The love of Christ that Arman discovered in the church eventually replaced the hatred and pain he carried in his heart. It also led him to a life of evangelism, with a special concern for Muslims in Iran.
After leaving Iran, Arman found himself living the precarious life of a political refugee in Europe. He submitted his paperwork and prepared for the long, uncertain wait to receive the documentation that would enable him to settle into a new life in a new country. Others had waited years to be granted official refugee status. He didn’t expect his experience to be any different.
Shortly after arriving at the refugee camp and finding his way to a church, Arman learned that his mother had cancer. He was torn between anger at his parents, fear about his own circumstances, the dangers of returning to Iran and a desire to go back to see his mother. But returning to Iran was an almost-certain death sentence. Though still considering himself a Muslim, he brought his growing despair to the church.
“I cried all the time when I went to the church,” Arman recalled. “People prayed for me over and over. They were so kind.”
One evening, feeling it was too late to return to the refugee camp for the night, Arman slept at a friend’s home. Startled from a deep sleep, the suffering in his heart welled up and threatened to overwhelm him. He got up and felt compelled to pray — not to Allah, but to Jesus Christ.
“If you are real, show me a sign,” he said. “They tell me that Jesus is love, that Jesus is God. If all these things are real, show me a sign.”
Days later, and a mere two months after arriving in the country, Arman received a letter granting him asylum. When he shared it with friends at the church and realized exactly what he held in his hands, he knew this was his sign and began to weep. “For 29 years, I wasted my life on Islam,” he said, thinking about the silence he had felt when he prayed to Allah. “But when I accepted Jesus, he immediately answered me.”
Thankful and rejoicing, Arman yielded his life to Christ.
“After I received the love of Jesus,” Arman said, “I grew in knowledge and all the teaching from the pastor. Even my personality changed at that point, and I started to serve … without that anger. Everything changed.”
As a beginning language learner in his host culture in Europe, Arman had very limited vocabulary when he started inviting people to get to know Jesus Christ. But whatever ability he had, he used.
“Even when I couldn’t speak [the language fluently], I told people simple words,” he said. “I said, ‘God loves you,’ and even that was impactful.”
He saw hundreds of people come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ as he boldly shared with them. Then in 2023 he took it a step further.
“I wanted to talk with people more, and I want to give my time more,” Arman said. “So I changed my job and started doing taxi driving.” He estimates that since that time almost 150 people have come to faith in Christ through conversations in the cab.
Now, besides this outlet of taxi-cab evangelism, Arman leads a team of online evangelists as part of a media ministry that reaches into Iran through the internet. The ministry engages people across various platforms to answer their questions about Christianity and — when they are ready — invite them into online discipleship and fellowship. Among those who write in to the ministry, some are genuine seekers, while others are Muslims who want to critique or attack Christianity. Arman said that sometimes the messages contain threats and vulgarity, pressuring the ministry to stop. More than once, people coming online to level threats spent a couple of hours on the platform and left having given their hearts to the Lord.
These anonymous online threats are not the only ones Arman has received. At one point Arman learned that his brother, still in Iran, had been arrested and beaten by government officials for engaging in protests. They sent a message through this brother, saying, “We know that [Arman] is a Christian, doing activities for Christian people. If we catch him, we will burn him alive. The life of your brother is in our hands.”
When Arman heard this threat, he responded with faith. “I know that they have threatened, and maybe it will happen again, but … I believe in God,” Arman said. “If God wants, he will save me. Because of that I am not frightened at all. I just concentrate on the mission I have from God.”
Arman asked for prayer that more Iranians would receive the message of Jesus and want to grow deeply in their knowledge of him. He also encouraged the global body of Christ to remember Iranian front-line workers who are living under constant threats and pressure, sometimes having to make choices between ministry and survival. The unity of Christ’s body standing with these brothers and sisters is a powerful testimony in Iran.
In Arman’s view, the Lord has redeemed the suffering of his early life, giving him a way to identify with the sufferings of his countrymen, especially those apart from Christ. “God led me to see people the way he sees them,” he said, “so in this way I will reach those who need God’s words and God’s help.”