speaks

Thank you for joining us here at #Christian Straight Talk with todays discussion "Gossip and Slander".  We look in the New Testament in the book of Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29 to 31.  How gossip turns into opinions, opinions turn into anger, anger turns into frustration and the gossip regarding the character is not true character of the person.

In this first episode of our “Planting Churches in Iran and Beyond” series, Joe talks with Kambiz about his story of encountering Jesus as a young soldier in the Iranian army and ultimately becoming a prolific church planter in the Iranian church. In this conversation, Kambiz shares his on-the-ground experience of what planting Persian-speaking churches in the Iran region actually looks like.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church, please visit elam.com/iran-story.

And for more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

In this episode, we’re wrapping up our most recent series, “Pray, Give, Go, Stay.” Joe, Jennifer and Dara Lynn spend some time talking about the implications of each of these opportunities to engage with the global church. They also share how their own imaginations were stirred as they talked with friends of the Iranian church about what it can look like to participate in the story God is writing for the church today.
So, grab a cup of tea and join us for another episode of Jesus Speaks Farsi.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church, please visit elam.com/iran-story. And for more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

As part of our Pray, Give, Go, Stay series, Neil and Celeste Rogers share their experience ministering to refugees within their own community in rural Texas. They encourage those looking for ways to reach the nations to simply look in their own backyards. The opportunities for mission work among Afghan and Iranian refugees where we all live only continue to grow.

One note: In this episode, Joe mentioned sharing available resources for ministry to refugees. If you’re in the US, we suggest connecting with Neil for information on reaching out to Afghans and Iranians in your community. You can contact him at wneilrogers@gmail.com. If you’re in the UK or Europe, you can email contact@elam.com for more info on how to reach out to Afghans and Iranians in your locality.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

As we continue our series on how to effectively engage with the global Church through praying, giving, going, and staying, this third episode focuses on what it can look like to courageously go.

Today, Joe and Jennifer are joined by Tom Hawksley, a Brit who has spent his adult life in ministry, particularly with the church in Iran. He shares about his unconventional way of learning Farsi, how he met his Iranian wife, and what Mark 16:15 means when Jesus says “Go and Tell.”

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

As we continue our series on how to effectively engage with the global church through praying, giving, going, and staying, this second episode focuses on the personal and wider impact of obedient giving.

Today, Dara Lynn and Jennifer are joined by Mark Howard, a non-profit development director with a pastor’s heart. He shares with us the impact obedient giving can have in the life of a believer as well as in the life of the global church. Mark also talks about his personal experience with the Persian-speaking church and how the ministry God has currently called him to is very different than the one he envisioned.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

In this season of Jesus Speaks Farsi, we’ll be talking to friends whose lives have been deeply impacted and shaped by the story of Iran’s church – even though they’re all from the West. Our hope is that in hearing their stories on how they’ve become involved, your imagination would also be stirred for ways the Lord might have you become more deeply connected to what God is doing in the global church.

In this episode, our focus is on what it can look like to participate in prayer with the global church. Joe and Dara Lynn talk with Louise Yeghnazar about the journey she’s been on with the Iranian church and what she’s learned about prayer from that experience. Louise shares personal stories of her own prayer life that we know you’ll be encouraged by.

Louise also shares about her work with the prayer ministry, 24-7 Prayer. If you’re interested in the significant work they are doing, please visit, 24-7prayer.com.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

This Good Friday, we wanted to share our friend Bahar’s story with you again. Her story is featured in our earlier series on Women in Iran, so if you haven’t already, we hope you’ll go back and listen to these incredible Iranian women share their experiences of meeting Jesus.
In this episode, Bahar shares her story of growing up as an Iranian woman, which includes her experience of significant discrimination by men in her home country of Iran. When Bahar learned that a Man named Jesus Christ had valued her enough to die for her, she was amazed. Bahar shares about the freedom Jesus brought to her life and the impact she’s seen Him have on many others’ lives since.   

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

In this bonus episode, we're marking the twentieth anniversary of the modern Farsi translation of the New Testament. 2.5 million copies later, stories of life transformation like the one we share in this episode are happening every day in the Iran region.
In this episode, Joe sits down for a conversation with Rasool, an Iranian Christian whose life was changed dramatically after receiving a New Testament. Rasool shares how, after a difficult childhood and a desperate season in early adulthood, a stranger reached out to him online to tell him that God loved him. Not long after, he received not one, but two New Testaments, which began a trajectory that ultimately led him to place his faith in Jesus. Rasool is now involved in full-time ministry and is happily married with a young son.
 
For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

In this episode, we’re wrapping up our Encounters with Jesus series. Jennifer, Joe and Dara Lynn get together at Jennifer’s farm to discuss the conversations in this series about what it can look like to encounter Jesus and the difference that made in each of our guests’ lives. Sharing their own personal experiences of spiritual encounters, our co-hosts find a lot to talk about in this Chai time. So, bring your cup of tea and join us for another episode of Jesus Speaks Farsi.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

David Yeghnazar, Executive Director of Elam Ministries, shares how God is moving supernaturally in Iran’s church today.

This episode is a recording of a 30-minute message David gave at the 2022 Lausanne conference in Asia titled “Recovering the Supernatural.”
In his message, David explains how Jesus is presenting Himself alive today in the

Iranian church through His Word and through supernatural visions and dreams. We believe including this message is a great way to pull together all we’ve heard so far in our series on Encounters with Jesus.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

In this episode, Joe is joined by fellow podcast teammate Moread, who handles the design and publishing for Jesus Speaks Farsi.

We love having Moread on the team and we’re so grateful for his insight and first-hand experience of Persian culture. Born and raised in Iran, Moread left the country as an adult and has since become a follower of Jesus. Today, Moread is passionate about sharing the story of what God is doing in his beloved homeland. 

In this episode, we’ll hear his story of encountering God while still a professing atheist. Moread had forsaken all religion after turning his back on Islam until a follower of Jesus he’d never met before told him things about his life no one else knew.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

In our third episode of the Encounters with Jesus series, Dara Lynn and Jen will be speaking with an Iranian woman who leads worship for thousands of Farsi speakers and encounters God’s presence in more ways than just worship music.
Niloofar grew up in Iran in a nominally Muslim home where being a daughter was less valuable than being a son. When her parents became believers through a television program, Niloofar was sceptical. But, after seeing the transformation in their lives, she soon accepted Jesus into her own life. 
Early in her faith, worship music was especially important to Niloofar, having not been allowed to sing in her former life as a Muslim.

 Encountering Jesus through worship gave her hope after the grief of leaving Iran and has continued to take her on a unique spiritual journey as her faith has grown.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

There are a lot of encouraging stories of people from a Muslim background encountering Jesus in the Iran region, and many of us in the West may be asking the question, “Why isn’t God doing that in my church?” In our second episode of the Encountering Jesus series, Joe speaks with Afshin, a noted Old Testament scholar and teacher (Afshin is also featured in the Scriptures in Iran season, episode 3). He holds a PhD in biblical studies from a Western seminary and has seen God move in miraculous ways in his life. We’ll hear from Afshin about experiencing God for ourselves and the tension of explaining the mysteries of Jesus to a Western world that often requires logical answers.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

In our first episode of the Encounters with Jesus series Joe will be speaking with an Iranian woman who spoke with Jesus face to face through a dream.

Asrin is from a Kurdish family who are typically hated by the government in Iran. After a terrifying experience as a teenager because of her ethnicity, she wanted to join the Kurdish Militia and fight for justice against the Iranian government but an encounter with Jesus led her to join a different fight.
 
Asrin shares with us about the moments she’s spent with Jesus and how it led to a transformation in her heart with love for all people despite their ethnicity, race or religion.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

A short conversation with Dara Lynn and Joe to celebrate one year of Jesus Speaks Farsi. They'll discuss current events in Iran, recap the past year of episodes and let you know what we have to look forward to in 2023 on the podcast.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.

Thank you to everyone who joined Elam’s International Day of Prayer for Iran recently. People and churches from over 60 nations around the world came together to pray for the current situation in Iran and on today’s episode, we’ll hear from one of the leaders of this prayer initiative.
Roozbeh has been on a previous episode of Jesus Speaks Farsi and if you’d like to hear his testimony you can listen to S2 E2. But today, Roozbeh is talking with Jen and Joe to give an update on the current situation in Iran, share some stories on how your prayer is impacting lives, as well as offer a few of his own thoughts on the power of prayer.

For more information about the recent history and incredible growth of the Iranian church please visit elam.com/iran-story.
For more information about our organization, please visit elam.com.