33-year-old Pastor Farshid Fathi from Iran will probably have to celebrate this Christmas in prison too. He has a wife and two children. This summer, his appeal was rejected and his sentence of six years was upheld.
This Christmas, you can send Farshid a Christmas greeting and show him that there are Christians in Danmark who support him.
This will be a great encouragement to him as he knows Danmark, which he visited in 2005 after many Danes, through the Danish European Mission, had supported a large relief effort where Christian Iranians gave aid to the victims of the 2004 Bam earthquake.
He is serving his sentence in the notorious Evin prison, where several Iranian Christians before him have been wrongfully imprisoned simply for boldly professing their faith in Jesus and putting it into practice.
Farshid was arrested in December 2010 for acting as a pastor, but authorities have consistently portrayed his actions as political offenses.
According to our partner, Farshid is a man after God's own heart and God will be faithful to him. Our partner also says that the more the church in Iran is persecuted, the more it will grow. Such injustices will only lead to even more Iranians wanting to come to know the Jesus that people like Farshid preach.
Farshid has become a shining light for Jesus in Evin prison. So much so that the son of an Iranian Ayatollah commented in a YouTube video on Farshid's friendly nature and noted how much Farshid is loved by the other prisoners. This is a characteristic Danish European Mission can only recognize after his visit to Danmark.
Write the letter
Farshid needs all the strength he can get to stand strong in faith, be of good courage and have the boldness to be a testimony of Jesus in prison.
Let us in Danmark, together with Christians around the world, let him experience what Peter in the early church experienced in prison: While Peter was heavily guarded in prison, the congregation prayed fervently and persistently for him. (Acts 12:5)
Enclosed is a pre-printed message of encouragement to Pastor Farshid Fathi in English, which you can sign and return to Danish European Mission. We will then ensure that it is forwarded to the prison.
If you want to write your own Christmas letter, or add a scripture or greeting in English on the pre-printed letter, the Danish European Mission must not be mentioned and criticism of the authorities should be avoided.
A letter to Farshid Fathi is an encouragement to him - if the letters get through. There is a real risk that the letters will be caught by the prison censors. But it could mean that prison staff and management are made aware that Farshid Fathi is not just another inmate, but a prisoner that many people in many countries know about. And it can raise awareness of his case so that the authorities will hopefully question whether it was right to imprison Farshid.
Print this letter (click here...), sign it and send it scanned to: daneu@daneu.dk or by mail to: Danish European Mission, Drejervej 15, 2400 Copenhagen NV.
Thank you very much - wishing you a blessed Christmas
PS. Read about the Danish European Mission's projects in Iran Here.... Due to the support of our donors, the printing and distribution of New Testaments in the country as well as practical help for persecuted Christians is ensured. Support Iranian Christians now
PPS. The website will be continuously updated with news about Farshid Fathi.
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