The Islamic Republic of Iran

Welcome to a country where there’s not a whole lot of English spoken but people you meet at the traffic lights invite you home to stay. Where cold nights are warmed inside many a tea house by the glow of a ‘qalyan’ pipe. Where the church at a glance is small - the faithful prefer to meet in the seclusion of their homes - and where fuel is the right price at just over 10c a litre. What can we say, Iran has been a pleasure…

Names have been changed to protect the innocent

The Ride

The wind races across the desolate plains whipping up plumes of sand and blowing the bike around on the road. It’s starting to get pretty cold - kind of lucky we are riding two up and have each other to keep warm:) After receiving a hot tip from some German travellers we took a bit of a detour along the Persian Gulf instead of our planned route of riding straight through the middle of Iran. It was a little more balmy along the Gulf and there was some pretty spectacular riding. Picture a road, just a dirt track in places winding along a coastline with the crystal blue Persian sea on one side and sandy desert cliffs on the other. There is nothing about but a few small fishing villages littered along the Persian coastline - a place where two whities on a bike are bound to attract a bit of attention and a free lunch.

The folk here in Iran couldn’t be friendlier. We’ve barely seen the inside of a hostel or paid for a meal. People keep inviting us home and feeding us. One night we even dined and stayed as honoured guests in the local council chambers. Its been a beautiful thing as with visa cards blacklisted in Iran we’ve been travelling on the equivalent of about $250 for the month we’ve been here! The Iranian people, rather than viewing foreigners as people to be feared or treated with suspicion, treat them with the highest respect, openly welcoming complete strangers into their homes. One family we stayed with gave us a key to their house for the two days we were there so we could come and go as we please, even more amazing because they couldn’t speak a jot of English so really had no idea about us at all. It seems to be quite a contrast to the attitudes of many Australians to foreigners, particularly in the stories we’ve read of late where it seems the best you could hope for while you’re in Australia is to be ignored.

The Church of Iran

Ornate buildings and big halls lie dormant and the faded photos on the walls speak of happy congregations now past and tell the story of a church that once was. The single evangelical church in Shiraz lies safely ensconced in a 10 foot perimeter, not the most welcoming facade. But inside we found a family who opened themselves to these strangers from a foreign land coming in the name of the Lord. The father in this young family is a man with an intriguing history. In his teenage years Joseph became disillusioned with Islam, after continual prayers to Allah in Arabic he asked himself, ‘Why do I pray in a language I can hardly understand? Why not in my own language - doesn’t God know Persian? Why do I need to wash my hands and arms when I pray, shouldn’t I wash my whole body? Even then will I be clean?’ Finally he had a dream where an unknown person was asking him why did you crucify me Joseph? Joseph knew nothing of this crucifixion or who this person was, but one day in the library he found one book with a picture of Jesus crucified on the cross and he realised who the man was in the dream. ‘I had electricity’ he said. Joseph was baptised by the last official pastor at this same church and he also witnessed his murder here 20 years ago in the room next to where we were staying. He wanted to leave Iran after the revolution but he had a dream where he says God spoke to him and said that he wanted him to stay in Iran and work for him there.

The congregations we meet with on Sunday were small with government officials attending to keep an eye on things. Many people are too afraid to come in as they will be noted by the government and could face removal of their privileges as citizens. You cannot tell who these officials are, they just seem like normal members of the church, they sing and pray but they are there to ensure there are no new people attending and people aren’t been given bibles or encouraged to convert. The only indication of these operatives presence is the phone call during the week from the government to Joseph asking who was that new person at church or the police coming and taking him down to the station for interrogation and then an overnight stay in jail. He told of a lay-leader last month in another town who was killed, ‘They may be killing me, but I am ready, this is not my real home’ he says. Baptism is illegal, church programs limited and lay-leaders are watched closely and are unable to train or leave the country. Those of Muslim background face great risks if they openly declare their faith and are unable to be ordained or even meet publicly. We were instructed to talk to no-one at church in case we were inadvertantly giving information away to officials and we had to leave the church service mid-way to avoid drawing attention to local believers. Our presence here in Iran has not gone unnoticed by the powers that be.

The Church however, rather than fading is indeed flourishing in the face of these hardships. One brother commented to us that ‘the more stringent the laws against the Church get the more it seems to be growing’. Those unable to meet publicly meet in their homes. There are people coming to know the truth of the good Lord and certainly there are some brave characters here.

Sweet Little Rachel

Rachel - 7 years old - and her family came to know the the good Lord a year ago. Her old man was a pretty prominant Muslim and as conversion is illegal they can’t publicly attend the church. They meet on the quiet once a week in their home with some other believers, in a small chapel they have made in what would otherwise be a bedroom. Rachel even has her own little bell to ring when its time for the service to begin.

Blind Kourosh

The Anglican church in Esfahan was very difficult to find, it isn’t recongnised by the government anymore so it doesn’t appear on any map, any book, guide or street directory. We’d meet some young guys, who were training to be tour guides of some of the rich cultural sites of Esfahan. We enlisted them to track down our church. They couldn’t understand why such a beautiful old building wasn’t on any guide while all the mosques are well publicised. They failed to understand the subversive way the Church is ostracised. After the better part of a day we knew we were in the right area but still couldn’t find the church. A blind man with a stick came tapping his way along the path. He sensed our confusion and asked if there was a problem, we told him we were looking for St Luke’s Church and a man named Kourosh. He said ‘You are standing in front of it and that man would be me’. He may be blind but in many ways his vision exceeded ours.

Kourosh came to know the Lord when he was a young boy in a Christian blind school. His father didn’t really think there was a point in going to school and was even more disappointed in his decision to become a Christian. He told us ‘My father was not very concerned about my future, he said this is just a blind boy.’ Kourosh now pastors the church in Esfahan as well as working full time. He immediately invited us home to his home for chai, his wife, also blind looked after us well. It was pretty inspiring to chat to Kourosh about his life, faith and work, desipte his blindness and the persecution faced here he’s a brave man, keen for the spread of the gospel.

They have church on a Friday in Esfahan as that is the day off in Iran. We brought along with us to church six Muslim friends we’d met during the week and another New Zealand bloke we’d picked up in the hostel we were staying in. The service to us was typically Anglican save for the Persian only commentary but all our Muslim friends we’re amazed. None of them had ever been into a church before and all stayed after to chat with the regular members. We were very happy to be able to contribute to the service with a small talk about our trip and a challenge to the rest of the congregation. Lots of good fellowship was had here in contrast to some other churches we’d been too, Kourosh claims he doesn’t get too much trouble from anyone because ‘he’s just one blind man’ and not seen as a fellow capable of accomplishing much. He has a powerful ally, though. If the Church he leads is anything to go by, he’s being severely underestimated.

Remember the church of Iran in your prayers:
- The church leaders who are working under difficult circumstances
- That people will overcome their fears and meet together at church
- For the people who lead churches in their homes

Remember us too as we ride the snowy passes in Iran’s north and try to organise a Syrian visa.

Cheers

nb + jp