here is a recent testimony we would like to share with you (written by our Iranian teammate Nader)...
It was Tuesday morning at the Athens Refugee Center when "A", the Kurdish man showed up looking for someone who can speak with him in Farsi. He said he was a member of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Iraq for 4 years (where they taught them to fight with gun for freedom).
"I had no interest for religion and God but my interest was for a new gun and new tactics for fighting," he said. It took 15 days for him to come to Athens through the smugglers who he paid 4,000 Euros. He stayed with other Kurdish people in Athens.
One night he saw a dream. In his dream somebody was calling him. He looked up and saw writing in the sky he couldn't read. He heard again the voice calling him, saying, "Come to Me". He woke up crying and shaking. He told the other Kurdish guys about his dream, hoping they could help him understand. They told him to go to the religious people and ask them about his dream, and they directed him to our ministry center.
He came and told about his dream. I was listening to his entire story and I said, "I don't know what it means, but I knew God is calling you to come to Him." I talked about God and told him that for many years he fought for freedom and peace that he never received; today maybe is the time for you to receive it through Jesus...not by guns, but by faith in Him. I told him several verses in the Bible and he listened attentively.
He took my hand and started to cry. He didn't care about all the hundreds of people around us even though I tried to stop him. I gave him a Bible to read alone for himself and come back to ask any questions he had. When I was ready to leave him alone, he took my hand again and he said, "If I read the Bible and want to receive Him, what shall I do?" I said, "Just open your heart and let Him come into your life. He said, "Can we do that now?"
So we prayed and he invited Christ into his life! I was so happy and grateful to God to bring him to Himself. I was happy to see what God is doing in the heart of people. Then we prayed together. Pray for "A" and other like him who come to know the Lord. And thank you for all your prayers for every soul for salvation. May God bless you for being part of what God is doing in the Refugee Ministry here in Athens.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Earthquake Loss and Eternal Gain
In our last email we mentioned about the young Afghan man who raised his hand and came forward to receive Jesus without fear from people. He is an amazing guy. His name is "M," 23 years of age. I was amazed with his story every time he spoke to me. It seems like he is very spiritual boy.
"M" Testimony: My father was always telling me to pray. Early in the morning, it became my habit to go out of the house to clean myself before praying by washing my face, hands and feet. One Friday morning, I came out to wash myself for prayer. When I was just ready to open the faucet, the earthquake came. Everything I could see was shaking. I could not move where I was standing. I trembled with fear. I saw everything was falling down and I saw the earth was opened and all houses came down and were swallowed by the earth. Everything came down, with not one stone above another. All was dust on the surface. I cried and cried and tried to dig the earth to find my family inside. But I lost them. I could not find them. I never saw anybody survive in the place where I lived. I was all alone and helpless. I just cried and cried like crazy.
I asked him, "Where did it happen? M... said "It happened in Bam. Many countries came to help us. They dug the earth and also found my family's bodies. They showed me their pictures. They buried all the dead together. I lost my family and relatives in the Bam earthquake.
I went to Afghanistan. Some of my relatives lived there. They thought I was crazy and thought it was better for me to have a wife. But this did not solve my problem. I wanted to find my life. I came back to Bam and it looked so different. Many new houses and buildings were constructed.
So I decided to leave and I came to Athens." "When I came to Athens, the first thing that touched me was the cross on top of the Greek Church. There was a strange feeling for me. I became interested about it to know Christianity. I came to the Persian Fellowship two times and did not come back again.
Then I had a dream about the Lord, and came back to this place and asked for a Bible, but my two uncles strictly forbade me from coming to this Fellowship again. But my uncles were not able to stop my heart's desire to know about Christianity. For two years I have been reading that Bible you gave me. I came to know Jesus through the Bible. Last Monday, I saw that dream again. In that same dream a man told me that I must be born again. For three days I tried to find you but I could not."
And I asked him, "What will happen if your two uncles find out that you became a believer in Jesus?" M... answered me (speaking of the Judgment Day), "In that day, my uncles cannot save me." "In the place where I live with some friends and two uncles when they saw me reading the Bible, they spoke badly to me, but what pains me is when they speak bad words about Jesus. So, I stopped reading the Bible and waited for them to sleep. When they were sleeping I woke up and read the Bible with the small flashlight."
I showed him a postal envelope that we had received just this past week at Helping Hands. It had his name on the return address. Inside was an evangelistic booklet with the boxes checked about wanting more information and wanting to accept Jesus.
M... said, "I sent it to the address I found on the evangelistic booklet a month ago. I found that booklet from a friend's house and sent it back with the answers. I was touched with his situation and asked my friend to give him a space to stay with him. Pray for this young Afghan man named "M"... for his growth and that God would keep him for Himself.
"M" Testimony: My father was always telling me to pray. Early in the morning, it became my habit to go out of the house to clean myself before praying by washing my face, hands and feet. One Friday morning, I came out to wash myself for prayer. When I was just ready to open the faucet, the earthquake came. Everything I could see was shaking. I could not move where I was standing. I trembled with fear. I saw everything was falling down and I saw the earth was opened and all houses came down and were swallowed by the earth. Everything came down, with not one stone above another. All was dust on the surface. I cried and cried and tried to dig the earth to find my family inside. But I lost them. I could not find them. I never saw anybody survive in the place where I lived. I was all alone and helpless. I just cried and cried like crazy.
I asked him, "Where did it happen? M... said "It happened in Bam. Many countries came to help us. They dug the earth and also found my family's bodies. They showed me their pictures. They buried all the dead together. I lost my family and relatives in the Bam earthquake.
I went to Afghanistan. Some of my relatives lived there. They thought I was crazy and thought it was better for me to have a wife. But this did not solve my problem. I wanted to find my life. I came back to Bam and it looked so different. Many new houses and buildings were constructed.
So I decided to leave and I came to Athens." "When I came to Athens, the first thing that touched me was the cross on top of the Greek Church. There was a strange feeling for me. I became interested about it to know Christianity. I came to the Persian Fellowship two times and did not come back again.
Then I had a dream about the Lord, and came back to this place and asked for a Bible, but my two uncles strictly forbade me from coming to this Fellowship again. But my uncles were not able to stop my heart's desire to know about Christianity. For two years I have been reading that Bible you gave me. I came to know Jesus through the Bible. Last Monday, I saw that dream again. In that same dream a man told me that I must be born again. For three days I tried to find you but I could not."
And I asked him, "What will happen if your two uncles find out that you became a believer in Jesus?" M... answered me (speaking of the Judgment Day), "In that day, my uncles cannot save me." "In the place where I live with some friends and two uncles when they saw me reading the Bible, they spoke badly to me, but what pains me is when they speak bad words about Jesus. So, I stopped reading the Bible and waited for them to sleep. When they were sleeping I woke up and read the Bible with the small flashlight."
I showed him a postal envelope that we had received just this past week at Helping Hands. It had his name on the return address. Inside was an evangelistic booklet with the boxes checked about wanting more information and wanting to accept Jesus.
M... said, "I sent it to the address I found on the evangelistic booklet a month ago. I found that booklet from a friend's house and sent it back with the answers. I was touched with his situation and asked my friend to give him a space to stay with him. Pray for this young Afghan man named "M"... for his growth and that God would keep him for Himself.
Gregor's Story
Gregor was a 24 year-old artist from Albania. Although open to spiritual matters during initial contact with International Teams missionaries, his English was severely limited (and our Albanian was non-existent). After viewing the "Jesus" video in his mother tongue, it was obvious that he was very moved. When asked his opinion about it he said that as a movie it was not so special but as he watched it he began to think, "What if these things about Jesus are true? What if He is really like this?" He said that there was like a battle going on between his head and his heart, and at the end of the film he had prayed the "sinner's prayer" and asked Jesus into his heart.
Although he had prayed the "sinner's prayer" on that day, it was really about a week later when during a follow-up visit that the message of the Gospel was clearly understood by Gregor. It was as if a light had clicked on. From that day, Gregor had an insatiable hunger for God's Word, a passionate desire to do God's will, and a consuming burden for the lost. Although meek and mild-mannered in his personality, Gregor has been gifted by the Holy Spirit with the gift of evangelism and has been instrumental in leading many other Albanians to the Lord.
While Gregor was still in Athens he led to the Lord his parents, a cousin, and half a dozen friends IN ALBANIA through correspondence with them. As a result they started a home fellowship in Shkoder, through which others came to the Lord. In Athens, Gregor led (or helped lead) several Albanians to the Lord, including his sister, brother-in-law, and his Muslim room-mate. Gregor's English quickly and dramatically improved. He spent large quantities of time in prayer, discipleship studies, and evangelism training.
Before he had come to Christ it had always been his dream to leave Albania and try to get to America where he would be free to express his artistic gifts. However, now he began to sense that God was calling him to return as a witness to his fellow countrymen.
In October 1992, Gregor returned to his home city, certain of God's calling on his life but unclear about how to implement it. He later entered a YWAM DTS (in cooperation with Frontiers) in Tirana that had a special emphasis on church-planting in Albania. A team was formed and an outreach in Shkoder resulted in a church plant that continues to grow in impact until this day. They have been active in evangelistic outreach to remote mountain villages in Albania as well as their own city. They were active during the Kosovar refugee crisis (at the request of the government and in cooperation with a few other churches) in running a transit center for 3,000 refugees a day, and developing an outreach program to them out of their church. They have been active in both evangelistic and discipleship ministry in Kosovo.
Some time after Gregor's parents came to the Lord they entered a YWAM DTS and were both used to lead people to the Lord and help plant the first church ever in a mountain city of 15,000 previously unreached for Christ. One of the young men they led to Christ became a part of that church plant and later joined Campus Crusade for Christ where he not only actively shared his faith with others but was very active in ministry around the country training others to share their faith as well. Now he works for World Vision.
Gregor and his wife Kela, with their two young boys, moved to Kosovo in January 2004 to begin a church-planting ministry there. They currently (as of 2009) have 3 boys and are on a team with other missionaries in the area, and are all working in unity to bring Kosovars to Jesus.
Although he had prayed the "sinner's prayer" on that day, it was really about a week later when during a follow-up visit that the message of the Gospel was clearly understood by Gregor. It was as if a light had clicked on. From that day, Gregor had an insatiable hunger for God's Word, a passionate desire to do God's will, and a consuming burden for the lost. Although meek and mild-mannered in his personality, Gregor has been gifted by the Holy Spirit with the gift of evangelism and has been instrumental in leading many other Albanians to the Lord.
While Gregor was still in Athens he led to the Lord his parents, a cousin, and half a dozen friends IN ALBANIA through correspondence with them. As a result they started a home fellowship in Shkoder, through which others came to the Lord. In Athens, Gregor led (or helped lead) several Albanians to the Lord, including his sister, brother-in-law, and his Muslim room-mate. Gregor's English quickly and dramatically improved. He spent large quantities of time in prayer, discipleship studies, and evangelism training.
Before he had come to Christ it had always been his dream to leave Albania and try to get to America where he would be free to express his artistic gifts. However, now he began to sense that God was calling him to return as a witness to his fellow countrymen.
In October 1992, Gregor returned to his home city, certain of God's calling on his life but unclear about how to implement it. He later entered a YWAM DTS (in cooperation with Frontiers) in Tirana that had a special emphasis on church-planting in Albania. A team was formed and an outreach in Shkoder resulted in a church plant that continues to grow in impact until this day. They have been active in evangelistic outreach to remote mountain villages in Albania as well as their own city. They were active during the Kosovar refugee crisis (at the request of the government and in cooperation with a few other churches) in running a transit center for 3,000 refugees a day, and developing an outreach program to them out of their church. They have been active in both evangelistic and discipleship ministry in Kosovo.
Some time after Gregor's parents came to the Lord they entered a YWAM DTS and were both used to lead people to the Lord and help plant the first church ever in a mountain city of 15,000 previously unreached for Christ. One of the young men they led to Christ became a part of that church plant and later joined Campus Crusade for Christ where he not only actively shared his faith with others but was very active in ministry around the country training others to share their faith as well. Now he works for World Vision.
Gregor and his wife Kela, with their two young boys, moved to Kosovo in January 2004 to begin a church-planting ministry there. They currently (as of 2009) have 3 boys and are on a team with other missionaries in the area, and are all working in unity to bring Kosovars to Jesus.
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