
Speaker A:I think that God delights in partnership and in sharing the joy of the harvest and ensuring that God gets all the glory.
Speaker A:So we have boots on the ground, we have a network, but we need prayer support, we need advocacy, we need funds to help establish the different areas in ministry or strengthen different areas of ministry.
Speaker A:Ready to respond.
Speaker A:And then I think when together we pool our resources and get these things in place, ready to respond, then we can share in the joy of the other side.
Speaker A:So I'll give you an example.
Speaker A:We have just launched a vpn.
Speaker A:It's a Virtual private network.
Speaker A:It's a way for people to be able to to access Internet resources without scrutiny from the government.
Speaker A:Up until this point, there was a lot of mistrust in VPNs in Iran because they were either very expensive or they were not well set up.
Speaker A:They would introduce malware on people's devices or they would sell out, whether it's coercion or bribery, to the government.
Speaker A:And still the government would track what people are doing.
Speaker A:We have now set up a free VPN that all Iranians can use.
Speaker A:And we know that it's fast and it's secure and people can use it in confidence.
Speaker A:But it cost something, so we need to help to pay for it.
Speaker A:So it's that kind of thing.
Speaker A:We've done the work, done the research, we've got something set up.
Speaker A:But in order to be able to continue to offer it and have it available to everyone, then we need help to resource that kind of project.
Speaker A:And that's where partnership comes into play.
Speaker A:So we invite people to join us on that journey.
Speaker B:How interesting.
Speaker B:You've spoken about.
Speaker B:You're setting up a VPN network.
Speaker B:I heard you mentioned a TV channel, and you're doing Bible translation.
Speaker B:This is a significant ministry that's actually getting involved in people's lives.
Speaker B:Beyond aid, prayer, and resources for setting up house churches, this is the real logistics of how faith begins to spread.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly.
Speaker A:We think about our work in three pillars in evangelism, discipleship and transformation.
Speaker A:And the challenge we always give ourselves is what would define success.
Speaker A:And we have to always remind ourselves that success is not defined by the activities that we do.
Speaker A:So we do a lot of things we just put in evangelism.
Speaker A:We do a lot of digital evangelism in every possible way.
Speaker A:So social media, radio, tv, websites.
Speaker A:But we wouldn't consider it success if we would even say that all 80 million Iranians view our programs.
Speaker A:But that isn't what we're looking for.
Speaker A:We're looking for real change.
Speaker A:You know, you come from that to discipleship, where we disciple thousands of people on their journeys with Christ, we mentor and develop thousands of leaders, we plant churches.
Speaker A:There's a digital church network.
Speaker A:But would we define success by saying we have a thousand churches, we have 10,000 churches?
Speaker A:I don't know that in itself is still enough.
Speaker A:We're looking to see transformation in our country.
Speaker A:And that's where the third pillar comes in.
Speaker A:How does all of this work together to make sure that we are actually reaching all the people in all the different demographics, whether they're Literate or illiterate, whether they're children or adults, whatever their language background is, their ethnicity is.
Speaker A:Are we effectively reaching them and transforming their communities in the way that really makes sense to them and helping them connect to the message of the gospel.
Speaker B:Incredible.
Speaker B:So maybe paint a picture of what you pray things will look like over the next, I don't know, five, 10, perhaps even 50 years.
Speaker B:I think I heard you say that you expected we would see a free Iran in our lifetime.
Speaker B:Pray to God that be the case.
Speaker B:Sincerely, what does that look like?
Speaker B:What does the road look like from here?
Speaker B:For a country that's so significant in the Middle east and so significant for.
Speaker B:For Islam to come to the gospel like, wow.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly, Will.
Speaker A:And you hit it right on the head there with the significance of Iran in the Middle East.
Speaker A:Iran is a geopolitical powerhouse.
Speaker A:Excuse me, a real influence across that region.
Speaker A:And right now, an influence for evil, pain and destruction.
Speaker A:You can see the fingerprints right across the Middle east through to what Iran is doing in Israel.
Speaker A:But right across, you can see through its proxies.
Speaker A:And now Iran is working even further afield.
Speaker A:Northern Africa, its alliances with.
Speaker A:With Russia, with China.
Speaker A:They're savvy and strategic, and they have a wide sphere of influence.
Speaker A:And their intent right now is to heap destruction across the earth.
Speaker A:They want to kill the infidels.
Speaker A:They want to establish a Shiite power across the world.
Speaker A:Imagine if that same influence was turned for good.
Speaker A:And that same sort of ability to affect the events in other countries, to affect the lives of people in other countries, was now inspired by a good force.
Speaker A:Think of what Iran could do.
Speaker A:Think of how it would shift the climate, the atmosphere right across the Middle East.
Speaker A:I really believe Iran has that in her calling, and I see that in the scriptures.
Speaker A:I think about how God used the Persian kings to resource and strengthen and bless the Israelites, you know, in the rebuilding of their temple, in passing laws that would offer them protection.
Speaker A:Persian kings were good to the Israelites.
Speaker A:And I think the reason that there is such an intense spiritual battle happening over Iran is because the enemy is genuinely scared of the true destiny of Iran and is trying to distort it.
Speaker A:What the Lord plans for good, the enemy is trying to distort for evil.
Speaker A:So, you know, I expect Iran to turn around to be a positive force, to be a sending country for missionaries, to be a model of what it would look like for Christianity to bring healing across a nation that's been hurting for five decades.
Speaker B:How many Christians do you think it would take in the nation for them to begin to become a political force and to be able to speak openly about their faith and influence politics at a national level.
Speaker A:That's the million dollar question.
Speaker B:That's the question.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:I don't know that numbers are gonna be the thing that will shift it, because right now the government is heavily armed and brutal in the way that it deals with its.
Speaker A:I think you could have 10 million people, and I don't know that, you know, they are.
Speaker A:They're indiscriminate.
Speaker A:You know, they literally open fire into crowds.
Speaker A:When you're not armed and you're dealing with a government like that that isn't looking to protect its own citizens, then it's a very uneven playing field.
Speaker A:I think it will take external help to topple over this government and then for the people to rise up.
Speaker A:And I think there's a lot of will there beyond just the Christian population.
Speaker A:There are a lot of Iranians who would unite together with the Christians and want to see a difference in their country.
Speaker A:You know, there's a big movement behind the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who is galvanizing forces and trying to get people united for a post Islamic Iran.
Speaker A:And, you know, we're speaking to people like that, saying, okay, right now, your new government that's going to need representation from every race, every religion in the country.
Speaker A:And you know, by the way, don't forget that you've got multimillions of Christians in Iran that need to have their voice heard in the government.
Speaker A:So we have to wait and see.
Speaker B:So there's definitely an opportunity for people outside to support a movement that's happening inside.
Speaker B:And as I hear you talk about it, this seems very achievable and reasonable.
Speaker B:I would not have felt that maybe even as long as an hour ago, but now it's like, wow, this could actually happen.
Speaker A:Yeah, I really think honesty, I really think it could.
Speaker A:Spiritually, I sense that.
Speaker A:I think about the words that God has spoken about my father.
Speaker A:I really believe that he will get to go back to Iran.
Speaker A:And he's in his 70s, so that gives me a sense of timescale.
Speaker A:You know, I think things are intensifying to a point that they're not sustainable in their current way.
Speaker A:Life in Iran is not sustainable in its current way.
Speaker A:People are desperate, and desperate people will start to do more and more desperate things.
Speaker A:And they're also quite defiant.
Speaker A:You know, we talk about how many will it take and the way the government deals with it, but they just still persevere.
Speaker A:And just this morning, one of my colleagues sent me hundreds of Instagram videos.
Speaker A:I wasn't able to watch all of them, but he was trying to say to me, look, Lana, look how many there are of videos taken from inside Iran of Iranian young people wanting Western life, you know, socializing, parties, you know, fashion, food, music, things that I know are illegal.
Speaker A:And I kept going back to him saying, was this actually shot?
Speaker A:This is in Iran?
Speaker A:And he was saying, yeah.
Speaker A:And I'm saying to him, how is this possible?
Speaker A:Because I know this is illegal.
Speaker A:And he would say, well, they'll just come and they'll issue a fine, arrest everyone, round them up, you know, try to frighten them.
Speaker A:And then the next day it pops up again.
Speaker A:People are just that desperate for a change.
Speaker A:So, you know, things are gonna.
Speaker A:Things can't stay like this.
Speaker B:Yeah, it sounds like.
Speaker B:It sounds like there's a desire from that generation to move away from this theocratic heavy state oppression to something more liberated and a sense.
Speaker B:And that can only feed into the greater desire of the population to want to try something different, but prayerfully towards the gospel and not towards secular worldly living.
Speaker A:Yes, and that's where the church being ready is important because we've seen in history, and I don't want to get into specifics because I don't want to point fingers, but, you know, we've seen situations where this kind of regime has been toppled and whether the church just didn't really believe that their prayers would be answered or just wasn't resourced enough to be ready.
Speaker A:But it wasn't ready, and everyone else was.
Speaker A:And all of the cults and all the alternatives flood in with their pamphlets and their literature and their trained linguists.
Speaker A:And, you know, the churches are going up and the Christian church is ill prepared to respond.
Speaker A:And we mustn't allow that to be Iran's story.
Speaker A:We need to make sure that when that door opens and that window, and it will just be a finite window, is presented to us.
Speaker A:Those Bibles are translated.
Speaker A:There's the VPNs and the, you know, we have Christian AI that we've now established in Farsi.
Speaker A:All those different technological tools and resources all in place so that we can go in and say, right, we're ready now.
Speaker A:Here's the aid, here's your IT services, here's your trauma counseling, here's, you know, here's the gospel, here's the Bible in your language.
Speaker A:Let's be ready for that.
Speaker B:What an exciting.
Speaker B:What an exciting vision that would be just to be on the ground, because I know exactly what you mean about when a, when a heavy theocratic regime falls, if Christ isn't ready to step in, if the church isn't ready to step in, everything else will.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So maybe you can talk just for a moment about Christians believing in God's promises.
Speaker B:Because it's certainly one thing to read about it, it's certainly one thing to pray for it.
Speaker B:But as you see it moving in real time inside a nation, can that be used to inspire Christians faith at home?
Speaker A:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker A:And I love that question because it's so personal to me.
Speaker A:Do I, I really believe and what am I doing about it?
Speaker A:I think our actions really give us away.
Speaker A:Like, do we really believe that God is going to answer our prayers?
Speaker A:Why not little prayers like if we pray for someone to be healed or if we pray for direction for our college decision or a job opportunity.
Speaker A:Do we really believe that God wants to and can lead us in the decisions that we make, that he wants to and can heal us?
Speaker A:I know we can get into some theological space, but the mindset is important.
Speaker A:What is our expectation of God?
Speaker A:What is our expectation of his heart?
Speaker A:Does he really love us that much?
Speaker A:Does he really care enough to do something about it?
Speaker A:And just a few weeks ago, as I was praying, God actually spoke to me and he said, are you prepared for success?
Speaker A:And that's just really been my backdrop.
Speaker A:Now I'm getting ready to step into a role of greater leadership in our ministry.
Speaker A:And I'm really prayerful now thinking, okay, what does God want to do in and through me and in and through our ministry?
Speaker A:And do I really believe that he can and will do these things?
Speaker A:Because if I really believe it, then I will prepare for it.
Speaker A:You know, just, you know, if you think about our everyday lives, if we've got someone coming around for dinner, we, we have a complete expectation that person is going to come through the door and expect to be fed.
Speaker A:We might tidy up a little bit.
Speaker A:We might get ingredients in, we might cook.
Speaker A:We do things because we expect to be having someone over for a meal.
Speaker A:Well, do we expect for God to be doing the things that we're praying for?
Speaker A:And if we do, then how are we preparing for that?
Speaker B:Amazing.
Speaker B:Wait, you said you're stepping into a greater leadership role.
Speaker B:You're the CEO.
Speaker A:I'm the CEO in the US But I'm going to take over the international president and CEO role from my father.
Speaker A:I'll be taking over that role.
Speaker B:Oh, amazing.
Speaker B:He'll be.
Speaker B:What an incredible blessing to keep that in the family.
Speaker B:Family as well.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's a real honor.
Speaker A:And we talked about God not giving the whole game away at the beginning.
Speaker A:If God had told me that even five years ago, I'd have said, I think there might be someone more qualified.
Speaker A:But of course, we know scripturally that God doesn't go after the qualified.
Speaker A:He goes out of the people who are ready just to do what he says.
Speaker A:And I am ready to do what he says.
Speaker A:And I feel very humbled by the whole process.
Speaker A:But I also know that it's not about me and it's about what he can do.
Speaker A:And I'm prepared to be the vessel of very excited, praise God.
Speaker B:So maybe with the remaining time we have paint a picture of the international scale of the organization, that it's not just America, but it's far more than that.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So we are present in 19 countries and we have trusts like the equivalent of the 501C3 established in six countries, I believe in the US, the UK, Germany, Turkey, Armenia and Holland.
Speaker A:So we have areas operation in different places.
Speaker A:We have a studio in Armenia, a studio in, in Holland.
Speaker A:We partner with a studio in Finland for where we do our recording.
Speaker A:And a lot of the ministries are led.
Speaker A:Well, all the ministries are led by people outside Iran.
Speaker A:So we have trauma counseling, TV and radio and social media.
Speaker A:There's the AI work that's happening now, vpn, Bible translation.
Speaker A:So there's a lot of different operations.
Speaker A:And my focus at this point up till the end of this year has been our partnerships in the US and the work that we do in the US with the team that we have here.
Speaker A:But I'll be looking to just make sure that as a coherent body, as my father has been doing, we worked together for our joint aim of seeing Iran transformed by the love and the power of God.
Speaker A:So it's just pulling it all together and making sure that we work together.
Speaker B:Do you find that there's great international interest in this as well?
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker B:I'm coming from an American perspective.
Speaker B:Do you find that people around the world are just as enthusiastic for this transformation to happen?
Speaker A:Yes, very much so.
Speaker A:Those who are informed and want the things of the Lord very much.
Speaker A:There is a contingent in the west that we get where it's, you know, where people still live in this sort of world where Islam is fine and peaceful and we mustn't meddle.
Speaker A:And so you get that sometimes as well.
Speaker A:And you know, generally it's just not helpful to engage in that debate and you just have to let people be.
Speaker A:But there is A lot of appetite to do good for Iran.
Speaker A:There's a lot of expectancy for God to move in Iran.
Speaker A:There's a huge diaspora.
Speaker A:There's five or six million Iranians living outside Iran.
Speaker A:The majority are not Christians, but almost all of them would agree that Iran needs a change and they want to see that happen.
Speaker A:So there's excitement for what might happen in Iran post Islamic Republic.
Speaker B:And I can feel that excitement as well.
Speaker B:Again, I wouldn't have known, but you've presented everything in such high resolution with such clarity that there really does appear to be a significant historical moment that we're all, God willing, standing on the press of that could transform the politics for the region and also the world.
Speaker A:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker A:I'm glad I've been able to bring that to the front because I do believe that's God's heart and I'm excited and we're going to get to see.
Speaker A:Now the invitation is do we want a back row seat or do we want a front row seat?
Speaker A:And I would really invite people to get involved because this is exciting what's happening right now.
Speaker A:If you're thinking about, I'm not even just talking about supporting financially, but if you think about praying, really getting behind something, then I would say you will be blessed to be involved, involved in work that is happening Iran because it's vibrant and the fruit is there all the time.
Speaker A:It's very encouraging to see what God is doing.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So for the men and women that want to rush and get a front row seat to what's going on, how can they find out more about you and what you do?
Speaker A:Our website is transformiran.com we talked about the Learn section there where you can just learn about some of these things and just inform yourself on the dynamics of life in Iran.
Speaker A:Today we have a section called Impact that will share the stories, the testimonies that are coming out to encourage you in your faith.
Speaker A:We encourage people to pray first and foremost and we say let's pray informed.
Speaker A:So we send a newsletter out once a month and you can sign up to that through the website where you'll hear the testimonies and also the very practical needs that need prayer support to strengthen the ministry that's happening.
Speaker A:So as we go to launch new areas in ministry.
Speaker A:For example, we just launched the AI and the newsletter was all about that to say, right, this is happening.
Speaker A:Let's pray for the team, let's pray for the technology that God would protect it from malware.
Speaker A:Government will be constantly trying to stop that.
Speaker A:Pray that the people that it's intended for get to know about it and use it.
Speaker A:So it's good to know what's happening.
Speaker A:Then you can pray a little more accurately and then I'm sure the Lord will lead you from there on.
Speaker B:Are you also hiring?
Speaker B:Because I'd imagine there are a lot of people listening who can see various ways that they may be able to contribute with their own talents to the mission.
Speaker A:We do invite volunteer help and there's a section on the website where you can say what your skill set is and how you might want to help.
Speaker A:Some of it might be in the sort of media or IT areas.
Speaker A:There'll be opportunities.
Speaker A:We often get a lot of offers for people wanting to go and teach and preach in Iran, but we do have a really strong indigenous church there that it's good and healthy for the Iranians to hear the gospel from Iranians who have been through what they've been through and have the testimonies.
Speaker A:So hiring is a little harder, particularly because there are huge security implications and there are languages that we need people to have.
Speaker A:But volunteering is a little more possible and certainly praying and advocating, you know, I do remind people that prayer is active so, so you know, really roll your sleeves up in prayer and then follow us on social media, share, advocate.
Speaker A:Those things are hugely helpful because the Christians in Iran need their voice to be heard.
Speaker A:And still a lot of people have huge misconceptions on what it is to be an Iranian today.
Speaker B:Okay, last question.
Speaker B:Because you mentioned your, your father had a word from the Lord that he'll be returning to Iran.
Speaker B:So we started the conversation talking about the, this sort of flight.
Speaker B:What is, what, what does the rest the of return look like?
Speaker A:Well, I should clarify that was a word that I had had and I see and it was more a sensing in my spirit.
Speaker A:But I, I do feel quite confident.
Speaker A:I, I, I want that for him and I, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen.
Speaker A:But we'll all be the judge of that in the coming sort of 10 or 20 years.
Speaker A:I, I believe that I don't see my dad going back to Iran in its current state.
Speaker A:It would literally be an act of suicide.
Speaker A:We know the government has directly, you know, we know from them that they want him dead and if he was to step into the country it would be, they would make a show of him.
Speaker A:So that's not going to happen unless of course, as the years go by, God says something very specific to him and it's a different dynamic.
Speaker A:But my gut is that the situation will be different and my dad will get to go and see the fruit of years and years, decades of prayer and just, you know, blood, sweat and tears in loving this country and wanting to see a change in this country.
Speaker A:My dad was actually imprisoned twice before the Islamic Republic because he was so desperate to share the gospel.
Speaker A:And then when it was actually free and you were technically allowed to do that, the Iranian people didn't want to hear and had him arrested.
Speaker A:So he has invested in every kind of way to see a change.
Speaker A:And I know that it will be the culmination of it all for him to see it on earth.
Speaker A:I know he'll see it from heaven, but I think he'll see it from earth too.
Speaker B:What a wonderful and touching family story.
Speaker B:Story of legacy, story of father daughter bonds and story of the way God, the way that God's moving through the world and, and, and bringing the, bringing the entire earth to him.
Speaker B:Incredible.
Speaker B:Thank you so much, Lana.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Will you, Sam?
