By Lana Silk
For each of us, God ties our story in with the bigger Kingdom story. It is through God’s design – using specific events in history – that I see how my heritage and heart for Iran is part of something bigger.
My family left Iran when I was around 10 years old, in obedience to a direct word of God, confirmed in a supernatural dream. Even then, as a young girl adapting to a new life in Europe, I could never shake Iran. And to this day, it is the same. Iran has never left me. I still deeply love this nation and the precious people in it, advocating for their cries to be heard from under the thumb of an utterly abusive regime.
It started right at birth. The day I was born is probably the most infamous day in the Islamic revolution: September 8, 1978, known in history as “Black Friday,” the day with the greatest fatalities as the people fought the regime to make Iran an Islamic nation. My mom tells the story well; she was going to the hospital to give birth to her first child, and there was a civil war literally going on around her. I’ve never been able to shake the significance of that.
My birth happened on a day that was significant in Iran’s story. Even more so, I want my life to be significant to Iran’s story.
We grew up in a Christian home in Iran, and I chose to follow Christ at the age of seven. I have always been motivated by truth and justice. I still remember my mother swiftly pulling me into our home at age eight because I was actively proselytizing from our house balcony. She told me that we could – and must– share the gospel, just not in this way.
Growing up with that dichotomy, between what I knew to be true in God’s Word and the propaganda being pushed down my throat at school, felt deeply unsettling. You see, each day at school, I was forced to chant “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” alongside my peers – all of us, small children. You could say I didn’t mean it or that it didn’t matter, but it mattered to me. I felt at odds with myself, convicted by the Spirit of God within me; even then, I didn’t want those words to come out of my mouth.
When I was nine, God spoke supernaturally to my parents about leaving Iran. It was not something they had wanted to do, but God confirmed it in a dream to our pastor, a wonderful man I knew as “Uncle.” As a result, we ended up leaving Iran very abruptly. My parents demonstrated immense faith to me in this moment of our family’s history, acting in obedience without seeing the whole picture – something that has led me to do the same over the course of my own life many times. Just like Abraham acted by faith, when he didn’t have the whole picture from God, my parents stepped into the middle ground to eventually be led into something greater. They quickly left our homeland in sure hope in and obedience to the Lord. After this step of obedience, He called them into a powerful ministry that would end up shaping the underground church in Iran.
Throughout my life, my faith has held a weightiness, a cost. The day I got baptized, we received the news that the very pastor who urged us to leave Iran, our dear family friend, was stabbed and died as a martyr for Christ. I vividly recall having just been baptized when my cousin ran up to me weeping with the news that he had been killed. In that moment, my commitment to Jesus was solidified, for I was stricken with the realization that my faith meant something. The Holy Spirit spoke to me, relaying, “That thing you’ve just done, this is what it is about. I am asking you to an all-or-nothing kind of life with me.”
I may never be martyred for my faith. But because of all this, it is incredibly important to me that I live a life of complete surrender and sacrifice. Whatever He may ever ask of me, I will gladly give it up for Him. For now, I know my service is to the people of Iran. I want the world to understand what God is doing in Iran. I want them to be encouraged by the miracles, to be strengthened in their faith and to pray for the people of Iran. For many here in the West, it is so much easier to write off this nation as a lost cause – to close the door on caring about these beloved people and justify that God either doesn’t care about them or that they’re out of His reach.
Yet, I’ve seen God move radically in the hearts of the Iranian people, hungry for hope, freedom and justice.
This reality should stand as both a challenge and encouragement to us all. If Jesus can transform Iran, what can He do in our hearts and personal lives? Better yet, what can God do through us to make a difference in the grand Kingdom picture?
Iran is changing, and consequently, so will the greater Middle East. Our prayers matter, and our hope is eternal. As I witness God moving in the underground church of Iran, as well as in the hearts of Iranians who have yet to know Him, I am filled with hope in God’s sovereignty. Jesus is going to change Iran’s story. As the Iranian people are rising up against their government with increasing courage and boldness, willing to sacrifice everything for freedom and a voice, God is stepping in for their rescue.
(Photos provided by Lana Silk.)
It is through Christian ministries and the underground church that these Iranians are met with the answer for which they’ve been desperately searching: hope in Christ Jesus. As individuals are being transformed by God’s Word daily, so are families and entire communities. For example, there was a Muslim woman who received a Bible in her heart language just last year. She gave her life to Jesus and has now led more than 80 other people to the Lord. It’s quite incredible, and she is merely one example among many!
On the flip side, these persecuted Christians serve as an example to the West.
As we consider the cost of salvation, might we also examine the fruit of our lives. What can we learn from these Iranians about the cost of following Jesus?
Likewise, are we lavishing others fervently with the gospel message?
If you want to be challenged in your faith, get informed and come alongside a ministry that is supporting the underground church in a persecuted nation like Iran. God is able to do more than we ask or imagine in situations and hearts that seem impossible to change. Our brothers and sisters around the globe need us to pray and advocate for them; it is our Christian call to action. God has placed us in our immediate locality for a reason, but it doesn’t end there. Let us look beyond ourselves to the entire world, to a grander story in Jesus that will certainly transform us, too – if we are willing to step into all that God has called us into as the unified body of Christ.
Lana Silk is the Chief Executive Officer – USA of Transform Iran, a nonprofit organization which seeks to transform Iran into a nation that bears the image of Christ. Silk was born and raised in Iran before emigrating to the UK where she completed her education at Imperial College, London. With over 20 years of marketing experience across all media, Lana considers it her life calling to represent and advocate for the people of Iran in the West.
