Encourage & Equip

A Persian gentleman by the name of Gilbert spoke at our church on Sunday about his walk with Christ. His story was very moving and I wanted to share with you all.

He was born into a Christian family as the 3rd son of a minister. Now the problem is this; Christianity was not accepted because Muslims dominated the region. He said that his father was often beaten because of his faith. the government often took his father bound and blind folded to a place where the tortured him for hours. But he never stopped ministering that Jesus is the Christ. As a child he learned that it was normal to be beaten for his faith as Jesus and the believers in the bible were also beat in the streets.

He shared that the church was often bombarded with stones and trash even while they were inside. Despite this danger he became "Minister of music" in his fathers church. Which caused him to get slapped around even more than before. One day when he was 17 his father did not return home. They thought that he was once again taken and beaten, but he did not return home in the middle of the night as he normally would. Additionally they realized that this time no one left a letter saying that he was taken to be flogged. 12 days had gone by before he was found. But this time it was worse that before. He was found stabbed to death. Someone had stabbed him 28 times and left him in a ditch.

After this account he found it hard to love his enemies anymore. His father had taught him to love his enemies no matter what they did to him. but after his fathers death he said that he became bitter with a deep hatred for all Muslims and government officials. But he never stopped loving God or ministering that Jesus is Lord. One day while he was getting ready to setup for service a little girl about 7 years old came to him and asked "did he have a father?" Instantly he got saddened, but because she was so cute he just told her, with gritted teeth "no, no I don't." The little girl turned around and walked away. but shortly after she came back and asked the same question again. This time out of anger he explained to her why he did not have a father. Afterwards she just smiled and walked away. After a short while she came back and asked again. He began to cry and she said to him "You do have a father, God is your father." Afterwards she walked away.

After service he tried to find that little girl but she was nowhere to be found. He asked everyone in the church but no one saw or knew her. He went out to other churches to try and find her but again no one had ever seen that girl before. He realized that God had sent an angle to help console him. He stopped hating Muslims and government officials and wrote a song, about God being his Father.

~In fact he sang it on Sunday after sharing his story. It is a pretty song knowing what he went through.

Now he lives in the US or as he calls it the promised land. This came about because of missionaries that went over to witness. One day after a service he was pushed into a narrow road by a guy with a knife. The guy demanded that he deny Christ otherwise he was going to stab him. He thought that this guy was just off his rocker and decided that no I'm not going to deny Christ, he said Jesus is Lord. The guy pulled the knife from his shirt and waved it around in anger. He was afraid that he was going to cut his fingers off so he balled his hands up under his shirt. (He said that since he played the piano for a living he needed his fingers). The guy stopped waving the knife around and looked him in the face and said if you don't want to end up like your dad deny your Jesus. He thought to himself that this guy is serious maybe I should just deny Jesus but not mean it, but before he could open his mouth one of missionary men came down the street. The missionary just happened to be a member of our church, he was an ex-gang member and was able to fight the guy off.

Like stated before he lives in the US and does live preaching back to Iran. The latest of his live sermons was taped at our church this past Saturday. There were over 120 people in attendance. He has an album that he is selling to help cover the cost of his ministry. They are the songs that he wrote based on his life experiences with God and his faith.