“…How are they to believe in Him of Whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14). Last week I shared how our Iranian parishioner Mohammad had witnessed to his fellow hospital patient Javad. Both were discharged last Friday. Mohammad came to church last Sunday, accompanied by Javad who even signed up for our next baptismal preparation class, praise God. Every week we are blessed by several new Iranian visitors who have been invited by parishioners to attend our Farsi-language Divine Services. Why do they come? While a few may wish to be baptized because it might facilitate their asylum process, many Iranians are truly drawn to Christianity—an anomaly among people from Muslim countries. Case in point: the German government recently surveyed immigrants from various regions regarding their religious affiliation. Of those from Syria, Iraq, and various other Muslim countries who have lived here for several years, only 2 to 4% convert to Christianity. But a whopping 67.2% of *Iranian* immigrants become Christians—even though they hail from a land that is supposedly 98.5% Muslim. Why are so many Persians intrigued by Christianity? Christianity has always had deeper roots in Persia than in other regions in the Middle East. One reason is that King Cyrus II, Persia’s “George Washington” who lived some 2,500 years ago, is mentioned no less than 19 times in the Old Testament. When people like Javad discover the “father of their country” in the Old Testament, they are blown away. They realize that there is a deep historical connection between their ancestors and God’s chosen people in both Old and New Testament. But the main reason so many Persians are drawn to Jesus Christ are His promises of the forgiveness of sins, eternal life—and His inner peace that so many of them yearn for. The Lord is using loving evangelists like our parishioner Mohammad to invite Persians to hear Christ’s words of salvation preached in Farsi in many cities across Germany. Thank you for your prayers and support for Lula and me and for our other LCMS missionaries, as the Lord uses us all to reach Persians for Christ.
The Tiews in Germany 