My story

In Iran, Reza and his family were persecuted because of their conversion to Christ

I was born in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where every citizen automatically becomes a Muslim. Until the day of my birth, this rule applied for my parents as well.

The big change in my family occurred on the day I was born. I am the youngest child of four. Soon after my birth I had a very serious form of jaundice. In order to save my life, a blood transfusion was needed. Nobody in our town showed willingness to help - nobody amongst the Muslims. My parents lived in the Armenian quarter. So they prayed the Armenian to help us.

The Armenian minority helped my family. Thanks to them I am still alive. My parents had a chance to see how much these people are willing to help. It was a great testimony of their fairness and kindness. That's why my parents started to be interested in their religion. They were curious to know who is the God they believed in.

Of course, the State laws did not allow Muslims being interested in Christianity. So, everything took place secretly. Our parents did not force us to live according to Islamic rules and traditions. In Iran, if somebody converts to another religion, the State punishes him/her with death penalty - public execution, that's why it was not possible to practice any Christians traditions. People around us remarked that we were not acknowledging Islam. Our whole family was continuously monitored. My mum worked as hairdresser. As a Muslim woman she was allowed to take care only of Muslim women. Nevertheless, she often cut hair and made hair dressing for Armenian women. For this reason, she was several times beaten in the streets. My father was arrested in more than one occasion. In jail he was ill-treated and interrogated. They wanted to know whether we really converted to Christian religion. He was a professional soldier. He was well trained and managed to survive to the huge tension and nervousness of hearings, prison and so on. Nevertheless, these factors had negative influence on the health of my father and my mother as well. We were living in continuous fear, just waiting for the moment someone would come and arrest or maybe kill right away. We could not tolerate this situation any longer.

We left our native land in a quite rapid and unexpected way. We were at my sister's house in a different town. Our neighbours called us saying that the police had entered our house and found a Bible. We knew what it meant. In two hours we had to leave the country. My parents and me. With the help of my sister's husband we managed to escape to Turkey and thence to Ukraine. Everything took place through human traffickers. I was only 16 and I never experienced such a tremendous situation. In Ukraine we got arrested by the police and we were imprisoned. It was the hardest time of my life. Life looked like that of prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp during World War 2.

One shower, one WC for one thousand people, a piece of stale bread and one fish can per week, little water, body louses, diseases, sleeping on the floor...

We spent two years in those conditions and we were traumatically marked by it. Moreover, we were continuously terrorized by the thought that they could repatriate us to Iran. With the help of some Christians we managed to leave jail. We restored contacts with my sister's husband. We wanted him to help us get to England. In this occasion too, the whole mission was organized by Mafia; and I must say that Ukrainian Mafia does not have mercy on anyone.

Mafia cares only about money. Their role was to convoy us from point A to point B, just as though we were goods or animals. They killed a man before our eyes because he wasn't able to walk anymore. I prayed God to help my parents. They were weaker and weaker. My mum sat on the ground and told us that she couldn't afford to walk through the forest any longer. She said we had to leave her there, because she was not able to go ahead. Those men pointed their weapons towards us and I pray them to have mercy. Then, they transferred us inside a truck, in order to pass the border.

Young and stronger men were placed in the lower part of the trailer. I was there among them. We had to crouch down. They put some boards on our heads; and the other people were standing on those boards. My parents were among them. We couldn't perform any movement. We were thirsty, but we had no water or food. We had travelled for several days without pauses. We didn't even stop to go to the toilet. People were dying and it smelt very bad all around.

Then I prayed. I prayed God to let me die. I could not bear it anymore. For the first time in my life, I experienced how God operates in a supernatural way in our lives. All of a sudden, after that terrible pain I felt pure relief. I didn't feel any burden any more; I didn't feel the strain of those people over my head and my body. Somebody gave me some water and I was not thirsty any more. I physically felt God's presence. It was God, who created everything. The Creator of the Universe came down to save my life. Until that moment, I only knew about the God of my parents... Until that moment He had been for me the reason why we had to suffer all that...

In that exact moment, I realized God was there with me. He fulfils my needs. He takes up my pain and burdens. He lives the same experiences and feels the same as me. Only at that very moment I met the God for whom I had had to abandon my "comfortable" life in Iran.

That day, I felt God's power. I understood how He takes care of us, how we are important for Him. From that moment I started to perceive Him as a Friend, not only as the God my parents believe in.

Slovakia became our new place to live in. Thanks God, after relatively short time we were granted political asylum. We joined a community of Christians. Finally, we can freely confess and praise God as our Saviour. He saved our lives and we are no longer persecuted because of our faith.

The biggest gift for me is that I can freely worship the Lord together with other people. He is my Saviour and the Lord of my life.

People in Slovakia are not really aware of the grace they received. They can freely meet and publicly state that they believe in God. I remember police beating me in Iran when I was a child, because my curiosity led me to look inside an Armenian church where they were celebrating Christmas. I just wanted to take a look at their church, just to see what it looked like inside. I was "punished" for this act. Now I can step in churches, experience that God is close to me, I can talk about Him, without exposing myself or my family to any danger.

I Thank God because He saved my whole family. After several years, we are once again all together. My entire family, including my siblings.

I also got married. After a long while God donated us a beautiful princess. He makes incredible things for us, even though at first glance the whole situation looks sometimes too hard and unsolvable. He turns everything to good.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17).