🔓 Demystifying Those D$&@ Liver Enzymes. With Prof Jill Maddison.

We've just launched the Iran 30 app helping Christians around the world pray with the church in Iran. In the app you'll see real prayer requests from believers in the region plus gets access to the Iran 30 to guide your prayers each day. Available on the App Store and Google Play just search Iran 30. Welcome back to Jesus Speaks Farsi. This season we're uncovering some hidden gems from our archived episodes. We believe these stories carry fresh weight in light of everything Iranians have faced in 2026. The story God is writing in Iran is still a good one and we hope these episodes will encourage you. In today's episode we revisit Joe's conversation with Asreen. Asreen was filled with anger and a desire for justice and revenge until one night she had a miraculous dream and came face to face with Jesus. And I went standing in front of him and we were very close when he was writing in front of him. And then I could hear his breath. Let's get started. Hello, welcome back to Jesus Speaks Farsi and to our next episode in the Hidden Gems series. I'm Chrissy and I'm very pleased to be here with Joe. How are you today Joe? I'm doing pretty good. A little bit tired actually. I've been traveling a bit the last week but I'm happy to be back home and get settled in. Great. Kids are happy back. Anything exciting we should know about? Yeah, me and some of our team at Elan, we were at the Wild Files Festival in the UK and it was such a great event. Everybody who led that work so hard was about 8,000 people there coming together for worship and teaching. And so we got to do some work there with our Iranians. It was really, really fun. Very cool. And if we met you at that event, special welcome to you to the Jesus Speaks Farsi podcast. Great. Joe, well you're here to introduce our next pick for our Hidden Gems series. So which episode have you chosen? Yeah, so I'm picking one of that I would consider a really good friend, actually, Asherine. She, one of the reasons we're good friends is we both have boys the same age so they hang out together. And so I've got to spend quite a bit of time with her. But her episode that we released in January 2023. So it's three and a half years old now is such a fun one because the way she talks about her experience in countering Jesus always blows me away. I've said it many, many times but it always makes me excited to meet Jesus one day because she speaks about him in such such a reality to her. It's just very real to her. But the reason I picked it for this season is because Asherine is actually from a Kurdish background. And so her family was heavily persecuted by the Iranian government. So with the news and you know the talk of which people are in charging around the war going on. It's a reminder that Asherine was actually persecuted her and her family not for Christianity just because they were different and Kurdish. And so I think it brings a bit of more understanding to the situation in Iran. There's many different people groups that are affected by the harsh realities of the Iranian government and Asherine was on the receiving end of some of that. Okay, yeah, I'm very glad you've chosen this episode. It's one of my favorites as well. I love the vividness with which she just explains particularly spoiler alert, the dream that she has and just the vividness of that and you really feel in the moment with her. It's beautiful and I'm so glad that our listeners will get to hear her journey, her experience. And as you say, 2026 has been a astonishing remarkable challenging year and just for me as well, the reminder from Asherine that even the most quote unquote unlikely people can come to know the Lord. In a sense, she to me felt an unlikely person to come to know Jesus and then go into full time ministry because of her backstory, which our listeners will hear. But yeah, just that reminder that nothing is impossible for God. Yeah, and another spoiler alert is that Asherine, she was planning on joining the Kurdish militia to fight against the Iranian government. I mean, she was said on it that that's what she was going to do and she encountered the Lord and she became a Christian and now she's fighting a different fight because she she and she's doing great work in the region now unbelievable work, but instead of fighting that kind of political battle to try and win to try and do this to try and get these people in charge. She is convinced that the way to truly help the people of Iran is to build the church in Iran to build the kingdom of God. And so that's the battle that she fights now. And but she was she had a heart set on going to a real war against the Iranian government. So I just think it's because that's what we're all about here at Jesus speaks Farsi and the work that we do we want to build the kingdom of heaven and many times it can be it can be tempting for us to to go down another path. So I love answering stories for that and it's it's very, very important to be reminded of that in this current season. Amen. Well, without risking another spoiler, let's just roll it. Welcome back to another episode of Jesus speaks Farsi and I'm excited for our new series encounters with Jesus and I couldn't think of anybody better than to kick off this series within one of my longest Iranian friends as Reen when I first started working with Iranian people and that took my first trip to the middle east. She was one of the first Iranian leaders I met and she has a wonderful testimony, but I know just want you to hear her testimony today and how she's encountered Jesus. I want you to hear her love for the Lord and I want you to hear about how her encounters with Jesus has drawn a closer to the Lord and also her love for other people that would have similar experience with the Lord the same way. So Ashreem, welcome to the show. Thank you, Joe. It's nice to be here. Good. So, hey, would you start off by telling us a bit of your testimony growing up in Iran? What was that like? How you encountered the Lord first? Sure. So I was born in a family in Sanandac, Kurdistan, the part of Iran and so I was Muslim, so a Nem Muslim. But since I was very child, I was experienced the pain and sorrow of the situation that it was especially in our city because of my cousins that had been killed because of the they were political and. So just let me jump in there so you were a Sunni Muslim from a Kurdish family. So if you've listened to our previous episode, we've talked about this before about Kurdish people in Iran, kind of a minority, sometimes not liked by the government and Sunni Islam in Iran is different from the dominant Shia Islam, which the government is Shia Islam, is that correct? Yes. Alright, okay, so keep going. So I was experiencing the violence and the sorrow and the pain and the anger, especially when I was seeing my mom how she was having breaking heart for her family. So I was always searching for the true love and of course they were introducing Allah to us as our God and as our Creator. So I was always wanted to have relationship with him. And I was thinking as much as doing a prayer, like we did five time a prayer and go to the mosque with my mom and have a long prayer time, sometimes like we were going in Ramadan, night until morning and I was like six or seven years old, eight years old and I was going with my mom. And we had like a night prayer until in the morning, but I was experiencing the one way relationship and I was feeling that this God that created us, like created me, he doesn't even know me. Does he even know me? Does he even care that I'm coming because of him, that I want him, but as much as I was going to be eight years old, nine years old, ten years old, I was more sure about this, that he doesn't know maybe if I am exist. Did you grow up speaking Fasi or Kurdish language, or was it a mix? So the first time I speak Fasi, it was in at school, that's when I went to school, they didn't allow us to speak in Kurdish or mother language. So I really, I recognize that all our language is forbidden. within in our country. So I cannot use a Kurdish language. So you spoke Kurdish at home then when you went to school you had to learn fasting. But in the mosque all the religion was in Arabic or did they speak? They were speaking, so when we were going to mosque of course we were speaking Kurdish together but everything we were reading it was Arabic. So I have been reading Arabic Quran in Arabic since like I was seven and I was very good at Arabic. And then we had a translation for that. So yeah we had hours in mosque to just sit down and reading Arabic and Quran and Arabic and having the translation in four seasons we were killed very little. And so all this time as well as you're growing up into your teenage years your family cousins and uncles you're kind of persecuted and not liked by the Iranian government and the officials because you're Kurdish family. Yes my mom's side yes my dad's side they weren't like that only it was my mom's side. So the sorrow was from like my mom's side like when I was going to visit my cousins or my aunt I was hearing her crying every time and my cousins crying every time. And the stories that we were hearing from them like we were getting together the stories always about the the fights that they had for freedom rights for fighting for people's rights and the thing that had happened to them. So I knew that this government doesn't like Kurdish people. Do you have any memories or anything that happened to you because of your family being Kurdish? Did you receive any persecution anything inside your arms? So when I was 16 so I was deciding to just be a good person and not doing anything wrong because I didn't want the I didn't want the government to arrest me or something happened to me like my cousins. So I just wanted to educate myself and just go to school the most important thing for me was the school and to do good thing. And then so I was going to school and my focus was on school and my sport. What's small was that? I was playing basketball and running also. Okay. I just came my focus was on basketball more. And then so one day we received a letter from the secret police and it teleautic Sipa in Sanandaj and it was that I need to introduce myself as soon as possible. Otherwise they're going to come and arrest me at school. So you had to go to the police station and show yourself? Yes and it's not a police station. This is called I don't know what is it. It teleautic Sipa. Maybe I search. Like a government building or something like this or registration service. The name of this it's like something that you know. Oh, this is a very serious thing about politics. It's not about crime or like something like editing. This is this is focused on politics. So curves information. I don't know something like this. But so it's a lot of Sipa Sanandaj. So they they they so we knew this is politics things. And so when we read it with my mom they said you have three days to introduce yourself. Otherwise we come to arrest you at school or your house or anywhere we see we find you. When I read that suddenly I felt that oh, I'm helpless. And because that name is a serious very serious name in Iran. And know what what will happen to me and even they are telling me that we're coming to arrest you if I don't go. But I didn't do it. So this is just because you're from a Kurdish family. Yes. I was 16 year old girl being told to go and introduce themselves or look at arrested because you're Kurdish. Yes. And so you were scared. Yes, I was scared. I didn't know why I should go. Yeah. So my mom said, okay, I'm going to take you there because if they come to arrest you they will take you and I don't know where you go. So if I take you I know where they took you. So I wasn't agree with my mom. But I obeyed her. So she took me. We went to they said come to this place. We went to that place and there were soldiers there and then we stayed there and we showed the paper. As soon as we showed the paper like after two minutes, the we were waiting for that door to get open me and my mom go inside. Maybe they have some question from us and we answered and my mom was thinking maybe like that. And then suddenly we saw that the white van car came and stopped and it had like dirt on it. Okay. The car was different than the car I was seeing it. And then I saw two big men came out of the car and then they took my hand and they threw me inside of the van. And your mom stayed up. And my mom was screaming. Wow. And then and then my mom was screaming where are you taking my daughter. I brought it. I brought it here myself to not these things happen to her. And then she was screaming. She was screaming. And then I just I was in my heart. I was feeling for my mom that why did you bring me? Do you know that they are so they put something black on my they put a black thing on my mask. And they pushed me very hard under the chair. And then I was you see these days in the I know social media that when they are taking some people the moms or the people are with them are going to their car to outletting them go. Like I was hearing my mom that she's doing that. So she put herself on the front of the talk to stop him from the end. And they just go and went and they didn't tell anything to her. I was terrified and I was and then something that at that moment helped me was the stories that my cousins were telling to me. I know that as a child I shouldn't listen to the story or I shouldn't hear those stories. But I said okay this repeat this is repeating. So you knew people that this had happened to? Yes. And but they were my cousins but they were politic. They don't political people. You would use the innocent 60s. Yeah I didn't know anything. And then so they took me to that place that I didn't know so they when we went a little bit they bring like I came out from the car and they said just be still do not move. And then I said there and I didn't know what's going on. So I just know that the door like a garage went up and we went under something. And then they took me out they gave me something like a stick to catch it because there wasn't any women there. So I went to I don't know I walked up stone I don't know I went to the room and I sat down and they took the black thing from my head and I just had a bag. So they gave you a stick to guide you because they didn't want to touch me. They didn't want to touch you but they were okay kidnapping you. Yes and then it's hilarious because when they took me from my mom they were grabbing me and throw me into the car. And I don't know maybe because that place had camera or something like the place that you went. I don't know they were. That's crazy. So I went and sat down and there were four people interrogating me as a as someone that knows so many things. And I was saying I don't know anything and they said no we know your cousin was 16 and and then they telling me that how they killed him. And then you're 16 too and we know that you are doing things. And then they're giving me papers to so I just shorted the story. So they were scared that you were going to become a political person like your cousins. I think it was that because they said that they didn't tell me that you become. They said that you've done this cry. Like you are communicating and cooperating with communism group. Kurdish people and democrats. And that's so funny because democrats and communism are not together. Like I was like a spy between them. So and I was saying I'm not. How can I do that? And then I was thinking wow I can do these things that they told me to do. And then I was signing the thing that I had to sign. They were very violent. They were speaking very badly to me that I said okay they told me that okay you cannot imagine what a future you will have and how we are going to kill you. And they were just telling this thing that they convinced me that I'm going to die. And I said okay after this they sent me I don't know maybe one day I've been prison and then they killed me because they believed that I've done these things. So they said okay then just sign it because we're going to kill you. And then I didn't want them to say so many bad things to me and to be forced to sign it. So I signed it. Anything they gave me that I had a gun that I just communicating and who operating with communism and they were signing saying you were guilty of all these things and I did these things. It was different things. So when I signed them like it took me four or five hours and when I signed them so they told me that okay now you know that what will happen to you. So they describing my how they're going to kill me. So I believe that so at that moment I died. I died and then I said okay I hope that they killed me immediately. I did not like not torture me. So a few hours passed and then something had changed. I was sitting there. My eyes was closed. I was waiting for them to take me to the thing that they've told me that happened and then suddenly they were talking together. They were saying things to each other. I couldn't hear them so and then they came and put the black thing again. We put them back. Yes and they took me and I was thinking they're taking me to the place somewhere else and then they killed me and then I felt that I'm going back the way that they brought me and then I went to the car and then we went somewhere and they opened the door and they pushed me out of the door. And out of the door of the car. They pushed you onto the street. Yeah they just did like this and then I was under the ground because I was waiting to go to die. Yeah. And I saw that there's the place that there's no voice and then I got off. I take away my thing and then I saw oh this is a street. Oh they've gone. They didn't see any people around you. It was like very far away. So I got up and I walked through my sister's house. So what happened? What became of 16-year-old us? Really after that? What did you do? So they did wrong because before that I just wanted to go to school and just do writing and have peace and everything but after that I changed. I don't know what happened that in one day I just changed. I got so much courage but I was so angry and I wanted to go and fight for my people this time. I said okay I know now who these people are. So when you say your people you mean the Kurdish people? Kurdish people? Kurdish militia that Kurdish people didn't fight it. Yes. Okay. And for all the girls who haven't died and all the boys who haven't died like I just experienced it one day but I did. I was dead. I didn't have life. So I said okay these these people have to go. These people have to leave our country so I'm going to fight against them. And so I was just waiting for a time to find people like Democrats people to join them and to know and to prepare and to be ready to fight against the government. And I wanted really to fight for my cousins who have been just died. So when you say fight you mean literally fight like train to be a soldier to pick up a gun and fight against the government? Of course. Imagine that you see that I wasn't see myself at that time. I was seeing other girls, daughters, sons of other families that are taking like this and God brought me out. It wasn't that person that brought me. I know God used that person for me to be out because he wanted me to be alive. But imagine I had so much passion for people that why these people are coming and use their powers to destroy their future. So it wasn't about me anymore. I wasn't like I didn't want it to revenge. I wanted to fight for justice. So I didn't have revenge. I didn't want it to take revenge. I just wanted to find it for justice. And for that I had to be ready. So I started to reading books about so many political books about the thing. And then I don't know what happened. The door was opening for me to meet people. So I was meeting people, meeting people going to their to their meetings. I just want to short this. And then I was like almost 20 years old that I said, okay, I was 18 that I wanted to go. But because of my sister and my brother, I said, no, they're not ready now. So I said, okay, my sister was older. My brother was younger. And then but a little bit forward, I was just getting ready every day every day to go to the Kurdish militia to join the army. So I want to stop there. So you're around 20 years old and you're going ready to join the Kurdish militia. I love people don't know about this Kurdish militia. But these are people that kind of live in the mountains. They're a real fighting force. There's women that fight with them. And tell us a little bit about the Kurdish militias. They don't have a country of their own, but yet they have this group of trained fighters. So for example, and for example, in my city, the people who didn't want to discover men because we don't want this government since 43 years ago. It's not like since they come for people to stand and say, we don't want you. There's no justice in you and we don't want you. And so people have fight. Like now you see the protest. We were doing this 40 years ago, since 43 years ago. And then so they killed so many people. They just because there was only one Kurdistan. And so many people had to leave Kurdistan. And they went to Iraq and they had to go to the mountains to hide themselves and to be there. So from there they started to have their armies because so many people from Kurdistan were going there. But of course they for so many years, they couldn't do anything because they didn't have any support or anything, but they couldn't live in Kurdistan and Iran. But they didn't go to Europe or some other country because they wanted to be close to Kurdistan. They have close to their land. They still belong to the land. So there are people group without a country of their own, but yet there's people willing to fight for them. And so you're going to go enjoying this militia in the mountains as a 20 year old girl. So you're a sweet 16 year old trying to be a good student. Go to school, go to the mosque. You got snatched away by this van that shows up, takes your way, they interrogate you. They make you sign these things, these documents. You come out and you're angry in your Christ for justice. Maybe you become political and want to join the Kurdish militia. Right. All right. So what happened? Because you're not in the Kurdish militia now. Yes. So I don't know. It was something in my heart. For seven nights I said, okay, come to my dream. And I want to talk to you. On the seven nights I said, okay, this is the last night I'm asking you. You created me. If you come to my dream tonight, I will continue to do what you say. But if you not come to my dream, I know you are existed. I know you are creator, but I go to do whatever I want to do. And this is the last chance. So I slept. I went to sleep. And then I saw myself in a big building that there were people there. And these people were different. They were happy. They were peaceful. They were talking together. And I was so away from them that I was very lonely. I was like, I turned back. I wasn't like them. I turned back to the wall. And suddenly I heard a very nice voice that, why are you here? It was a man in my dream. I said that I'm here to talk to God. And then I was thinking that he's saying, she's crazy. Who can talk to God? And then he said, okay, God is coming. And you can talk to him. I said, what? He was crazy. This is impossible. How can God come even to this place? So I wanted something that I wasn't believe it. And then I was waiting there. Suddenly I heard those people starting saying, God is here. God is here. And I looked and I was thinking like I was looking at the walls everywhere that how can God be in this place? And then I saw a man walking among them. And I just saw a man with the hair, long hair, not seeing the face with the white dress. And they were worshipping him. And I said, wow, where am I? These people are worshipping men. And I was just saying to them in my mind, don't worship him. He's not God. He's a human. And then the man came back to me again. And he said, okay, God is here. Do you still want to talk to him? So it was ridiculous for me to think that he's God. But I said, yes, I wanted to talk to him. So when I said I want to talk to him suddenly, I felt that all the people were gone away. And he was standing like this. And I went standing in front of him. And we were very close. Like he was right in front of him. And then in my dream I felt that this is the holy man, maybe one of the prophets, but I didn't know who. And then I said, "Okay, he's a prophet, he has so much like lights, I don't know who he is." And then I said, "Okay, even though if he's a prophet, I don't want prophet, I want God." I said, "I'm here to talk to God." He said, "Talk." I said in my mind, "I just wanted to tell him, you're not God and I don't want prophet, I don't want even Muhammad." Because the Muhammad was the perfect man, I don't want anyone. I knew that he's not Muhammad. I don't know, I felt that in my dream. And then the second time I said, "I'm here to talk to God." And he said, "Talk." And then I said, "What, I'm here to talk to God." I couldn't say you're not God. And then he said, "Talk to me, I'm your God." So on the third time you asked him, he said, "Talk to me, I'm your God." When he said, "Talk to me, I'm your God." Oh wow, I was like, my mind just totally changed. I was 100% like, I was so sure that this person is God. I don't know how. And I'm standing before God and I'm talking to God. Because I never imagined God as a human or as a person or God can talk like this or come to this world. So I said, "Wow, I'm standing before God." So I started talking to him in my dream. What did you say to him? I don't remember anything. I started talking to him and it was for me, it was so amazing that it passed five hours. So in the dream, you felt like you were going for hours and hours just thinking about it? Five hours, like in my dream, it's something I felt that we passed five hours. And he's standing there, not sitting down, not going anywhere. There were so many people there waiting for him. And then he started talking to me. So you were speaking for five hours with him? I was speaking for five hours with him and he was just standing and listening. He just listened the whole time. The whole time and then I said, "Who is this God? Standing and listening for five of me? Who am I?" And then I finished and he stopped talking for so long to me. And I decided I didn't remember anything. And then. And at the same time you could feel there's all these people waiting around you. Yes. And even then he didn't look other side. He was completely focused on you. He was completely there focusing on me and was with me. And then I was thinking, "This is God of the universe who's standing there for me." So in my dream I don't know how in my heart, in my mind something just came to me that he is Jesus. He just. For some Jesus, he thought he was Jesus. So he was Jesus. And I'm like, "I knew that I'm talking to Jesus and Jesus is the Lord." Wow. So I woke up, I said, "I was with God and he was Jesus." So I knew no one could take away that from me. And then I told my family, so my room at that time was the picture of Lenin, Mark's, Chikwara. Like I was trying Chikwara myself. And so many political books and so many things that because I had to convince myself that I am this to go and to be successful. And then I told my family to my aunts and then they said, "They were looking at my walls and they were laughing and saying, "Okay, you became Communists." Now you are saying Jesus is the Lord and you are not being able to take away that from me. So they just think it's another face that the young gasoline is going through. She was political and now she believes Jesus, they just thought it was a face. But I was so happy. I said, "Wow, I talked to God. I saw God." Can I just stop crying? Because this is absolutely beautiful dream. But did you dream as a young child or a teenager because you said you wanted to see God in a dream? Did you dream before that? Or was this kind of the first dream that you really remember? Since I was a child, I always had a bad dream. Bad dreams. Bad dreams and then it stopped. But the bad dreams was always about that person or people are attacking us. Okay, so you had nightmares as a child. But for some reason when you were in 1920 you decided to ask God for a dream. And you encountered Jesus in the dream. So what happened? So no one believed me and I didn't know any Christian people. I didn't know. I never heard that Jesus is the Lord. I was thinking that what is this even Jewish people don't think like this. That Jesus is the Lord. So why he introduced himself like that to me? And then I said, "Okay, I don't know what's happening, but I'm just waiting." I waited for six months. Did you question, did you ever wave from, "Is this really God?" Or did I just eat something bad before I went to bed or were you totally convinced? No, I was totally convinced that I met God in my dream and God was Jesus. He Jesus is my creator. And it wasn't my heart. And I didn't know what is this, but I was knowing that this is true. But I couldn't even share it with someone because it was hilarious to them or it's like no one heard this before. It's true, you were crazy. And I shared it with one of the like Mullahs and. So you went to the mosque, you shared it with the Mullah. And then he said that be careful, that he mentioned this, that so many Christian people are coming to say that Jesus is the Lord and they want Muslim people to believe this. This dream is shows that you will be in danger of this situation. So be careful of that. And I said, "Oh, now even this is something bad." So the dream kind of made you go back to the mosque and start seeking God even more and asking questions from religious groups? But they didn't accept it. Like they were just convincing me that I'm sinful, that I have this dream. This is a deception from Satan. And then I was confused. When I woke up, I told God that if you come to my dream, my direction is changed. That means that only you can change the direction of my life. So when I woke up, I had the same idea to go to military, a Kurdish militia. So you were still going to go and join the Kurdish militia? Of course, but when I wake up, my path was changing. I don't know how. It was something that was directing me in a different way. And I couldn't like, I was like, I was like, surrender. I couldn't, I didn't know why I'm surrendering. And then my mom was in America at that time. So she called us. She said that I applied for you. And it took you two weeks to two months to come to America. You need to leave Iran right now and come to Turkey, me and my sister and my brother. So I said, okay, I'm going to take my sister, my brother and me, we're going to Turkey. And then after two weeks or two months, we're going to be in America. And then I'll go. So I give them to my mom. And then I'll go to. So you were going to take your brother and sister through Turkey to America, drop them off with your mom. And then you were going to come back and join the Kurdish militia. Yes. So we went to Turkey after one week. We met a sister and brother, Kourush and Tuba. So Kourush came and invited us to go to church. You just met them on the street. We were staying in the hotel. And then they were coming every week to that hotel, maybe two times a week, to evangelize to Iranians because they were. So the Israeli Indians in this hotel. Yes, they were full of Iranians who are getting visas to go to Europe, to go to America. So we were there waiting. And then. So Kourush gave us the New Testament. The right New Testament in Gilei, Saim As-Sih. Yeah. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. So when we went to church, me and sister, we were sitting down. They were talking about Jesus. Of course, and they were saying that Jesus came to this world. He loved the world. And the pastor was talking that he's not only for Jewish people. He's not. He didn't come only for that nation. He is for the whole world. And when he was talking about Jesus, my sister, Elbaud, me, and she's like asking, "They're talking about your dream." And I said, "Yes." And then I looked at the people around me, and then I see that, "Oh, everyone is agree with my dream." So this is something. This is right. This is something that was so happy. So we waited for two weeks. I was just reading the stories in the New Testament. What did you feel when you were reading that New Testament? So it was. Did you read the New Testament before going to church or. No, after we went. And then I recognized that this is the same Jesus that I met in dream. And then I went to sit down in the park, and I started crying so bad. And people were there. I didn't care. I don't know. I was so burdened on my heart. So I surrendered my life to Jesus at that time. I said, "I don't know you, but I give my heart to you as my Lord and my Savior." And I don't know you. You just do something that I believe you. So my relationship starts with Jesus. And as I was reading the Word of God God and talking with him because I learned from my dream to talk to Jesus. It doesn't matter who you are. I'm a Kurdish, Muslim, become a communism. Can you hear from your dream that Jesus has all the time in the world? When you speak from He can listen to five hours and He's still going to listen to you. Yes. So I gave my heart to Jesus and then so is a long story. My direction totally changed. I knew that I'm not going to Kurdish militia anymore. My life is to follow Him and to be in love with Him. So that's so incredible. So I want to ask you, we hear a lot of people who listen to stories from your family around in that part of the world. They hear rumors of people that meet Jesus in a dream and they become Christians. But what I want to ask you about as well is these encounters with Jesus are they just for a conversion so that a Muslim can become a Christian or do you continue to have encounters with Jesus like that? So I gave my heart to Jesus in 2006. And from then everything was happened to me, was inside of me. I know it was 2010 that I saw a lady, she said, I saw Jesus, he gave, when he bring out his heart from his chest and gave it to me. So this was another woman you met who had similar encounters? In 2010 she was a believer because I was encountered Jesus in my dream, I gave my heart and then I didn't have any dream. Yeah. This was four years after my believing. I was just really. So you had the one dream from Jesus on four years in past, you're trying to follow Jesus and you met this woman who told you her experience. Yes. And then I said, wow, wait, wait, wait, this thing's not happening to me. And then I told myself, Asring, you have the word of God, you have the relationship with Him. You see that everything, this change happening in you inside of you. Yeah. And then I was convincing me with these things, but I had this regret, I had this wish, I had this desire. But I wasn't, I was just asking Him one time. But and then I was just convincing myself, okay, read the word of God, talk to Him, have this relationship, go evangelize, go share the news, and this is it. But it was just going, going days by days and I was getting and love more with Jesus, but it was 2016 that encounters more started with Jesus. So you went years that past without having more encounters? Because you just thought, I'm a Christian now, I have the Bible, I can pray, to kind of convince yourself you didn't need those dreams. I knew that I want those dreams, but I wasn't gearing it or I wasn't like, I really wanted it, but I didn't know how to have it. Oh, okay. But so what happened, what was the next one? So as much as I went deep in the word of God and I understood about the feelings of the heavenly Father, feelings of Jesus, feelings of the Holy Spirit for us, and the thing that had happened to Paul, to John, to Peter, to Luke, and to Jacob. And then I was thinking how these people can be so much close and so much in love with Jesus that can, that can not, about doing, not about just go over, no, I knew that there is something when I was reading Philippians, when I was reading Matthew, when I was reading the gospel, and I was recognizing there is something that they have and I don't have. And then I was every day I start to telling to Jesus, Jesus, I want to be close to you. I knew this is crazy, I know this is a, this is a holy jealousy, but I want, I give this courage to myself. And I'm sorry, John, I'm sorry, Peter, but I want to be closer than Peter and John to you. So I started having courage to say that even to Jesus. I was telling to myself, okay, maybe this never happened, but I told my desire to him. And I know that I decided to say, so what was that desire just to see him again and to speak face to face and what, what were you thinking when you say I desired that? What, what was in your mind? You were desirous. So I knew as a believer, even if I don't have a dream, even if I don't have a encounter, even if I don't see Jesus and face to face, I have to be faithful. I have his word, and he saw me that I did it. Yeah, yeah, not perfectly, but I knew that I have his word, and his word is talking to me every day, but now I'm not satisfied anymore. You want more. I want more. And then I start having time with him three or four hours. Right. And the morning, early in the morning, every day with him. And then I was speaking in tongues, I was talking with him. So one thing that had happened, Joe, that I won't, I'm sure this will be encouraged. I told Jesus that I'm not going to share this with anyone. This is going to be treasure only between me and you, but I shared it this in founders one time because he told me to say it. This is only not for you. So I want to share this that in what happened that my, my view is changed, that there is no this, um, crimination between anyone. Like God sees us, the way that he sees everyone. And it's just, it's not our family or degrees or I don't know which thing we do, how much success, how much failures. It's about our heart that God, he is God. He is not like amazed by these things because he is God. Yeah. He's just amazed by the team that we have in our heart, our heart. How is our heart for him? Along with her husband, Cambies and their son Nikon, Asreen felt the call to go to a dangerous country we won't name for security reasons to lead a church. We'll skip over part of this conversation, but to cut a long story short, they wrestled through saying yes to Jesus because of the danger in that particular country. We'll pick back up with Asreen, telling me about the time she was talking to Jesus about going to lead this church. And then I remembered of Nikon or son and then I said, how about Nikon? I thought he's going to tell me that I'm going to find a good family for Nikon. I was ready to leave Nikon at that time. And the beautiful thing was that Joe that I don't know what he did that I was ready to leave everything, I was ready to leave my life and leave my son. And that was impossible. And then he said, if you, Cambies and Nikon be at the same place and three of you die at the same time, are you still willing to go? And then again, I don't know what happened inside me that I said, yes, Lord, yes, we go. And this is not imagined. This is what will happen. And then when I said, yes, we will go. And then I heard his voice for the third time he said, asking, this will never happen. When he said that and then I just seemed like I was, I wasn't asleep, I was waking, I was awake. And then he said, Lord, you were just testing me. So I said, this is it. This is, there is no discrimination. There is no, who am I? I was waiting for me to be 70 years old. Maybe I planted so many chairs. Maybe I go so many places. So that encounter with the Lord was different than a regular prayer. You actually heard a voice speaking to you asking you those questions. Yes, Jesus was there. Jesus was there and Jesus himself was asking me and Jesus put me in a situation that this is happening. And then I said, yes. And then after that, so I was in love more with Jesus who was seeing me as someone to tell me, are you willing to die for me? Because he doesn't, he's not, he's not the God that told, told us go die. No, he wants us to be alive. But what is, and what is this? How can he trust me that he's just telling me go and die for me? And I say, yes, I go. So my relationship has changed so much. So and then there was no fear. There was nothing in my heart. So we went to that country and there was some threatening bombing and some places. And because of that encounter that I had with him, I hadn't had any fear. So it incorrect me if I'm wrong, but it seems like from this encounter with Jesus, the question started with Asurina, you ready to die for me or you ready to give your life for me. But what it ended up becoming was you felt now Jesus asks us, are you willing to live for me? fully and fully. And so did that encounter just be like it made you more on fire to live for Jesus every day? Yes. So the encounter was that I have the, I know if I say this, but I'm saying it with, I know with grace and with courage and with, I know with craziness that he see me. I know this is crazy as he sees Abraham. Yeah. I can be friends with him. And so you would say that not just for you, but for all believers. Of course. So when you say there's no discrimination, that's for stay at home mom, that's for a man that works nine to five in a business office. It's for a teenage. Exactly. But Jesus has no discrimination. He wants to speak to each one of those. Exactly. And, and we just have to give a time and be and waiting every day for him. So his word is talking to us every day. But I'm waiting every day for him to, so you, would you say that you can't, you live there because she's actually has got a bad mind in front of us right now. So would you say that you live every day like reading your Bible, praying, but with the hope and the anticipation that whether it's a dream or an encounter with Jesus, they don't happen every day but you hope for them all the time. Yes. And it happens whenever he wants and whenever, even when I'm not waiting and it's a different ways, even at night, every night when I go to sleep, I talk to him. Yeah. Before I sleep, I talk to him. When I open my eyes, I talk to him and my whole, even more than these job, I know for everyone is like this, but my hope, my desire, my love, my joy is the time that I meet Jesus in heaven. Yeah. Almost every day I think about this and this is like my, my joy is coming from this that I'm going to see him. I'm going to meet him forever. I'm going to be with him forever and he's not away from me. And this is, so I learned that this is only not happened for people in Old Testament. When I believe that it became more and we should be aware because you mentioned also people want to take this away from us. If Satan wants to take this from us, doubt wants to take this from us, but we need to be, we need to have faith. This is supernatural and we need to step on it. And if something like those encounter that we have with Jesus, it's not only for us. Jesus doesn't come to have encounter to me with me only for me. Everything he does, it's for me and his church, for people, to blessing people. So I believe that every believer must take courage to go in more deep relationship with Jesus and allow Jesus to encounter them the way he wants. All right, well, Aswin, I could sit and listen to you all day and I know there's many other times you've encountered the Lord in similar ways, but we are coming to the end of our time together. So I think that's a beautiful place to finish that the Lord gives no discrimination to people whether you're Abraham in the Old Testament or you are just a regular person working a regular job. The Lord wants to encounter you in his time and in his way, he just wants us to have open hearts and believe in it. So Aswin, before we go, is there anything that our listeners can pray for you about? We love and are so grateful that you came and shared your story with us. Is there anything that we can pray for you? Thank you so much for your time and thanks for allowing me to share my heart with you. Of course, and before that, I want to say that I want to say a verse that I prayed through this for myself and for the church. And something that I experienced when I go deep, more deep, what encountering with Jesus was that when I was reading the word, believing it for myself and declared in my relationship with Jesus, believing it had happened not only in 2000 years ago, not only in 6000 years ago, but even happening right now. So I like this is one of the verses that I always pray for myself, for my family, for the church, for people in Iran, that is in Jeremiah and the verse is a verse as a belt is bound around the waist. So I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me. It clears the Lord to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. So I pray like this for myself when I pray this, Lord, I want to be a belt around your waist to glorify your name, to praise your name, to be honor your name. And for the church, for your church also, to be close that much to you, like a belt that is just close to you and it's not taking away from you. So I just want to finish with this that anyone is hearing me today. This is for everyone. This calling is for everyone. When we read the word of God, believe it, that it's happening for us also and take those verses, read it, believe it, declare it in our lives, in our church, and for the people. And then when we just read it, believe it, declare it when we walk with Jesus, that's, it happened. Alright, so we're going to do this. You can pray for us, we're going to do something a little bit different. Ashrin, I'm going to ask you to pray right now for anybody who's listening, who's saying I want that, I want to be like a belt around Jesus's waist and I want him more and more. Would you be able to pray for our listeners right now? Of course. Alright. Thank you. So I pray through Jeremiah 13, 11, Lord Jesus, we love you and we honor you and you are so precious for us. You are our Lord, our Savior and our King. You are the Lord that is alive and you are with us. I pray for everyone who is hearing me today that receive this verse, receive this blessing. I pray that as a belt is bound around the waist, I pray that you give courage. You give desire, you give willingness to your church that as a belt is bound around the waist. I pray that everyone who's hearing me today, experience this verse. So you bound them, you bound everyone as you did for the people of Israel and Judah around your waist to be your glory, to be the glory for your name, to be the praise for your name, to be the honor for your name. I pray and I believe Jesus that you hear us and you have this desire for us to be close to you as a belt to your waist. We love you. Amen. That's really thank you so much. Thank you, Joel. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Jesus Speaks Farsi. Asrine's testimony is so beautiful and hearing how God transformed her heart, turning her yearning for justice from one of revenge to one of ministry is so incredible. I hope you were as encouraged by it as I was. Please continue to lift up Iran in your prayers, especially as conflict continues between Iran and the US. Find more ways to pray by visiting elam.com/irran-thirty-app. Discover more about the church in Iran and ways that you can get involved through prayer or giving by visiting elam.com. We hope you have been encouraged by today's episode and until next time have a great week. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. And if you haven't already, would you take a moment to subscribe to our podcast or leave us a rating or review? We love for more people to learn what Jesus is doing amongst Farsi speakers today. Jesus Speaks Farsi is produced by Elam Ministries, a non-profit ministry whose mission is to strengthen and expand the church in the Iran region and beyond. For more information, resources and ways to partner. Visit Elon.com.