Iran (MNN) — “Who would you want to follow?”
A Muslim man once asked Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries this question. They were traveling together in Tehran years ago. The two men had just exchanged the facts that Doyle was a Christian and his guide was a Muslim.
“I think all of the young people in Iran are going to convert to Christianity,” the man said.
“What? Why would you say that?” Doyle replied.
“Well, who would you want to follow? Jesus, who talks about love and joy and helping people and sacrificing ourselves for others? Who would you want to follow? Him? Or that guy?”
They were near Palestine Square, and the man pointed up to a multi-story mural of Iran’s Ayatollah.
Today, Doyle says, “I hope [we] won’t just fall into group think: ‘Iran is this horrible enemy’…. Never before have they been more open to Jesus.”
Nuclear tensions continue
For people in Iran today, life under their leaders continues on shaky footing. Iran is still at cross purposes with other powers that be. On Wednesday, the regime suspended cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. Surveillance cameras have already been removed from its nuclear facilities, the report says.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (Photo courtesy of Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150832367)
Iran also rejected a U.S. invitation to immediately resume diplomatic conversations about its nuclear program. It might be just a pause, though; Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS News through a translator, “The doors of diplomacy will never slam shut.”
Whatever happens next in these conversations, the everyday people will pay the price. For many it will be through the struggle for daily existence; for others, through deep anxiety. Others will lose their lives. Some 935 people were killed in Iran during the 12-day Israel-Iran war, many of them civilians.
Yes, leadership matters. You’ve probably heard that many Iranians want a change in their government. Doyle affirms that Christians in Iran are among them.
“Obviously, they don’t want their country to go through destruction or loss of innocent lives at all, but this is something they have been praying for for decades, that this fanatical leadership would be removed,” he says.
At the same time, Christians following God have different marching orders. “Our goal is for every human life to hear the gospel and to come into a saving relationship with Jesus,” says Doyle.
Find your place in the story. If you’re a Christian, consider how good it is that God leads His people and the world perfectly. Please pray along with Uncharted Ministries that more Iranians find Christ, even in today’s chaos.
Header photo: Tafresh, Markazi Province, Iran (Photo courtesy of Mostafa Meraji via Unsplash)
