My name is Sahar; I was born and raised in Iran. I come from\nan educated and religious family, that value and perform the Islamic duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day my father came home from work, sits in the living\nroom and waits for dinner. When my mom called him, she notices that he is\nmotionless. My mom called the neighbors and friends for help, and then he was\ntaken to the hospital. All our resources available were used, but nothing has\nhappened. The doctors could not give any explanation and they did not know how\nto treat him. Therefore, my father was at home for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day, while my mom was walking outside, she met one of my\ndad\u2019s friends who didn\u2019t live in that city anymore. That friend had moved to a\ndifferent country because of being persecuted in that region for being a\nChristian. My mom told him about dad\u2019s situation, who was already in bed for 50\ndays without any movement. She also told him how the doctors could not do\nanything about it and that the only thing he had was his breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man, who had not seen my father for quite some time,\nasked in a very kind way if he could visit our home and bring a friend who was\na doctor. My mom invited him to come and that we would be anxiously expecting\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the next day, my father\u2019s friend came to visit; after\ngreeting my mom my brother and myself, he went straight to dad\u2019s room where he\nlay motionless. Mom found it strange that he came by himself as he promised to\nbring a friend who is a doctor, but she did not say anything. While in the room\nhe approached my father and powerfully prayed, crying out to the doctor of\ndoctors to touch and restore his friend\u2019s health. The room door had a gap and I\nwas 4 year-old, I stood there watching everything that was happening inside the\nroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the man finished praying, he was saying good-bye to us\nI was looking at the room and saw my father moving in the bed, I started\nshouting dad is moving. As everyone\nlooked at the bed they were astonished and went back inside the room my father\nwas regaining his normal movements. As he woke up, he asked a few questions and\na few hours later he was back to his normal life. He did not remember being\nsick. Everyone in the family was completely astonished. How was that possible?\nWhat happened? Who is this God? Where can we find this God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That man started telling us about God the creator of all\nthings, about (Isa Al-Masih) Jesus Christ, the doctor of doctors, the Lord of\nLords and the Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We looked for a Bible in our city but there were no Bibles\nin our language. Bibles were prohibited in our country. So, my dad\u2019s friend\nlived in Lebanon and gave us a Bible in Arabic. We did not speak Arabic, then\nmy father started learning Arabic because he was thirsty to learn about the God\nof the Bible, the God who healed him. He studied and learned Arabic, started\nstudying his own Bible. For we studied the Bible secretly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As my brother was reading the stories of the creation and\nthe liberation of the people of Israel and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross,\nhe was amazed with the promises and the peace that were found in the Bible. He\nwanted to share his new faith, belief and his new understanding of spiritual\nthings his friends. But, we were told not to do so, for it is so dangerous to\nshare our new faith with others, we need to keep it secret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day he lost his fear and then decided to talk to his\nfriends, he told them that we studied the Bible and that they had met another\nGod, a God who had created all things, a God of love who cared about their\nproblems, a wonderful God, a merciful God. But, some of the friends told the\nparents, and a case was presented to the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The police came to the house looking for my brother and the\nBible, my mother was cooking at that\ntime, when she saw the police coming, she took the Bible and put it in the\noven, so she protected our lives, for if they had found evidence that we were\nChristians all would have been killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My brother at the age of 16 was taken to a place the family\ndoes not know where for 3 months he was tortured. He came back home without his\nteeth and without memory after so many electric shocks he suffered in prison.\nHe came back with traumas and flashbacks just for having revealed to his\nfriends that he knew God the Father and Jesus his Savior. All the persecution\nand suffering, because he shared his faith with those friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We couldn\u2019t find any help in the country, so some people\nadvised us to send him for treatment in Europe, this what happened, and we got\nnews that he died few months later. We believed that despite all the pain and\nall the suffering, there is a loving Father who is taking care of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our family had to live far away from the rest of the family\nbecause now that they were Christians, the family promised to kill them for\nbetraying Islam and they had to leave to about 1300 km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During my high school time and as a teenager I had many\nquestions, once in school I questioned something about the Qur\u2019an, a part that\nI didn\u2019t think was right. I was immediately warned by my teacher that the\nQur\u2019an should never be questioned. After few months I again questioned\nsomething in the Qur\u2019an. The teacher immediately called the police and asks\nthem to take me. They took me to a secret place, where I found myself inside a\nvery dark room without any windows. I remembers with a lot of pain how every\nday a bad man would come in the room, cursed, insulted and tortured me. One day\nthey shaved my hair. This is one of the most humiliating things in my country\nfor the hair is the woman\u2019s honor and a hairless woman is excluded from\nsociety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a different day they pulled my fingernail, more\nhumiliation and more suffering, but during all that I only trusted God, I asked\nHim to give me comfort and faith, to fill my heart with the blessed hope, so I could\nendure such humiliation and such physical pain, I trusted God and He protected\nmy life, I stood faithful to my God and Savior Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My family paid a very expensive bail to release me. When I returned home, the police take my passport and stamp it, which means I can no longer study and work. The only solution my family saw is to leave the country, I ended up traveling by bus to a far away country. I didn\u2019t know where to go, whom I will meet, but I know there is a Heavenly Father who takes care of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that country, I had a very hard time I had no money, I asked help, no one wanted to help, then I remembered a pastor on the TV who lives there, I had his phone number, I called him and told him my story, he asked me to go to a special place. While living there, I met with some believers and we used to study the Bible together. The war broke there, so I needed to leave the country, I did not know where to go. God has open the way for me to travel outside the Middle East, I want to praise God, I got baptized that day I will never forget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I am a student, studying theology. I want to share the Good News with my people, so they will know my Lord and Savior Isa Al-Masih. To follow Isa Al-Masih is to participate in His sufferings. Yet, the blood He shed for me is worth infinitely more than anything I can do for Him today. And one day, when Jesus returns, my brother and I will get new bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is Sahar; I was born and raised in Iran. I come from an educated and religious family, that value and perform the Islamic duties. One day my father came home from work, sits in the living room and waits for dinner. When my mom called him, she notices that he is motionless. My mom called the neighbors and friends for help, and then he was taken to the hospital. All our resources available were used, but nothing has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n