Iranian martyr's daughter copied the Gospel of John by hand

She had no Bible, so she copied the Gospel of John by hand. Her example can serve as an inspiration for all Christians to do what they can to share the message of Christ.

"I made tea and waited. But he never came back."

It was November 1990. My father was called to the police station. We didn't want him to go, but he had no choice. He was brave and comforted me. He asked me to make sure there was tea ready for when he came home. I made tea and waited. But he never came back.

Dad was hanged

For a few weeks we heard nothing from him. Then, on December 3, 1990, the authorities hanged him for his Christian ministry. I was devastated. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to do. I thought I couldn't continue my life without my father. My family was in deep shock - my blind mother, my little brother and sister. We grieved deeply over the loss of him. We simply couldn't believe he was gone. I cried bitterly at his grave.

Should I follow Jesus as my father?

But despite the darkness of those days, I felt God's hand on me and my family. And I knew I had to make a decision. I knew I had to choose whether I would follow Christ like my father had done.

Then I remembered a dream I had when I was seven years old. In the dream, I was playing outside with my siblings. I looked up and saw my dad walking and talking to Jesus. They were close to each other. Then my father turned to me and said: Rashin, follow us. When I remembered that dream, I decided to follow Him.

My father was an evangelist and I remember how much he delighted in seeing people come to Christ. So I started learning how to evangelize. But the problem was that we didn't have much printed material. In particular, we lacked Bibles or New Testaments.

I left Bible verses in taxis, waiting rooms.

A friend of mine and I came up with a plan: we copied Bible verses by hand. We wrote verses like John 3:16 and left them in taxis, restaurants, doctor's waiting rooms, and anywhere else that seemed obvious.

When I was 17, I thought we needed to share more than just verses. So I decided to copy the Gospel of John. I bought a small notebook and started writing a chapter every night for a month. When I finished, I was so excited. I took some wrapping paper and made a beautiful package. I prayed and felt peace in leaving the package on a certain doorstep for someone to find it.

It was my hope that one day I would have enough Bibles to give to everyone in our city. That's what I wanted and I prayed to God that He would send us the Bible. In 1999, I went to Elam (Danish European Mission's partner for Iran, ed.) to study and prepare for ministry. Here I met a team that was translating the Bible into modern Persian. I was thrilled. When the translation of the New Testament was completed in 2003 and 10,000 copies were printed, it was like a dream come true. It showed me once again that God cares about the people of Iran.

The 10,000 copies were quickly distributed and every year more and more have been printed. When we reached 1 million copies in 2012, I was overjoyed. God had answered my prayer in such an amazing way.

Persecuted Iranian Christians yearn for the Bible

In September 2014, the entire Bible was finally published in Persian, in a modern and easy-to-understand language. It is a great joy for Iranian Christians that they can now read the entire Bible, not just the New Testament.

You can ensure that persecuted Iranian Christians have the opportunity to read the whole Bible, not just the New Testament. One copy costs around 80 DKK, which includes printing, administrative costs and smuggling. 

Rashin now leads TV work

When I was a teenager, my friend and I did something very small and simple. We wrote Bible verses. God saw us and He did something big. Pray with me for another million copies of Scripture for Iran.

Rashin now leads Elam's women's TV service, which reaches thousands of Iranians every week, including people in Mashad. Many call in and ask for Bibles after watching her programs.