A Missionary’s Perspective on the Iran Conflict
Eric Demeter currently serves with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Athens, Greece, where for about seven years, he has shared the gospel and discipled Iranian refugees. He also helps refugees with their practical needs, such as when he procured a scooter for a man who needed transportation.
He helped one man, who had been abused by his family and had broken teeth, get dental work done. Another man had some camera equipment stolen, so Demeter raised funds to get him a new iPad.
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“Even if you’re not oppressed in Iran directly, you feel the oppression. It’s just knowing that you’re not free. I don’t quite understand it because I don’t know what that’s like,” Demeter said, “but it’s this sense of: ‘Something’s not right. I’m being oppressed. I can’t fully be myself. I can’t fully express myself. I know if I do one thing wrong that I could be thrown in jail.’”
Many people are not living in direct opposition to the government. But they are “living under, like, this dark cloud, and they then want to leave,” he said. “And often Greece is where they go.”
When people “convert to Christianity,” said Demeter, “they face being rejected by their family. They face imprisonment and possible death.” Nevertheless, “there is an underground church that seems to be thriving, from what I understand.”
Demeter has an Iranian friend named Mohsen who is a pastor. Mohsen’s brother got put in jail in Iran for drug-related offenses. While in jail, the brother came to trust in God and started sharing the gospel with his fellow inmates. “He kept telling the other people about Jesus,” said Demeter. “[The authorities] said, ‘If you don’t stop, we’re going to kill you.’ He said, ‘You can kill me.’ And he kept sharing Christ. And they hung him.”
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Demeter said Mohsen showed him a video of Mohsen’s brother the night before the brother was executed. In it, the brother said that he was not going to stop sharing his faith in Jesus. “Seeing him stand up for Jesus, stand strong in his faith, knowing that tomorrow he is dead,” said Demeter, “it’s pretty powerful.”
Iran is historically known as Persia. Demeter pointed out that “historically, the Persian Empire has had a solid relationship with Israel.” Examples from the Bible include King Cyrus, who allowed the Jews to return to Israel to rebuild the temple, as recounted in the Book of Ezra. Cyrus also returned to the Jews sacred items that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple. The Persian King Darius also supported this work, even paying for it out of the royal treasury.
