Faith in Action
“So by faith, I believe that those who are around me, God has sent for me to share the gospel. So I shared the gospel very briefly, just about in 15 minutes, and they knelt and prayed to repent and receive Christ.
“I only had those 15 minutes to share the gospel because after I shared the gospel, immediately after, the police came and said, ‘You have been very good, and you shouldn’t be here. You are very kind to us and we want to release you.’ They opened the door and said I could go.
“When they opened the door to release me, I hugged those two criminals and they were crying and hugging me really hard. So the warden of the police was like, ‘You have only known these people for 15 minutes, and they act like you are family!'”
Iman’s passion to reach sinners with the message of salvation through Jesus rubbed off on many of those whom he witnessed to and prayed with.
Arrest and Interrogation
One man Iman led to Christ began by talking to his father, who was a member of the security police. His father feigned great interest, saying, “That’s very interesting. I would love to meet with your friend who shared this message with you.” So the son invited Iman to come back to his city, and to meet his father.
However, when Iman arrived at the meeting, the police were waiting. He was arrested, blindfolded, and put into a car. At the police station, he was interrogated for more than ten hours, then taken before a judge.
Standing before the judge, Iman shared his testimony of coming from addiction to freedom in Christ. He told the judge that from that day forward, every time he saw a drug addict, he wanted to talk with the person to let them know there was hope and freedom available to them.
He wasn’t trying to build a political movement or even plant a church; he was simply acting out of his thankfulness that God had saved him from drugs, and he wanted others also to be rescued from addiction.
At the end of the hearing, the judge sent him back for further interrogation.
Prayer in Persecution
The first night Iman felt great fear. He was sure the guards were planning to sexually assault him. He cried out to God. “I learned to focus on the presence of Jesus. I said, ‘Whatever happens, it is worth it for what You did for me.’ I learned what it means to wrestle with God because at that point I told God, ‘Even if they rape me I will not renounce You.'”
At first, when Iman began to pray in the cell, the guards told him to stop. “I’ve been with you all day,” he responded. “I’ve answered every question you asked. But you can’t take prayer from me.”
“Those prayers,” he told me later, “in the cell were so sweet. Whenever I prayed, I would just cry. The sweetness was that I knew I wasn’t there because of things I had done wrong. That made my prayers very sweet, because I knew I was there because of God.”
Iman would pray for the guards who brought his meager food. He would pray God’s blessings on their lives and marriages and families. Soon, guards were sneaking extra food to him.
For twenty-one days, Iman was in solitary confinement. Then guards moved him to a larger jail, among four hundred other prisoners…
TO BE CONTINUED…
Date: 11th November 2023
Martyr: Iman
Location: Turkey, 2010
Source: When Faith Is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians
Author: Todd Nettleton
Suffering Saturday 064
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