The Iranian Experience

Did you miss me?  I know I've been gone a while.  Anyway; down to the chat:  The Iranian Experience.

A week or so ago, Lesley and I hosted an event at Cranleigh Baptist Church for folk to hear about the Work of our "First Acts" team.  A team of mainly Iranians who work here in the UK amongst Farsi-speakers from Iran and thereabouts. 

Sometimes I just have to pinch myself that I get to work alongside such phenomenal people.  The evening was quite a mix:  a bit of background chat from Lesley, me doing my "MC" thing and a video that explained the work of the team, but for me, there were three elements that you just had to be there to really fully appreciate.  By definition, therefore, I am about to do them an injustice:

Farsi worship.  It is a common-known fact (certainly amongst Iranian Christians) that the language spoken in heaven is Farsi.  Even catching a whisper of it here on earth, sung enthusiastically by Iranian believers is just awesome.  A few of us tried to join in with the words phonetically written out, but just standing and enjoying and being caught up in their praise was the best part of it.

Iranian food.  They don't claim their food is what's eaten in heaven, but you never know.  From an organisational point of view, I should have learned to translate what an Iranian means when they say "we'll just provide a few snacks".  Platefuls.  And in a scene reminiscent of the feeding of the 5000, I think there were at least 12 basket-fulls left over.  It was gooood.

Persian stories.  They are all very humble and matter-of-fact about it all, but the truth is, the more you hear the stories, the more you just get amazed at how God shows up in incredible circumstances.  From the very practical aspects of the stories of how most of these folk ended up in the UK, through to the incredible tales of how they unexpectedly tripped over the love of God and came into a relationship with him, I was gripped (and I've heard a few of these tales now).  It makes me thankful to God for the ease in which I came into a relationship with him and thankful for the way he reached out and grabbed these folk in unexpected ways.

If you are involved in a church and would like a touch of the Iranian Experience for yourselves, do get in touch.  We might just be able to help with that!