“If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” 1 Peter 4: 12-14
If you experienced God’s healing in a miraculous way while living in a country where there is opposition to the gospel what would you do? Would you tell your friends about this miracle? These might seem like simple questions to you and I living in the UK. But that is not the case for Iranian believers like Tabitha* who was forced to leave her country because she told others about the miraculous healing she experienced. Most of all because she chose to follow Jesus.
People like Tabitha, who convert from Islam to Christianity, do not lead ordinary lives. They are relentlessly persecuted for their faith and they need your help. They have left everything behind, sometimes including family, friends and livelihoods.
Will you help provide a safe passage, food, shelter and pastoral care for persecuted Christians forced to flee, like Tabitha, by giving £30 or £50 to Release International today?
You can make a gift securely online by clicking one
of the ‘Your Donation’ buttons
Tabitha converted to Christianity at the age of 18. But she didn’t have her faith tested until she was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few years later. The doctors told her to get surgery immediately and she was terrified. But a Christian lady next to her in the hospital told her to ask Jesus to heal her. And they prayed together.
“I had a dream that night,” said Tabitha. “I saw Jesus coming to me and he was holding my hand. He told me to be unafraid. It was then that I realised fully that Jesus is God.”
And, in the difficult months after her surgery, she continued to trust in Jesus for her healing and for having children, even when the world seemed against her. As a new believer, Tabitha attended a Christian conference, hosted by one of our partners in Turkey, where she experienced God’s healing power once again through the prayers of those who ministered to her. When she returned to Iran, she told her family and her friends about her miraculous healing. Some mocked her, but others, like her mother and her sister, wanted to know more about Jesus. So, Tabitha led them, as well as a few of her friends, to Christ.
Soon Tabitha and her husband ran into difficulties as the Iranian secret police began to harass them for running a house church in her home and for telling other people about Jesus. Her home was raided on various occasions. Knowing that the secret police would come after her and her children, Tabitha was forced to flee Iran and settled as a Christian refugee in Turkey.
Thanks to the past generosity of caring Release International supporters like you and our mission partners in Turkey, Tabitha received practical and pastoral help to start a new life.
Today more believers like Tabitha need your help.
Although the situation varies from one country to another, the main theme that emerges from the stories we receive from our partners ministering to Christians who have been forced to flee their homes in Iran, China, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Somalia, is that our brothers and sisters in Christ are persecuted for their love of Jesus.
Pastors of underground churches and believers like Tabitha can be thrown into prison for reading the Bible, for hosting a church in their home, or for telling others about Jesus.
Often the homes of Christians like Tabitha can be searched, and their belongings confiscated by the police because activities like praying together or studying the Bible are ‘illegal.’
At times like this, can they count on your prayers and your practical support?
Will you send a gift of £30, £50 or £100 today to help persecuted believers like Tabitha to rebuild their broken lives? In Turkey, Release International’s partners love and support around 320 Christians who have fled Iran.
Here are some of the things that your generosity can make possible:
- A gift of £30 can provide three weeks’ food to a Christian forced to flee Eritrea
- A gift of £50 could provide accommodation for a week, for three Christians in Brazil who have escaped from Afghanistan
- A gift of £100 could provide a week’s rent for facilities for around 320 Iranian Christians to meet together for prayer and fellowship in Turkey
- A gift of £250 could provide towards building a new house church in Kenya for 30 Somali believers who were forced to flee.
Your gift, whether large or small can show a Christian in flight that God provides for their needs through caring and compassionate friends like you. You can make a gift securely online by clicking one of the ‘Your Donation’ buttons.
Together we can help meet the daily needs of persecuted believers like Tabitha and of Christian workers who offer pastoral care and support to them.
Serving together in Jesus’ name,
Paul Robinson
CEO, Release International
* The photo shown at the top is of ‘Tabitha’ praying with her children. Names have been changed to protect the persecuted Christians we serve.
