Iran (MNN) — Gospel workers in Iran started noticing a trend after COVID-19 hit the country: people reported coming to Christ in 10 times the numbers they had before the pandemic.
The founders of Iran Alive Ministries reported this to JoAnn Doyle of Uncharted Ministries, who says, “We had a conversation with them. And they said, ‘You know, we translate many preaching programs from women into Farsi so that [Iranian women] can watch them [in their own languages]. But we don’t have a program that’s actually written for the Farsi or the Persian woman. Would you be interested in creating that?’ So that’s how the whole thing came to be.”
The show, called Flourish, reaches out to Iranian women who live in an increasingly post-Islamic context. Doyle says, “What we see on the news is so totally different than what’s really happening on the ground. Most of the women are post-Islamic. They’re in this country that just is so oppressive, especially to women. But the general population is just rejecting Islam.”
The vacuum left by Islam
The rejection of Islam has led many Iranians to Christ, though atheism and other religions have grown as well. Doyle says, “These women are very open. They’re looking. Those that are coming to faith in Christ, the majority of them are women. Women are leading the way, not only in salvation but also in discipleship and leadership.”
Flourish is intended to reach all kinds of women in Iran, whether abused and oppressed or finding more and more freedom.
“Many of them don’t know Jesus. They just know that they hate Islam.”
Pray the good news of Jesus would continue reaching many women in Iran and the surrounding countries. Jesus revolutionized the standing of women in society, and this is a message Iran and the rest of the globe badly needs.
Doyle also asks readers to pray that as people leave Islam, they would not get caught up in distortions of historic Christianity. Groups like the Latter-Day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses have come to Iran seeking to fill the vacuum as people reject Islam.
The header photo shows an Iranian woman. (Photo courtesy of TruedynamicPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
