Iran’s Church Amid War: Stories of Lament and Worship

[Music] Welcome back to Jesus Speaks Farsi. Today Jo is talking with Nulafar, a member of the worship team, about how Iranians have experienced worship in new ways during this year of trauma and war. Although the suffering and lament has been deep, the goodness and nearness of God has been felt by many. [Music] Worshiping this God, worshipping the good God is actually that much powerful that can hold your tears and your trust at the same time. You can trust him with pain, you can trust him with tears in your eyes. We're so happy you're joining us today and we hope you'll be encouraged by these stories, they illustrate the beautiful heart of worship in the Persian speaking church. Let's get started. Welcome back to Jesus Speaks Farsi and in this series we're talking about the church in Iran during the midst of this war that is going on. There's been a ceasefire right now but there is still war in Iran and today we are going to be talking about worship in the midst of war. What does that look like and how is the church on the ground worshipping in Iran today and for this episode we brought on Nulafar who she's been on the podcast before. If you want to hear her story, the title of that episode is My Key to encountering God. It's really beautiful testimony of how Nulafar came to Christ and his worship in Bukhneelah. Welcome back to Jesus Speaks Farsi. It's nice to have you with us. Thank you so much Joe. Hello to everyone. I'm so happy to be with you guys in this podcast. Great and I just want to give everybody a quick recap. So we've all seen Iran in the news recently, the war going on and we've been praying. Thank you so much for your prayers and your care for the Iranian Church. It really is felt by the people on the ground but I want to give us just a quick overview because some of the things that have happened in Iran over the last 12 months, they feel like old news but they're really important. So in the last 12 months, Iran's church has gone through persecution, severe persecution. We still have some of our leaders and people we know inside the prisons. It was only last June in the summer when Israel and America bombed Iran for the first time and then towards the end of 2025 there was not total economic collapse but a huge economic problem in Iran that led to mass protests across the whole nation at the end of 2025 into early January and it was early January when these massacres happened which again, it feels like old news but it was only a few months ago that the Iranian government massacred an estimated 50 to 80,000 of their own citizens and now the country is at war. So this has all taken place in the last 12 months and in the last 12 months we have not seen the church shrink back but it sounds a bit cliche but I think it is truly the reality of the church in Iran is that like stars that shine brighter in the darkness the church of Iran is shining and it is coming forth. So Nila Fah, that's all happened in the last 12 months. So what have you been doing for the last 12 months? We know that you're a worship leader but how do you what do you do day by day with worship interacting with people in Iran? As you said there are many churches inside Iran which they've been amazing during these past massacres and the very bad situations during the previous war but especially we have worship leaders inside Iran which they actually lead inside the house churches. So most of what I was doing it was training worship leaders alongside Roosevelt and the other worship team. So one of my main concerns was to teach them, to mentor them, to help them to equip them, to lead worship even with no instruments, even when they have lots of questions even when they are not in a very certain future mindset like they don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Yeah I want to jump in there because my church experience has predominantly been in the UK and in America where I live now I mean I've traveled, I've been involved with the Iranian church so I know a bit for those of us who live outside of the Iran region. When we think about training worship leaders we think about you know the Sunday morning production making sure the sound is good, making sure we're picking the right song is making sure people are on time this kind of thing and that is where many people's minds go to when we are talking about training worship leaders. Can you just dive in a little bit more the difference between the way we train worship leaders around the world and how we train worship leaders for those inside Iran. Yeah sure. One of the things is that in our worship team that I say that we train them, we mentor them, many of us we had this experience to lead worship inside Iran when we were in Iran. So I don't say most of the things but some of the things are our own experiences. How we dealt with uncertainty, how we dealt with persecution and even though we thought like the house church is so small like maybe three or four people but at the same time I was the leader of the house church so there was a responsibility I had to take. So one of the things is that we give them the vision, we give them the dreams, we give them the truth about what is being worship leader in the middle of no equipment when you don't have any equipment to lead worship. When you don't have keyboard, when you don't have guitar, what do you do? How you can lead people into worship, not just with instruments and not just even by singing but how the shape of your heart, the true mindset of worshiping the Lord can lead people actually. As much as you are close to God and as much as you understand he is worthy of your praise and worship even when you don't have a good voice even if you don't have instruments that shape their worship, that shape their theology about God, about worship. So this is one of the things and the other thing is that we listen to people right now we are not in Iran physically but we need to listen to them, we need to hear their pains, we need to hear their journey, how they are going through their journey with Jesus, what is their you know, what are their obstacles? Like what are the things that we can help them but mostly our own experiences about leading worship inside house churches and train them mentoring them with truth, with telling them the truth. Yeah so it leads me to this next question, we've been able to spend quite a bit of time over the last few months together and I've observed and watched and seen a little bit of your journey and one thing that really blew me away was after the massacres in January, it was an incredibly hard time for many Iranians, you know people lost loved ones, the whole nation suffered and went through trauma and and one thing I saw you do and we did as an organization was this lamenting worship, we went through the book of lamentations and I watched you you know worship and weep at the same time. What are your takeaways from that moment of this kind of lamenting worship because it's not something we typically do in churches that I've attended in the West? In one word if I want to summarize it, it will be painful but beautiful. You know when I think about the massacre that happened and I've lost my dear ones there is nothing in my mind but crying you know because I've lost them, I don't have them anymore, I cannot text them anymore, you know they are real people that we've lost, not just me many people but you know in the gospel of John actually the lament journey was really related for me to one of the verses that Jesus is talking about, seed in gospel of John, in the gospel of John in chapter 12 he says actually unless a caranel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if it dies it produces many seeds so in my own language and then I went to the man's journey, what was happening was that I felt dying seed. I felt the truth of this picture, so many times I was just reading it, but that was a moment that I was leaving it. You know, I was leaving this picture that there is a power in dying actually. And you know, when the seed is dying, it's not beautiful to hear. It's the fruitfulness having testimonies. These are beautiful, but you know, the testimonies and being fruitful doesn't happen if the seed doesn't die. It was amazing actually for me to, because I've worked with the church in around Fertre for almost a decade now and I love these people, but I didn't experience the same kind of lament as my Iranian brothers and sisters, because it happened in their own nation to their own people. And I lamented on that journey with you and watched you and joined in, but one of the things that truly amazed me was we didn't wait for the breakthrough and the rejoicing to come until you started to worship. The worship was in the midst of the suffering and the pain. And you know, I think about a lot of our listeners, they've not seen their own families and nation massacred, but they have suffering on their own level, whether it's health, relational work. What, what are your takeaways from that season of lamenting worship, painful worship that you would like to share with our listeners and how they can worship in the midst of their suffering? That we have a beautiful God, that we have a good God, that there is a truth behind all the pain and darkness that we see, that sometimes we experience them. And the most important thing is that worshipping this God, worshipping the good God is actually that much powerful, that can hold your tears and your trust at the same time. You can trust him with pain, you can trust him with tears in your eyes, as David was doing the same. Like when we read the Psalm 23, in the, you know, two, three verses, he says, "I know I have a good shepherd, I don't like anything if I have him, but if even I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I know he's a strength." You know, you know, he has this mindset, he has this picture that I can have pain, I can have tears in my eyes, even I can walk through my enemies, but with this understanding that he will provide me a table full of mercy, you know, in front of the eyes of my enemies. So this is what I've learned, that I don't need to be ashamed of my pain, of my lament, you know, I can be real, be truthful, and you know, this is the only chance we have on earth to praise him, to worship him with pain, because, you know, in heaven there is no pain and there is no tears. But the only chance we get to praise him with pain and tears is on earth, is in the middle of suffering. Yeah, that's, that's a beautiful thought to take this opportunity, because when, when we enter into eternal paradise, there won't be any need for trust or having to worship him through pain anymore. So let me, let me play devil's advocate a little bit. So, you know, I'm looking from the outside, I have friends, family members who would ask this question, you know, the Iranian church has suffered so much. I know people who have spent a lot of time in prison, there's people in prison now, we've seen these massacres take place, Iran is a war again, it's being bombed. Why worship God when so many bad things are happening in Iran? You know, why, why turn to Jesus? Why should we sing songs to a God who lets all these bad things happen? I don't want to pretend that I have all the answers, honestly. You know, I have my own journey and you saw me during the lament journey, I was crying the loudest. But one of the things that I can think of, that I've learned, I saw the Iranian church, you know, again, I want to refer to David. When you read the song 88, the whole song is about nagging and he, David is, you know, non-stop saying that I don't see any hope, there is just darkness. And he finished actually the song with that. I don't see any hope, there is just darkness. So if this verse is in the Bible and if the Bible is the book of the stories of God, with his own people, it means I have my own verse, my own journey with God in the Bible, in my daily routine day, you know. Praising and worshipping God, even though you are going through persecution, you're in the prison and they've beating you and they take your child, they kill them. Even if these things happen, even these all darkness happening, but you are praising him and worshipping him not because what you see, because you've experienced, you've tasted and seen, you know he is good. And this is your choice. He gives you choice, you know. He gives you this choice to worship him with your, what we call it, on shore when you're uncertain. You know, he gives you this chance to worship him when you're uncertain. And actually this is amazing that when there is no pain, you don't need to choose worshipping God. You feel it and you will worship him. But when there is pain and persecution, you have to choose. And because you choose to worship him, because you know he's good, you know it, you've tasted it, you've seen it in good days. So he is the same, the situation being changed, he doesn't change. He says, I am, I who I am, you know. So that's the thing. In the heart days you have to choose to worship him. You have to choose him again and again and again. So because you have to choose him, it's a sacrifice. It's not easy, but it's pure, it's full of oil and it carries a fire with it. That's why I love the churches in Iran. I love the Iranian church. It carries such a fire, it carries such oil, you know, because it comes out of a choice of worshipping him during persecution with pain. This really is quite incredible. It reminded me one of the best pieces of marriage advice I was ever given was you love your wife when you feel like it and you love your wife when you don't feel like it. And it's kind of like the relationship with the Lord is we worship him when we feel like it and we worship him when we don't because we love him. I want to take this back because I remember we walked through the massacres, the lamentations and then about a month later, this was February earlier this year, I was on a call with you and it was actually blew me away after we were just chatting about some things and you said a few things on that call that just stuck with me and have really, really inspired me. And so it was after you'd had a conversation with one of your worship leaders inside Iran. And so it'd been a very difficult time again, just to remind people we'd seen horrific things happen in Iran. We are friends and family with the people who would suffer these things and you had a conversation. So tell me about, tell our audience about that conversation you had and how it affected you and changed you once you spoke to that worship leader in Iran. Yeah, one of our worship leaders, like her name is Bahaar and I love her. I love her passion for God for worshiping him. I was talking to her after 16 days that the internet was shot down. She randomly called me and she said, I found a VPN I could call a good, bright message to you. And she sent me a voice message, but before this voice message, she wrote this message. She said that Nilufar in these days, I've done nothing but worship God in my room in the massacre time through tears and the songs I've lived that to heaven. I've never worship God like this before. *laughs* Blue me a very real. I was thinking if I was in Iran, I don't know even if I could concentrate and you know keep singing and worshiping God in my own room When I hear the shouts, the you know the killing is happening and it was amazing. She sent me her voice message and the whole Song she was singing the only thing she was saying it was that God raised up for me Do something for me. I know that you're a good father. I will trust in you. Raise up for me I love that I just was reminded of David I'm sure if David physically was on earth seriously He was doing the same in the middle of this war and this massacre was happening. Yeah Yeah, I remember that vividly set I think one of the things you said to me on that call was Joe I was worshiping the Lord one way but the people inside Iran will worship him a different way because they'd experienced and joined in his suffering I want to move us on a little bit to something different because I've seen this as well in the last few weeks Which I think is beautiful So this is is is is during the war this is in the last few weeks and what I've seen you do and some other members of the team Is these worship events in different places around the world and with war and politics and there's so many different opinions and people Some people say we should do this some people say we should do this we should fight we should not fight blah blah blah And the discussions go on but what I've seen the worship do amongst the Iranians outside of Iran that you've been a part of Is bring a unity even amongst Christians that disagree can you talk a little bit about those events and how the worship has brought unity? Sure If I want to go very back I have to just make it very short for our Listeners to to know that there there is an Iranian man who had a vision about How God will unite Iranian churches and this unity impact Iran church and it was so interesting when he shared this dream with us He was saying that I was seeing in the vision that there were many worship leaders They were singing songs and especially he said that I've heard in the dream that they were singing a specific song about There is the role of the lion of Judah So this song is actually very famous among forced churches. This is one of Roosevelt songs Which is talking about how the church will stay Will stand firm because the role of lion of Judah is going on and we hear it so We didn't know back then when he shared this dream with us there was no war going on and we had no idea about these things long story short we came to We we talked with him and we set up a date for the one of the one of these worship nights So everything was before the things that in the massacre in January happens So we said the date and it was 31st January 2026 and Exactly it was two weeks after the massacre happened We had no idea before but God honestly God knew what what is happening so It was amazing. We went there We were about seven eight worship leaders on the stage and about 820 people they came Many Iranian pastors they came from all over Europe not just Netherlands So people they came and they worship loudest Like to the point that many many of them they were saying like in the past two weeks because all was going on in Iran We were shot like we couldn't even talk we couldn't pray but tonight we worship God So one of the things that was phenomenal Was that that whole worship night was streaming through satellites You know internet in Iran was shut down and the only thing was the satellite So last week come forward to last week Last week I've received a message from a lady from north of Iran and she said a Nilefah randomly I could connect to internet. I wanted to message somebody Before the last night I was so down and although she's a believer she was saying like I had a lot of the Suicide thinking I was thinking like like what is the point of leaving like I don't see any future she said like randomly I was just Changing the channels on satellite and I saw the one of the Persian satellites They they were showing the Netherlands worship night in their satellite as a repeated So she was saying like for about four hours I've worshiped with you guys And after that I wasn't the same person. I was thinking why I was thinking about suicide I have a reason to leave I have to do something for my neighbors. I have to be the hope I have to be a light for my neighbors So it was amazing that how God honestly Use this vision use this dream at the unity of the churches of worship Impacted Iran if the whole point was this lady God was doing his job seriously. I love that. Yeah Amazing and so the war that happened before the war the war broke out and you actually did another one in Canada after the war started right Talked to me about how About that one a little bit and how the unity again like when people come together We sing the same songs we sing the same words and we could be from Different church backgrounds or have different opinions but talk about the unity I've heard a few of you talk about how it brought people together Yes, one of the thing is that I feel like when the when worship is The you know the big deal is worship it doesn't matter which Which church you're from like all people they know they are worshipping the one, you know So they came from different churches from maybe ten different churches They came to Vancouver we had the worship night so so again with the same team We went to one of the big churches and about this time about 450 people they attend to this worship night and they were worshipping God Honestly with With pain with uncertainty because still the internet is shut down and many of them they have no idea And what's going on with their families with their friends they didn't hear anything so You know the as soon as the worship was a starting David worshipping and after worship we gave We gave time to some pastors to come and pray over Iran people over Iran Prophecy and pray for Iran so many of them after the night was finished they were saying like Now we know like we have to work together we have to be united we have to be one because God is doing something that The unity is important for it. So I love that like the Netherlands worship night the Vancouver worship night the fruit of it was bringing unity and honestly this unity impacted many lives in Iran because both they were both of these worship nights They were showing on satellite so many people inside Iran they had the chance to To see the the worship night and worship with us Yeah, praise the Lord so if I want to finish this great story is really encouraging and just inspiring to You know continue worshiping the Lord in the midst of our tears and the midst of mystery and unknowing and Unanswered prayers and questions, you know It's great to worship the Lord when we have the breakthroughs and we're rejoicing. That's great, but Not all of life is is fun some of it's difficult and so I love the stories from Iran's church and what it teaches us but As we are about to Close this episode. I think about most of our listeners and not Iranians. We do have quite a few Iranian listeners, but most of them are not How would you encourage them to worship and to pray as they think about Iran and the Middle East and everything going on right now? What would you encourage them with? I especially want to thank them first for Being with Iran church in their Prayers This is the most help they can give to Iran church when they pray Something is happening Every one of them when they are praying about Iran I'm sure something like a breakthrough. It comes to our soil our country The first thing is thank you for praying for Iran church. Thank you for praying for Iranian people for inside the country and even outside the country because many of the Iranian people they are living outside and they you know they live by daily by not knowing what's gonna happen to their family and friends so honestly they are living in shaking you know shaking daily life and they they don't know what's going to happen so one the the very first thing is that I encourage you to keep praying for us keep praying for Iran keep praying for our people and I want to encourage you that anything that you hear from Iran Church it doesn't mean that you don't experience God's deep you know the deep level of oil and fire it doesn't mean that you you're not experiencing it we are just sharing it that we are experiencing it in our own journey and we are we we are sure that you have your own journey with God and God loves you God God honor your journey and he's walking beside you and he knows wherever you go wherever you you stay he blesses you I just want to encourage you and ask you to please please pray for the leaders especially during this time we need more wisdom we need we need to hear from God especially in these days that you know the news the ups and downs it or so you know every minute you hear something we need wisdom to work by wisdom of God not just news so yeah this is important that's great and thank you so much for that Neelah and just to remind people if you don't already know we're updating our prayer app hopefully we'll be ready by the time this episode comes out or or a little bit later but it's Iran 30 prayer you can look for it on any any place you get your apps pray for Iran the Iran 30 prayer app we want more and more people to join us in praying for Iran not just for the next couple of weeks book for the next months and years and whatever happens to the Iranian Church and then hopefully we can put some links or something in the episode if you want to see some of those prayer worship services that Neelah far and the team have done and you can worship along to the Farsi worship will put some links you can see them on YouTube time for worship at Ilama or some other links we'll put in there so please continue to join us in praying and worshipping as we join our Iranian brothers and sisters Neelah far thank you so much for taking the time to come and share with us and I'm sure our listeners will be praying for you in your ministry at this time thank you thank you so much Joe and thank you Jesus Bik Farsi podcast where he was an honor thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Jesus Bik Farsi isn't it beautiful to see the comfort and profound joy that Iranians are finding when they lift the cries of their heart to the Lord please continue to lift up Iran in your prayers for the many who feel hopeless and afraid during these days and especially for those who are seeking truth and countering Jesus find more ways to pray by visiting Ilam dot com slash pray hyphen four hyphen aeron find out more about the church in Iran and ways you can get involved through prayer and giving by visiting Ilam dot com we hope you've 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 Ilam 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 Ilam dot com you