“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Cor 12:12). The big news this past month was a strategic gathering in Berlin to kick of the start of The Persian Project, about which I have been writing in my weekly reports. In a nutshell, our goal—God willing—is to “Make Persia Christian” through what we are calling “The Persian Project.” This is a distinctly Lutheran evangelistic outreach to Persian (that is, Iranian and Afghan) immigrants in Germany, other European countries, and indirectly the citizens of Iran itself, which includes baptizing, teaching, making disciples, forming lay leaders, professional church workers (pastors, deaconesses), and planting churches in European cities with large Persian immigrant populations. Why are we doing this? Because we cannot send missionaries to Iran under the current regime. But at the same time, evangelistic work with Persian expatriates in Europe is a “low-hanging fruit” because so many Persians are coming to us, requesting to be baptized and taught about Christianity. In addition, if there is ever a regime change in Iran and the country opens itself to non-Muslim religions (beyond Armenian Christianity, which is allowed only for ethnic Armenians), there will be huge mission opportunities in that country. Evangelizing expatriate Persians makes the best use of your mission gifts since this demographic is very open to the Gospel. As such, in the four SELK churches doing the most Persian ministry in Germany (Hamburg, Wolfsburg, Leipzig, Berlin), SELK pastors and Finnish and LCMS missionaries perform well over 100 Baptisms every year. Thank you again for all your prayers and support as we take our outreach to Persian immigrants in Germany and beyond to a new level—in The Persian Project! We are all different parts of Christ’s body, and He is using us all to His glory—to “Make Persia Christian!”
The Tiews in Germany 