God Stories - Vahid Norouzi - The God Who Knows My Pain

And I challenged God with the questions.

Okay.

And I said, I have a doubt about you.

I don't believe you anymore.

Unless you respond to these questions I have from you.

Okay.

First, where is your pain?

So I was saying, How can be God?

You can be a God for me.

You don't understand the pain.

You never been tortured.

You never been hungry.

You never been rejected.

How when you don't know pain, how I can talk to you?

You just sitting there.

Have you been in this world?

If you respond to this question, I have, I will believe you.

Vahid, thank you so much for uh for joining me.

And I'm so excited about this conversation.

Would you just help those of us watching uh know who you are?

Like maybe tell us your name, and let's start with what you are currently doing here in the United States.

So, as you said, my name is Vaheed Noruzzi.

I'm founder of ministry called Reaching the Nations.

And uh we equip churches in America with the simple 10 keys, reach out to Muslims, practically.

Like it's not just putting a lot of knowledge for the debate.

So we equip how people can friendly, without no fear, sharing the gospel with Muslims in America.

But at the same time, of course, because I'm from Iran, and as you're hearing a lot of underground churches growing in Iran.

Iran is right now the fastest growing church.

So we help the leaders and through the online training and train them and bring them out for you know, having conference for them from Iran, and then we send them back, go to Iran back.

So right now your ministry has uh I'm sure it has many facets as well.

We could probably talk for hours just about all the different things you do.

Um but your organization reaching the nations, you are helping American Christians feel equipped to have conversations with Muslims about Jesus.

Yeah.

And that's probably a group that many American Christians just don't have a lot of experience with.

You know, most of us are used to talking to uh maybe atheists, our friends that don't believe in God but are but are from the United States.

Um but an entire, entirely different religious community that can be very intimidating.

And I'm sure a lot of people are like, I don't know where to even start.

And so you help American Christians know how to share their faith with their Muslim friends, their Muslim neighbors.

Yes.

So this has started, you know, whenever I visit different churches, I have people, as soon as they know us, they're know our background, they keep saying, Can you come and talk to our neighbor?

I can plan and we can do this.

And I I said I we right now is telling them because we want to encourage them, not giving them the fish.

We want them to catch them.

Yeah.

So what we do, we we see the needs.

We can't go everywhere.

We want them to just be equipped and have conversation with them.

So that's that's incredible.

And on top of that, uh because you're from Iran, and I know you also spent time in Turkey, uh, I remember parts of your story, but we're gonna get into it in a minute.

You you also are equipping the the underground church in Iran and their leaders for how to lead the church in that nation, which is hostile to Christianity.

Um and at the same time, you mentioned it, I've I've heard this statistic before as well, that right now the fastest growing church in the world is actually the underground church in Iran, which is which is incredible.

Um which mostly people they don't hear this in the news.

Right.

This is the kingdom news.

So it's truly God is doing an amazing thing in Iran.

Even the Bible is illegal in Iran, right?

But uh, you know, God sending through his word sending his words like we do, we have people like they they deliver through the pizza delivery in different ways Bible to people.

And by the way, they taking the risk, yeah, they're putting their life, they doing this like right now.

We have a people in Iran, they say, just let us know anywhere in Iran, I want to go and give the New Testament to them.

Wow.

So there is a way we found it to send the Bible in Iran, but as soon as the government noticed that, they will arrest everyone.

They'll arrest everyone, right?

So um that's that's how it's um one of the ways.

But I uh the other the other thing I want to mention, which we talked in a like when we are training about the ten keys, they hear in the Middle East, like especially people like uh people of Iran, we receive a lot of dreams.

The Lord is speaking true dreams a lot in Iran.

So that's so uh that's so interesting.

And before we get into your whole story, I'd love to just park there for a second because I heard this many years ago.

And at first I didn't believe it because it just seemed too perfect.

And then I went and researched and found, no, like correct me if I'm wrong, but I had heard that we are actually living in an era right now where more people in the Muslim world are giving their lives to Jesus than ever before.

And that it's happening by Jesus directly.

Like people by the thousands will say, I had a dream, and Jesus Christ appeared to me in my dream and spoke to me.

Not just a missionary, I mean, obviously that's happening, and that's a little bit of your experience.

It was a church that helped you, but people are like Jesus is alive, and he is actually appearing to people via dreams or whatever, and they're waking up going, I I need to know, I need to follow Jesus.

And I is that like that, that I've researched it and read it, and that is something that is uh in fact, the way I heard it was a pastor, this was gotta be five years ago.

He said, Anytime he meets someone, and it's a pastor that I I really love, he said, anytime he meets someone that has given their faith to Jesus and come out of the Muslim religion, he first asked him, Did you did Jesus appear to you?

Because he found that that was like the common story.

And how incredible is that?

And maybe some American Christians are like, Oh, that's crazy.

It's not crazy.

Jesus is alive.

Absolutely.

And he speaks.

And as he said, his last word to his disciples was, All the authority is given to me.

He has the all authority.

Even uh in Iran, the word is illegal.

The government tried to do these things, but Jesus, as we say it, Jesus is not illegal.

Jesus is not a legal.

He can go and he can appear himself to people and through the vision, dreams.

I have a lot of a story.

Actually, one of my close friends who works in our team, he was dealing with suicide.

Okay.

He practiced everything, he ended up like thinking there's no way to live, and just he was thinking it's the life is not there's no meaning in life.

Yeah.

He decided to he he uh he did it, and when he his body was in a house, no one there in the house.

He saw while his body there, he he was sharing his testimony how I could see my body there, I met Jesus in that time, and he said, Go back, I have a work with you.

Wow.

And I came back.

The people there were people coming and uh knocking the door, they could like their friends, like they brought uh, you know, they called police and they came and they took them to the hospital, to hospital, but he was he was saying, I was totally dead, and I met Jesus.

I never heard anything about him.

Right, yeah, because he appeared and he said, I knew that he was Jesus, even though he didn't he didn't explain who he is, he didn't say name, but I knew immediately he's Jesus.

Wow.

And then um anyway, he was interested to begin to know.

Man, th those moments just that for me, um just this little taste of what it's gonna be like to actually see Jesus face to face one day, and how even as you say that, it just makes me realize, yeah, we won't need anyone to tell us, hey, by the way, that's Jesus.

Like we'll we'll just we'll know when we see him.

That's so powerful.

So, so okay, let's kind of recap so far, and then I want to get into your story because it's such a powerful story, and it's gonna encourage so many people.

It encouraged me tremendously when I heard it, and I've been really excited about the long path of setting this up.

Um, here you are in America, and you're doing so much good, and you're helping so many people uh come to know the Lord, come to know the true God.

And you're equipping people in Iran, which is an incredibly dangerous place to be a Christian, to be the church and to have courage and to have uh creativity and all the different ways to spread the gospel, which is really, really cool.

But all of this is who you are now, but this has been the fulfillment of a long journey to get you to this place.

So let's let's hear your story, because that's kind of the point of these conversations, is to hear people's uh people's like we call them God stories.

Um you were born in Iran.

Yes.

I was born in Iran in a Muslim family.

Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

I'm probably saying that wrong.

You know, I'm an American student.

Iran.

I will say it correctly from here on out.

No, actually, thank you for that.

So uh you know I'm so proud of my background because I call it wilderness.

As you know, when Jesus training his disciples, sometimes he took in in a way that they meet the storm.

They meet fear.

But in among the fear and the storm, they realize who Jesus is.

So I went through a very difficult life, and but I'm grateful.

My testimony is more about uh, you know, when people having problems with about the forgiveness, my story is so much on that.

Like I help people to forgive if there's anyone in their life they couldn't forgive.

So I was born with a f uh in a family that my father he had two wives.

Okay, you know, in Islam you can have more than one wife, like the Prophet of Islam did it, like Muhammad has a lot of wife, and so um my father, when he had from his first wife, he had seven children.

Okay, then he ended up married with my mom as a second wife.

So as a result of that marriage, I was born and they were living in a one building and they had a lot of problems.

The first wife she had mental issues, and the way she was behaving was absolutely um spiritual impact.

She had like a you know, demonic impact in her life.

So she was not right, like she she was even beating herself sometimes.

Oh wow.

So um anyway, I was four years old, my parents divorced, and uh my mom was hoping she will gonna take me back to her father's house, but her father told her you are not allowed to bring the heat and give him to the to his his father because you are young, I want you to get married.

So that made my mom sick, actually.

She was crying so much.

And uh anyway, I they gave me to the first family, like the first my father, and I live with seven children, and they're all most of them older than me, and grown up with a lot of rejections.

I felt I was not allowed to eat food in the house.

Like during the lunchtime, I had to go outside.

Every one family eating uh food together, but in Iran, especially summertime, I had to go out and my lunchtime usually around 4 p.m.

to come back, four or five, anything, you know, uh leftovers they were giving me.

And in the winter time I was going to the mosque because I needed a warm place.

So I was going to the mosque.

I learned how to become a Muslim actually in the mosque because I learned because I'm singing, I love singing, and I do worship music also.

So um I learned how to call people for five times prayer in the mosque.

I've I don't know have you heard, we call it mu'azzen.

Mu'azzen means the person in a mosque called with big loud voice.

Big loud voice that's telling everyone to pray.

Okay.

I was doing that.

Okay, but I didn't know God.

I thought's the religion, that's the only one, and that's why I was uh thinking I'm pleasing God what I am doing.

But later in Christ I noticed that no, I I was I was not pleasing God.

Absolutely, I'm I was in different direction and wrong direction, actually.

So yeah, that's that's my background.

I I I've been tortured a lot through my stepmother, yeah.

And putting glass in my food, broken glass, and there's a lot of things.

But I love her today, so because of Christ.

So yeah, if you have any question in that out I I mean, you're what year were you born, if you don't mind me asking?

I know it maybe 85.

85.

I was 83, so I thought we were really close in age.

Um, I mean it's it's uh it's just a a childhood that I don't think many people could even really imagine.

Yeah.

You know, and so you're you're the child of your father's second wife, but that marriage didn't work, and your mother had no choice but to go back to her father because she couldn't be an independent woman in Iran.

And but her father said no to you because she was still young enough that he could find someone for her to marry, but if you were involved, that would have been harder.

And so you were left in a home where you weren't loved, and your stepmother uh didn't like you, didn't she you you probably represented the because she hated my mom.

She hated your mom, and so she couldn't forgive.

Yeah.

As a result, we know that when people not forgiving, yeah, when they putting bitterness in their heart, that has a fruit.

And she was giving me the fruit, actually, fruit fruit of the unforgiveness in her life.

You share it because you've because you've obviously come to a place in your faith, in your relationship with Jesus, where you have forgiven and you've let it go.

Uh-huh.

You share that story so nonchalantly, you know, just uh she put glass in my food and I had to eat outside and all that.

But I mean, that had to have just been that had to hurt so much.

What was that like as like emotionally?

What was that like growing up?

First of all, um I really desperately looking for love.

And I was thinking, who is gonna give me the love that I need?

Because I was dealing with like no one caring about me, and no one loves me, and people like me always looking to get confirmation from people, what people saying about them, how like you imagine you're thirsty of water and you keep asking others, would you please give me water, water?

I'm thirsty, I'm thirsty.

Like the love is like that for me.

I was hunger and love hunger for the love, but I was going to the people that I see that they in Jeremiah chapter, I think chapter one or two, God says amazing things to Israel and says, You are broken.

Um you try to hold the water in it, but it's broken.

Right.

So it just leaks out.

It leaks out, yeah.

And I am the uh I am the river of like I am the uh the what do you call in English, like um not the river of life, but it in there mentions that I am I am the one you need uh well he is it like living water?

Living water and you going after other you know idols to receive that.

So I was feeling like that was the that was my problem.

I see people's people are broken.

They don't have that actually.

They need them, they need love too.

So that's why when I met Jesus, I was I jumped to the because he actually had what you hung for all the time.

Yeah.

So when did that happen?

How did you how do you go from um I mean you it's fun I almost said orphan, but you weren't an orphan.

No.

But you were almost living as one.

Yeah.

How did you go from that experience to knowing Jesus in a country like Iran where that's not a thing?

Like explain.

My always hope was God in my life.

Because sometimes when I was in the street, I saw people how they were seeing my situation Iranian in the street, in Iran.

They were coming and they were crying over me.

They were thinking, why am I in this situation?

And they keep what sometimes people saying, I hate God.

If there's God, why your situation like that?

But in that moment, I was hearing some people coming and saying, Vihit, God is gonna protect you.

God is one day gonna protect you.

I keep hearing God, God is gonna do something.

I was hoping that only my hope is God.

That's why I began to practice Islam.

I began to read the Quran.

I was reading every day, 45 minutes to one hour, one and a half hour Quran.

But unfortunately, whenever I was reading the Quran, I was so confused.

So confused.

Especially, there is a verse it says how you should hate, how kill the enemy, how those Christian and Jews, unclean people.

They you need to get rid of them.

That's that's what the Quran actually mentioning on that.

When I was reading that, I was trying to find love, but in here, somehow teaching me how I should hate, hate people, hate enemy actually.

And there was a verse in Al Ma'id in the Quran, I read it.

It says, Whenever you find people who come against Islam, right hand and left leg need to be cutted.

When I read that, I said, What?

What's going on here?

And I said, God, I don't believe this is your voice.

If this is you, I am not gonna follow you.

I'm not gonna follow you.

So for a Muslim, first of all, I want you to know that all we we trained, all Muslims trained, when they opening the Quran, they have to first have some kind of baptism actually, okay, before reading it.

We can't open by a Quran like that.

We have to wash our hands.

There's a tradition to do this.

And for us, we trained this Quran is you can't touch it easily, you have to have a fear.

In that time, something in me was broken, the fear, and I learned this is not God's from God's word, and I threw it away and I said, God, I don't believe it.

And then I end up with so much problems.

Oh, what happened then?

Is this the God that I was hoping?

Where is God then?

So, by the way, at the age of 19, I was in Turkey.

I left Iran.

What brought you to Turkey?

I was a fighter.

I was doing a kickbox.

Okay.

You know, I had four half-brothers.

They tortured me.

Four half-brothers that were older than you, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

And so you got beat up a little bit.

Three of them.

Yeah.

I had to be strong enough.

That's why I decided to go to be a kickboxer, and I was fighting.

And even in Turkey, I was representing Iran, actually.

Okay.

Fighting and getting money through that.

Wow.

Okay.

And this is I love, I love this.

I have some of the things I want to share with you.

Yeah, yeah, no, this is really interesting.

Yeah.

And anyway, I was doing this kickbox and you know at the same time I see that how the enemy wanted to equip me to be more hated, you know.

And um while I was reading that those questions came up, one night I was in Turkey around 1 a.m.

I decided to go to the beach side, and I needed to cry out because I felt heavy burden in my life.

Yeah.

Strongly.

I couldn't breathe.

Like I was keep looking for hope.

Nothing is coming up.

No words, no encouragement, nothing like in my life.

So I went to the beach and I looked to the sky and I said, God, where are you?

What is wrong with you?

Why are you just sitting in heaven and you're just sitting enjoying your time there?

And I challenged God with the questions.

Okay.

And I said, I have a doubt about you.

I don't believe you anymore.

Unless you respond to these questions I have from you.

Okay.

First, where is your pain?

Have you had a pain?

Because usually people who went through the pain, they love to talk with some people, they understand it.

Right, right.

So I was saying, how can be God?

You can be a God for me.

You don't understand the pain.

You never been tortured, you never been hungry, you never been rejected.

How when you don't know pain, how I can talk to you?

You just sitting there.

Have you been in this world?

Yeah.

If you respond to this question, I have, I will believe you.

But I was in tears when I was sharing this to God.

How after that I felt so good that I can empty myself.

And I went back to my home.

One week later, my Muslim friend, roommate, he told me that he found Iranian church in Turkey, which it was a surprise for me.

Iranian church, I never heard that.

We usually hear about mosque and not church.

And he said, Yeah, I'm a Muslim, but when I go there I found peace.

But you know the Christians so smart when they um when I'm there, they come and they share some about the verse, and I'm surprised, I don't have an answer.

I saw you were reading the Quran, come and defend Islam.

And in my heart, I was saying, come on, you don't know what's going on in me.

But I didn't tell him.

So so okay, just so I'm clear.

Uh-huh.

So you are, this is so cool.

All right.

So you are an Iranian kickboxer living in Turkey, and you're doing kickboxing as your career.

This is what you're doing, and you're it's how you're making a living.

You're representing your home country.

Uh-huh.

Turkey is also a predominantly uh Muslim nation.

Absolutely.

But Christianity is not illegal in Turkey, correct?

Um it's victorious.

Government is open about the churches, but people not.

Correct.

And so I actually have a friend who is a missionary in Turkey.

We went to college together.

Yeah.

And he and I have spoken, and he's told me that Turkey is the smallest percentage population in the world of Christians to everyone else.

That there's no other nation in the world where there's a smaller percentage.

So your chances of finding a Christian church in Turkey are very small.

And I'm sure it's going to grow because that's what the gospel does.

But this this is not a church on every corner, right?

So I just say that.

So we say it, Iran government is closed, but people's hearts open, but Turkey government is open, but people's hearts are not.

Okay, which is explains why the church is growing like crazy in Iran, but not in Turkey.

But so you are, okay, Iranian kickboxer in Turkey.

You're doubting God.

You are having private conversations saying, I don't believe in you.

Where's your pain?

Where's your pain?

You haven't how could you even begin to understand what I've been through?

How can I trust you when you don't understand me?

Your friend doesn't know that you're off.

Yeah.

He thinks you're this is a this guy is a dedicated to Islam.

And uh, I'm going to this Christian church and I like being there.

I feel something, I feel peace, but they're asking me questions and I don't have the answer.

I know I'll bring Vahid because he'll answer the questions, and if it gets crazy, he knows how to fight.

But but so you you were brought to you were brought to a Christian church to defend Islam because a friend of yours was going and couldn't answer the questions that they had.

Is that right?

That's right.

Okay, so what happened?

So when I went, I said, could you please take me to the church?

I want to know what's going on.

And he said, Yeah, come, this Sunday is gonna start.

They do music, and by the way, we we don't have this kind of things in Iran, like through the worship music, dancing for the Lord, or this is not in Iran.

So um I I said, take me, and I was waiting for Sunday.

I went to the church, I saw the crowd of Iranians, all of them was Muslim background.

They were like around 300 people I've met.

Wow.

And they were singing with joy, and for the first time I was hearing in farsi praising God in Farsi.

But I want you just give you information.

Yeah, Iranians are Persian.

Okay, we speak Farsi, Persian, okay, but we have to speak with God in Arabic.

Correct, because the Quran cannot be tra it is illegal to translate the Quran in another way.

Translate it in you ha you can find the Quran, it's translated in different languages, but when you pray, you have to practice Arabic to God.

You can't do like in your own language.

Okay.

And I s I see that in Iran we we I didn't see these things like uh so anyway, when I went to the church and I saw people standing praising God with my language, and I was gazing my eyes on the screen, I wouldn't know what kind of song is this.

I saw the songs about Father, like lyrics, father, and then Jesus and Holy Spirit.

This is a very strong church, by the way.

They are in fire, actually.

Okay.

This church.

I I'm so grateful for that.

So I was standing there all of a sudden, in the middle of the worship, I felt something over me.

I I felt touched, and I nailed on the ground, I was shaking like a child, I was crying.

And I saw people surrounding me, and they were praying over me, and in Jesus' name, which I was surprised hearing first time Jesus' name praying over me.

Anyway, I stand up uh and the lady came and said, What is your name?

I said, Vahid, and she said, Vahid, Jesus calling you.

This is the his word.

She handed me New Testament and says, He is calling you.

And I grabbed it.

I felt a great experience.

I never felt that time like something like I felt like there's something on me, just it's taking away.

So something I felt like I'm I'm in my father's house, actually.

So I grabbed the New Testament, I went to my friend, he was so mad of me.

He said, You lose your mind.

I brought you to defend you forgot what I brought you there for, you know.

That's why I always incarnate churches.

The worship does his part when just do the worship.

Well, and it this reminds me of the Apostle Paul, you know, he's sent to go, you know, stop the church.

And then he becomes exactly part of the church.

It's like, yeah, yeah, God does that.

So I grabbed the New Testament, by the way, from there to my home, like almost one hour through the train.

And I I remember it was rain coming.

I was trying to predict that rain is not doing anything to my Bible.

I was reading it.

I I didn't know how I end up to my room.

I was so confused by those words.

Like, I mean, is my mind all everything was in there?

I was reading Matthew 5, 6.

Now I'm hearing a different voice love your enemy.

That something, you know, it just goes in in me.

I was looking for that word, love your enemy.

You couldn't find this word anywhere, I believe.

That's only Jesus says, Love your enemy.

Anyone who cursed you, anyone any anything said bad about to you, pray.

We didn't learn this.

We learned in Iran, even in our mosque, how to hate Israel, how to hate America.

Yeah, even in our prayers, they were teaching us how to hate.

Yeah, now I'm receiving your word, Jesus saying, Love your enemy.

Anyway, I was reading it and I went to Matthew chapter six.

It says how Jesus says, Don't repeat the words like um uh pagan, do that.

Yeah, don't just pray, just do it over again.

Your heavenly father knows anything you pray before you pray.

That was like touching.

I love those words.

Just continuing.

I went to Matthew chapter 11, verse 28.

Matthew 11:28

I couldn't go forward.

Jesus says, Come to me, O heavy burden, and learn from me.

Yeah, I will give you rest.

Yeah, for your soul.

Yeah.

I knew that I don't have rest.

Even when I was doing a kickbox, my hand always shaking.

And I felt like I'm hearing my shepherd's voice.

And I said, Jesus, who are you?

I don't know who are you.

I heard that, you know, I want to talk about this, by the way.

Yeah.

Muslims believe Jesus is a prophet.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I'm not sure.

So we're gonna talk on that.

Yeah, apologies earlier on on uh the thing about the Quran being translated.

I remember in our first conversation, it was what you I I'm remembering back that, yeah, the Quran can be translated to other languages.

It's but when you pray, you have to pray.

In Arabic.

In Arabic.

And a lot of what I remember you telling me this when we met the first time, that a lot of people don't really understand what they're praying.

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

That's what one of my questions.

Why I should repeat things I don't understand.

Aaron Powell Yeah.

So you're you're taught to pray these things, but it was not your language.

And so you have you don't there's a disconnect.

Absolutely.

Your heart isn't connected to what you're saying because you're not and you're not allowed to do that.

It's like a robot in those really relationships.

So you you read, come to me, I'll give you rest for your soul, and you're you're just like your head is spinning at this point.

Yeah, I was very honest with myself.

I knew that there's no rest in me.

Yeah, I'm restless, I need that.

Yeah.

And I said, I know if you if you give me, if you're true, if it it is true, if you give me, I promise I will follow you.

That's what my conversation with Jesus in private room, like in my room.

If you give me this rest, peace, I promise I will follow you.

Because Muslims, the first thing comes to their mind when you share about Jesus to them, they think, what should I do with my neighbor?

My family is gonna reject me.

They're all they're all fear behind Muslims' mind as soon as they're hearing about Jesus.

So I was thinking, I don't care, I already that person.

Yeah, I want if you give me rest, I will follow.

So I, as soon as having conversation there, I I felt joy is actually coming to me.

Like the way the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 had in conversation with Jesus.

John 4 · chapter mention

Right.

He left the jar and she was running.

She's running off telling everyone.

Just in a quick time.

Like, I felt that there's something going on.

Okay.

I'm I know he's talking to me.

But anyway, after that, three months later, I was in the church.

Not three months, almost one month later, I was in the church, and I went to the church every Sunday.

I was asking, Do you have any other training?

I want to come, I want to know more.

And anyway, on Sundays, one day in a worship time, while I was raising my hand and worshiping, closing my eyes, all of a sudden began Jesus began to talk to me.

He said, You challenge me with those questions.

Have I been rejected?

Have I been beaten?

Hungry?

Have I been in the world?

I heard you.

I came because of your sin.

And I am ready to forgive you.

That was the time I was responding.

He's responding to my prayers, like my conversation, actually.

It was not the prayers.

Yeah, you didn't know that you were praying to Jesus.

Actually, that was a prayers, but I just shouting.

But he heard.

He heard.

And he knows you and loves you.

And so he's answering your he's answering those deep questions that were pouring out of your heart.

Yeah.

Wow.

And I love what Isaiah says.

He's man of sorrow and pain.

He knows the pain.

And in that time, I learned now I have to repent of my sin.

Yeah.

First I was asking for help, but now I come, I came to the part that I need to repent of my sin.

And I give my life.

And he blessed me so much.

I've been trained in the church, study theology, and then I became very soon after, like three months believer, I was in the street, putting 350 gospels in my back, going to different streets, sharing the gospel with people.

And later the Lord asked me, I had my last fighting was in Antalya, one of the tourist cities in Turkey.

Okay.

I was about to go there and I was reading a gospel.

Always I was having my my gospel with me.

I loved it so much.

I I felt I felt like I found the best things in my life, best friends.

So I remember before going fighting, I was reading Word.

Okay.

And now I had a challenge.

So, you know, even usually you go to the ring, you need to fight, and you need to be a little bit angry.

You should be angry, actually.

Yeah.

Even if you are not, they make you angry.

So Yeah, no, I mean, I've never been a kickboxer.

Yeah.

I don't know if you you probably looked at me and thought, kickboxer, surely.

No, no, no, I'm not.

No, but it's funny.

Like, I uh I've always played basketball and I I help I train kids in basketball on the side.

It's this is my main thing, the church.

Um, but I love basketball and it's good to have hobbies.

And so I was just telling some kids last night, uh I've got these boys that I train and they are wonderful, they are Jesus followers and they are so nice.

But I was like, boys, when you're playing basketball, you have to be less nice.

I was like, it's not about Jesus.

It's like you, I need you to, you know, because these these boys are just like, I'm trying to find some fire in them.

Because, you know, when you're right, when you compete, you gotta you get fired up.

You have to like, yeah.

And then you you've grown up being taught to hate, is what you said.

So that was probably pretty easy for you to be angry.

Now all of a sudden, Jesus is dealing with your anger, yeah, and you're still fighting.

Yeah.

What was that like?

My coach, even outside, he keeps saying, do this, shouting on me.

Yeah.

And even he was bringing always the stress to me.

So I was reading love, love, love, you know, the message of love, and I keep feeling the love, and now I have to go fight.

And I remember last my last fight, I was smiling in my face toward the person who keep wanting to fight with me.

I couldn't, I couldn't be angry.

And it was so hard for me to do it anymore.

That's why that was the last time I fighted, and I went back to my pastor.

He gave me a very good word.

He said, Vahit, if you give this to the Lord, God is gonna give you another gift of his spirit.

And I gave that to the Lord, and the Lord gave me the anointing of worship, writing songs.

I wrote so many songs for Persian speaker churches.

So you're writing farsi songs, worship songs.

A lot of churches, Iranian, they use it actually.

Wow.

Everywhere you go, Iranians, they know those songs.

That's interesting.

I need to reach out to my my buddy in Turkey.

Okay.

And like when we're done, we're gonna get a big thing.

We can we can do that.

I need to do that.

Be like, hey, you may you may have sung a song by my friend Vahid.

So I've been equipped in that church, and I went to one of the cities in Turkey.

The church sent me there.

Uh, I knew that there's a people there, they need to hear the gospel.

This one small town called Nide in Turkey.

Okay.

I went there, I began to share the gospel there.

90 Muslims came to Christ.

Wow.

My house turns to church.

I was a pastor for three years there, and um after that I came to USA in 2019.

The ministry I was connected was based in Atlanta.

And uh when I came here, and I was keep traveling to uh Europe because to equip churches there because a lot of Muslims came to Europe with the team.

We were doing this, helping the church, don't get panic, just open the door for them and share the gospel with them.

And we were helping the churches in Europe and the Lord in 2019.

And massive numbers of people who have been raised in Islam, now you are helping them receive them.

Okay.

The problem is when Muslims go any country, if you don't reach out to them, they were gonna have impact there.

Because through the religion, they bring the control, and they will come, their plan is to bring spread Islam to everywhere.

Right.

So unfortunately, you see what's happening in England, right?

It's so painful.

And 2019, I really felt the Lord spoken clearly to me.

I have to start this ministry.

I don't want to see this happening in America.

And that's why 2019 we start this ministry.

People need to be equipped to share the gospel with Muslims, and that's what we are right now uh doing.

So Okay, how how does that happen?

Do people are there classes?

Are there like what if someone says, hey, I I want to I want to learn this, I want to be equipped for this, what do they do?

We did uh with different churches.

Sometimes different church has different schedule.

So we did with one church, I don't know, have you heard Restoration Church?

Yeah, we did for eight weeks there.

We start uh first of all, they uh we had a small room, but in three days we were surprised how everyone interested about it, and uh three days is it's got like there's no space to come more uh others.

So and then the church asked us, hey, we want to give you the bigger room.

So and then even they give the bigger room very quickly, it's you know packed, and this was so encouraging for us.

So we did for every week that that church schedule was every Wednesday.

We had one and a half hour class.

Okay.

So we did uh every key one and a half hours, yeah.

So we started with the cultures, how you can know the culture, how you can welcome them, how you can have conversation.

The good thing about Muslims culture, the not good one.

So we and all cultures have good and not good.

Exactly.

So we went through step by step how you start the conversation with them.

Yeah.

So sometimes we it depends on the church.

If church says, Hey, I have only uh two days or one weekend or one day.

And this is only if uh your website does all are all the opportunities listed on your website for people to take a look at?

Here's the thing.

Because we are a new ministry.

Okay.

We are learning how to put things in our website.

And we there's a people helping us on our website.

So uh yeah, we're trying to go.

We can't some of this stuff we put it for our safety.

We don't do it.

I can imagine that.

And but uh we encourage people to go to the training with us in a set of like just you know, and we want to make sure they understand how to love Muslims, yeah.

And I think even I I'm so glad you said that because the reality is just like scripture says love covers a multitude of sins.

That's right.

Love the the love of Jesus, it it fills the gaps.

If I really love the Muslim people, then I will find a way to I'll have a desire to reach out to them to share my faith, right?

It's it's no different in America, what whatever community you want to name, it's like, well, do you love them?

Because Jesus does.

And his love, I think this is what American Christians have a hard time with, I've noticed, is that we've almost been taught that loving people means leaving them alone.

If you love them, just don't bother them and don't make them feel don't don't convict them, don't say something that might upset them, because that's not loving.

So Satan's almost twisted love in the minds of Americans to think the most loving thing to do is just leave them alone.

And that's not love, right?

No, not at all.

Um Love is relationship.

Correct.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yes.

There is a relationship.

Yes.

And that needs to be shown in our life.

Yeah.

We need relationship, yeah.

Sharing the love.

Yeah.

So I heard someone say once that love is like a bridge that we deliver truth through.

Absolutely.

And if you try to deliver truth to people without love, it just doesn't, it just bounces off.

It doesn't, you know, it doesn't work.

But if you build a bridge of love and you never share truth, well, why didn't you do that?

You know, I mean it's amazing to hear your story.

Most people would have probably looked at you on that beach with such a such a difficult childhood in a in an Islamic nation, taught the Islamic faith, the Muslim faith, and basically saying, God, I'm I'm done with you.

If someone would have said, Hey, what what are the chances that this guy is going to become a pastor and he's gonna be helping thousands of people know Jesus?

Like it's a very small percentage chance of this, you know, Iranian kickboxer who's rejecting God.

But God says, No, no, no, I have different plans for this man.

And that's what's so amazing.

We have a tendency as people to look at others, maybe even whole cultures.

And I think I've been guilty of this with the Muslim culture too, of looking at whole cultures and be like, well, they're never gonna.

Yeah.

They're they're not going to.

And then you go, oh, wait, the fastest growing church in the world is in Iran.

I've been trying to say Iran and not Iran.

It's actually been very, I've had to be really intentional.

I'm doing it.

But but like that's and that's the beauty of Jesus.

It's like you look at someone and think they're hopeless, and he's like, no, they're they're closer to me.

You on that beach, you were so close to Jesus in that moment.

Because you were rightly rejecting a false God.

Yeah.

You were you should reject a false God.

You had been given this God that was about hate and anger, and and that's not God.

That's not the Father.

So you did reject that God, rightfully so.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And then the questions that are coming out of your heart, they're like, Yeah, it is about Jesus.

Like, oh, I need if only I had a God who knew what it's like to be human and rejected and feel pain and hurt.

It's like, yes, yeah, you were describing Jesus without even knowing.

Without knowing exactly.

And it's so Vaheed, I just say all that to say it is like I get chills because it's so clear that through you, the Lord sees us and he loves us, and he knows us and he understands us and he has a life for us, and no one is like truly far from him.

Absolutely.

You know what I mean?

And we have to, as believers, care about the world, not just our little corner of it.

That's really cool.

So and I want to add something on that in Jonah's story, something amazed me.

Yeah.

God, before sending Jonah to that nation, because he keeps thinking, he keeps seeing this is an evil nation, how they can repent.

But I've I noticed that in that story, God first was dealing with Jonah's heart.

He has he keeps telling him, Hey, you you don't see right.

Yeah.

This is my people.

Yeah, because Jonah was up, Jonah was upset when they repented.

Yeah.

Like his message worked.

Exactly.

And he's mad about it because he's like, No, I didn't want them to turn to you, I wanted them to get punished.

Right.

I really feel the Lord before send anyone to any nations, he first gonna change the hearts that that's that prophet or anyone who wanted to minister to the Lord because without changing the heart, your message, you know, you have to be equipped.

That and I feel like whatever we say, there's no change, and we have to believe that the first miracle of Jesus was changing water to wine.

That's what I always we say in Muslims.

Okay, I want you to expect the first sign you will gonna see in Jesus water to wine, you will gonna be changed.

He will gonna change your heart, change your life.

So that's that's the thing.

He was thinking, evil nation, but they don't know what God can do there.

Right.

It's just it's amazing.

And they were they were incredibly receptive to Jonah.

You know, simple message.

Yeah, simple message, simple message, basically, yeah.

Well, uh Vahid, I know we could talk for hours more, and we might need to schedule a uh a follow-up with this one because this is this is really really interesting.

Before we wrap up, um, how can people learn more about your ministry?

What should we do?

Thank you for asking.

Rtnministry.org is our website.

RTN.com.org.

Okay, so it's RTN Reach the Nations.

Yes.

RTN Ministries Ministries Plural.

Yes, ministries.org.

And that will be on the screen right now as uh as people watch this.

So I appreciate it.

And then you got that?

Yeah, it'll be great.

I'm sitting here spelling out, realizing my head.

Zach is gonna put this on the video.

So very cool.

So it will be great.

Anyone can, you know, if they have a heart, pray for Iran, pray for us, and at the same time connect up, be connected with us and connect to churches who they need this.

So do that.

All right, and maybe we can do some uh official partnering at some point in time.

Yeah, I love if we have a time later.

We can do some of the small like keys about how we talk on that.

We can I would love to do that.

I would love to do that.

Let's talk after the cameras stop rolling, okay?

Absolutely.

All right, hey, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

This has been wonderful.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great.