24
Carelinks | Germany
B
ro Steve Gretton reports on a recent visit
to Germany: “‘Please do not take our
photo.’ This Iranian couple are now living in
Belgium in a quiet safe town, well away from
the troubled centres of unrest in Brussels, yet
they have a realistic fear that if news of their
conversion to Christ were to leak out, then
they are in real danger of death or injury.
Shapour and his wife Azam are grandparents
who have left Iran about 12 months ago to
help their son look after their young grand-
daughter.
Their son’s friend, Farsio, was baptised with
his wife when Duncan and I went there four
years ago and it was Farsio and his wife,
Raheleh, who provided beds and excellent
Iranian food for us.
Shapour and Azam had
grasped the opportu-
nity to obtain Bibles
and started a thorough
study of the Bible and
worked through Bible
Basics. They have spent
hours every day since
then reading and
studying and their
many thick note books
are filled with their
thoughts and discoveries. Rarely do you meet
such dedicated students of the Word.
Andy Taylor and I visited them after they
requested baptism, but rather than seeing if
they understood the truth, we were
confronted with many questions! Whenever
we brought up any subject, they knew the
answers and could quote stories from the
Bible in great detail. Nothing took them by
surprise. Farsio emphasised the thought that
they were all unfamiliar with the idea of
religion not being used to enhance one’s
economic welfare or power. They had been
listening to the recorded material on the
Carelinks site in Farsi language.
And so with delight they were baptised into
Christ in their son’s house, a fun-loving man
who became increasingly more serious and
engaged in the conversations that were
flowing around him. And it was he who
prepared the bread and the wine for our cele-
bration at the Lord’s table. There is no doubt
that the Lord reaches out to affect those who
are giving their lives to him. Such people
regularly speak of a great sense of calm and
happiness filling them at the time of their
baptism and we have often seen that the Lord
is very active in their lives after baptism in
ways which they themselves admit takes them
by surprise.
Within their political system in Iran, the
phrase ‘giving your life to the Lord’ has a
much more literal significance, but so also the
promise of our Lord Jesus, “I will come to
you.” But the day
before the baptisms,
we met another son
and his wife on the last
day of their holiday
from Iran. The wife
was distant and cool
towards us. She wore a
typical Moslem head
covering and would not
shake our hands. We
assumed she was a
quiet submissive wife.
But at one point she suddenly asked in excel-
lent English what exactly Christianity was.
I introduced her to Jesus, describing his life,
his actions, his words, his attitudes, his death
and the evidence for his resurrection, and why
I concluded that he was truly God’s son. It was
as if a light had come on in her mind! She was
deeply attentive and became increasingly
animated. The conversation of the whole
group gradually centred on our discussion.
As she left I offered her a Bible. Not surpris-
ingly she declined - but not because she was
Muslim - which might have been expected -
but simply because it was too dangerous to
have one in Iran, which is understandable. But
I felt able to say to her that if when she came
to Belgium next time she wished to be
baptised then we would make the arrange-
ments. She smiled but said she had her own