We spoke with Edwin Keshish-Abnous, executive director of Heart4Iran, a ministry spreading the Gospel in Iran through Christian programming and Bible distribution.

He says, “Even though the protest has quieted down, the people are still chanting out of their rooftops…and recently, the students have started protesting on their campuses and in the major cities.”

(Photo courtesy Heart4Iran)

Meanwhile, grief continues to hang like a cloud over Iran as families mourn the loss of loved ones killed since the protests erupted on December 28. In Iranian tradition, you mark the 40th day of someone’s death, and many of those commemorations took place this week.

According to Keshish-Abnous, the killing of protestors hasn’t stopped. “One crazy story that happened recently was a 13-year-old boy. He was injured [and] in the hospital. His brother goes over there to take care of him in the hospital; they come kill both that teenager and also the brother…. Later on, [the father] comes to collect the bodies, and they kill the father. So almost every family is affected somehow by losing someone.”

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince, Reza Pahlavi, has garnered support from many Iranians, but it hasn’t been enough so far to enact regime change.

From Keshish-Abnous’s perspective, “There is one major element that is necessary for revolution – defection from inside the government. If that does not happen…there’s a good chance that [revolution] won’t happen until there is a military and outside foreign intervention.”

Amid the conflict and fog of blocked communications, Christians and other minorities are under particular pressure.

(Photo, caption courtesy of Heart4Iran)

“We need to pay attention to the Christians inside the country because not only are they going through the same pain and the challenges and persecution, but also they add to that their faith because they are easily targeted,” says Keshish-Abnous. “The Iranian government has a perfect opportunity and excuse to label them as a enemy of the state and put them in jail. That happens regularly. We have lost some Christians during this latest revolution.

“But even though we’re afraid and worried about them, the reality is they’re continuing their mission.”

Heart4Iran knows of new Iranian believers getting baptized even in the last few weeks. God is still moving.

Keshish-Abnous asks for prayers “for the Church to stay strong – because when the challenges come, when the problems arise, the Church is the one entity that is sacrificial to step forward and help the rest of the world. That is where our humanitarian efforts, our charities, and love that we have towards other people will set us aside from the rest of the faiths, and will show and prove to them that Christianity is about love.”

Also, he asks, “Pray that this can be negotiated or something happens within the country…. And also, I want to pray for the economy not to be affected more than it is affected now, because at the end, the regular population [is] being affected and their livelihood is in danger. They’re really struggling to have a regular, safe life.”

Learn more about Heart4Iran’s critical ministry here.

Header photo: Iranian protest in Canada. (Photo courtesy of Sima Ghaffarzadeh via Pexels)

This week, Iranian security forces have arrested at least four members of Iran’s reformist movement. This movement seeks to change the regime from the inside out. A January statement from this group called for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to resign and a transitional government to step in.

The most recent protests in Iran began in Tehran on December 28, 2025 as shopkeepers protested the plummeting value of the Iranian rial. (Stock photo courtesy of Ashkan Forouzani via Unsplash)

“We still can’t say definitively whether [regime change] will happen or not, but there is a resolve inside of the Iranian people that we have not seen in these last 45 years,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says.

Yet the human cost has been high. Eleven days after protests began on December 28, 2025 over economic issues, the government shut down the internet and employed lethal force against demonstrators. The severity has only deepened since then.

“We’re hearing the numbers are so underreported — not people who are just being imprisoned or taken into custody, but people who are being killed, [it] is so underreported,” says Kelley.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Group has verified 6,961 people killed in Iran and is investigating over 11,700 more reports. Others believe that tens of thousands of Iranians may have lost their lives.

The spiritual side

The political and physical realities that Iranians face influence their spiritual realities, too. “The [Iranian] people are searching for truth,” says Kelley. “They’re searching for hope, and that’s what makes Jesus and the gospel so appealing right now.”

You can stand for Iranians by praying that they discover the good news of Christ amid the chaos of today. Consider partnering with Unknown Nations to strengthen believers. Pray for the future of the Iranian church.

“People need to be praying that the Lord would raise up leaders. That’s what we do at Unknown Nations. We train Persian leaders outside of the country of Iran, because doing things inside of Iran is almost impossible,” says Kelley. “As soon as there’s regime change, there’s going to be an enormous wave of Christian leaders who are Persian speakers moving into that country.”

Header photo: Tafresh, Markazi Province, Iran (Photo courtesy of Mostafa Meraji via Unsplash)

The Islamic Republic of Iran will always be against Israel and America, Christianity and Judaism, among other things. It’s embedded in the regime’s worldview. 

“I think that the regime, as it weakens — which there’s no denying that it’s weakening — that it will all the furthermore lunge out and attack anything that is in opposition to it,” says Kelley.

That puts Iranian Christians in the crosshairs. Unknown Nations partners in Iran requested immediate relocation for up to 500 leaders and their families. Kelley says it’s short-term protection in order to prepare for long-term gospel witness in Iran. 

These Christians “love the Iranian people with a passion,” says Kelley. “[They] aren’t interested in leaving the country of Iran, but they need to be relocated into places where it’s a little more stable, so that they can continue to grow and their ministry can continue.”

Azadi Square, Tehran, Iran (Stock photo courtesy of Erfan Ro via Unsplash)

Unknown Nations trains Christians like these with the future in mind.

“Iranians are looking at the religion of Islam through a new lens today, and there’s an openness because of that to the gospel. The Body of Christ needs to recognize that and lean in. For Unknown Nations, it looks like equipping leaders, the diaspora of the Iranian people — and that involves people groups like the Persian people, who live not only in Iran, but in neighboring countries.”

Kelley calls this leadership training a critical strategy, “all the more so now, because the day is coming [when] Iran will be open, and… that void of leadership is going to be a critical time — whether it lasts for a week, a month, a year, two years — for the Body of Christ to really lean in and pour into [gospel advance in Iran].”

Please pray

Kelly invites you to keep Iran regularly into your prayers. “And not just Iran as a country, but recognizing there [are] 94 nations or people groups inside the country of Iran. Jesus called us to pray for the nations, not a [geopolitical] country like Iran, but the nations.” 

Visit Joshua Project and start with the Persian people or with the Western Baloch. 

Then zoom in and pray for the strategic relocation process for the 500 believers and families Unknown Nations is working with. (Watch a special video directly from Greg Kelley to learn how you can be part of this mission.)

Please pray for the gospel ministry of Christians to increase in Iran. But don’t make “safety” the focus of your prayers. 

“They would ask rather that you pray that they would be bold. Pray they would be courageous,” says Kelley. “Pray that they would have discernment in the face of adversity.”

Header image: People on the Withe Bridge of Ahvaz. (Photo courtesy of Ashkan Forouzani via Unsplash)

The demands come as nationwide protests in Iran turn violent. State media reports dozens of arrests, and at least five have died. Demonstrations began earlier this month when the government ended subsidies for wheat and flour; food costs skyrocketed as much as 300 percent.

“I’m happy to see that some people are expressing their opinion over price hikes, but you never know; what will this lead to?” Fadi Shariha of the MENA Leadership Center says.

Similar rallies over fuel price hikes brought Iranians to the streets in 2019. The government’s crackdown turned them into the deadliest protests since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979.

Organizing a coup under this regime is easier said than done. “Iran is under extremely high [security] in terms of different armies that they have. You have secret police watching over the police and over the army. It’s very complicated,” Shariha says.

Perceived losses in proxy wars and high geopolitical pressure mean Iran’s leaders are likely to look for a scapegoat. “In the MENA, nothing happens in isolation,” Shariha says.

“What is happening between Russia and Ukraine and the impact on Syria; and, last week with the election in Lebanon [when] the whole coalition of Hezbollah and other parties lost. The impact is great.”

Ask the Lord to protect His secret followers in Iran.

“Please pray for the Church in Iran. Pray that they will have wisdom [regarding] how to navigate around this” situation, Shariha says.

Header image is a representative stock photo from Pixabay.