Iranian Christians Say Things Are Changing

Michael Ireland, ASSIST News Service:

Thousands of Christians have responded to a plea from the Iranian Church to join them in praying for Iran, and now believers in every continent and in dozens of countries have joined a 40-day prayer and fasting campaign for Iran. READ MORE

Iranian Christians are very thankful for the response and church leaders have posted the following joint statement on the ‘Pray for Iran’ website: "We cannot express how deeply encouraged and thankful Iranian Christians are that so many are standing with us in prayer. We believe the Lord will hear the cries of His people, so we urge everyone to carry on praying and spreading the word about this prayer effort. Let’s see millions pray for Iran and let us witness together how God can transform a nation," according to a media release put out by Sam Yeghnazar, Executive Director, Elam Ministries, www.elam.com.

Yeghnazar says :"The need to intercede for Iran at this critical time has struck a chord with many Christians across the world and the campaign has snowballed far beyond initial expectations. Thanks to volunteers across the world, the ‘Pray for Iran’ website (www.prayforiran.com) is now in nine languages and it is estimated that several hundred thousand believers will pray for Iran as a result of the campaign."

He adds: "A noteworthy development regarding Iran over the last several days has been the apparent recent softening in the nuclear stand off.

"Interestingly," he says, "the topic for prayer on May 30 was the nuclear issue, and on May 31 the United States opened the door for possible direct diplomatic talks with Iran for the first time in over 25 years and Iran has responded fairly positively to a new proposal to re-open negotiations. Whether or not this is a direct answer to prayer or not, time will tell. However, it does provide added motivation to continue asking the Lord to intervene. "

Yeghnazar says the Iranian church believes the nation could be on the edge of a radical spiritual transformation and with three weeks of the campaign left, there is still plenty of time for many more to join the prayer effort.

He continued: "The prayer campaign is focused on three main areas: for the persecuted Church in Iran; for revival in Iran; and for God to intervene in the political situation. Daily prayer requests are posted on the ‘Pray for Iran’ website, and individuals can choose to subscribe and receive the prayer requests each day by email. Each day there is a very popular slide show with images from Iran accompanied by Persian worship music to help people pray for Iran."

The heartfelt plea from more than 120 Iranian church leaders was issued in May to the global church to pray for Iran. A special website was set up in just ten days, and the prayer effort was launched on May 25 2006, Ascension Day.

For more information or to join the campaign please go to www.prayforiran.com.

Please pass this story on to you friends and church contacts so that more people will pray. If you can, Please put a link to www.prayforiran.com on your church or ministry website.

Further information: Sam Yeghnazar, Executive Director, Elam Ministries, www.elam.com