Missionary to Iran

11/14/12        Hamed,    about 24

Today I was a missionary to the people of Iran! No, I didn’t travel there, but I ran into a young Iranian man named Hamed who is here in Chicago as an international college student. And what he told me was exciting news about his generation of Iranian young people. He said that many like himself are turning away from the Islam they were raised in and searching for meaning elsewhere. They partic

ularly detest the Iranian President and the Ayatollah who are forcing their Islamic agenda on the people. Many like Hamed are experimenting with Zoroastrianism, which is seen as the original religion of the ancient Persian Empire that most Iranians are descended from and thought to be the rightful religion that Islam forcibly replaced. Although he is looking to this new religion for answers, I felt like Hamed was very open to talking about all religions and we had an extended conversation about the Gospel as a result. This has been true of three other Iranian students I have talked to recently, and I have gained a very different and much more positive perspective of the Iranian people than the impression I have been receiving about Iran in the news. I believe we need to see the large number of international students at our universities as an incredible opportunity for world evangelistic outreach. And maybe we need to stop praying against Iran as our enemy and pray for its people as possible brothers and sister in Christ.