Living Water in the Desert: True Stories of God at Work in Iran, chs 15-16

Chapter 15

Iran Alive! (Padina, part two)

Somehow Padina got a copy of the Persian New Testament and began to read it secretly. She often called the Iran Alive program and asked that gentle man, Pastor Hormoz, her many questions. Her voice carried over the phone line to be broadcast to millions of Iranians, watching and listening. She listened to Pastor Hormoz answer her over the television screen.

One night when she called, he recognized her voice.

“Padina,” said Pastor Hormoz, “I want to ask you a question. Who is Jesus Christ to you?”

He called me by my first name, like a friend. Padina was surprised. “Who is Jesus Christ to me?” She had never put it into words before.

She remembered the very first night she had turned on the program. “Jesus is my light,” they had sung. The House of Zeinab had been a world of darkness.

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Chapter 16

A Man on a Donkey (Taher)

Taher stumbled from room to room. They were gone. All of them. All of them were gone.

His daughter. She had turned first. There was her Koran, on the little table by her bed. That cursed Bible? Surely she had taken that with her.

His wife—she held the coveted title of Hajieh—a woman who had made the pilgrimage to holy Mecca! But she had turned to this accursed Christianity too. There was her head covering, lying on the floor.

His son. He had turned last. That was when Taher had started beating them all, threatening to kill them, frantic to force them to turn away from this devilish religion. But they had only pleaded with him and prayed for him.

There was a note. “We love you, Papa, but we have to escape. We’re praying for you.”

How can it be? How can they all be gone? Taher pounded his fist on the wall. “No!” He found a vase and with great fury threw it across the room. The splintering shatters seemed to echo again and again.

Then he sat down on the bed and sobbed. They were gone.

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