Why Diar Stays
Diar grew up a devout Muslim, praying five times each day, going to the mosque, fasting during Ramadan. His father had always wanted him to be an Imam and sent him for training where he learned Arabic, the language of God.
As he studied the Quran he discovered contradictions. At the beginning of the Quran it says, “Pray for people who don’t believe in Islam.” Near the end of the book it says, “If people don’t believe in the God of Islam you must kill them.”
When he asked his teacher, he answered, “You must obey. This is the Word of God.”
Diar knew he wouldn’t.
At the same time the Islamic regime in Iran was mistreating its people, especially the Kurds. Diar is Kurd.
He wanted to leave Islam behind. Quietly he began exploring different faiths.
He prayed, “God I want to know you! Who are you? Are you there? Are you good? Why is there so much evil in the world?”
He was searching for God but after four years he’d found nothing. So he became an atheist and joined the Communist underground resistance to the regime.
He was angry. He was empty.
One night he had a dream. Over the mountains he saw a shining light in the sky. People were calling out, “Jesus is coming!” The light made him see that each person had dark things inside that controlled them. They were deaf and blind slaves. He saw the darkness within himself and he was afraid.
He woke and began his search for Jesus. He knew the Quran said Jesus was a prophet. But how could he go to find out more?
If he visited a church and the regime found out, he could be imprisoned or worse.
So he traveled to a neighboring country to find a church and learn about Jesus. He visited a house church where he knew people and they shared the gospel with him. He repented, put his faith in Jesus and was baptized.
He returned to Iran wanting to tell everyone they could be forgiven and freed from the darkness within that controls them. “You’re a slave and you need Jesus to set you free!”
He proclaimed God’s Word with power. He talked to everyone he knew. He told them about his dream and the dark reality within. People were set free by Jesus, they were healed, they were forgiven, they were delivered.
The Word spread and grew. So did the opposition from the Islamic government and radical Muslims.
As the movement grew, it was hard to remain secret.
Diar fled the country until the opposition died down.
“Despite the danger, I still wanted to reach my people and my nation. Yet I didn’t know how. I prayed that God would lead me to the right people. I met some Koreans who introduced me to Jerry. He told me he would be honored to help me reach my nation.”
Jerry gave us simple, but powerful ways to share the gospel, make disciples, plant churches and reproduce leaders. We call it the 4-Fields.
Diar returned home.
“As soon as we implemented the training, the movement took off. We were surprised it was growing so fast.”
“Each disciple reached the people around them. We took the 4-Fields training to locations across the country — different regions, different cities. We’ve been doing that for seven years.”
“We could not have done it without the training and the coaching, the love and support. Jerry has released everything to us — he teaches us and then we do it and train others. We teach, we baptize,we help disciples start churches.”
“We have a vision for every village and neighborhood to have a church and access to the Bible.”
“Muslims respect the Bible, it’s a holy book. When you give them a Bible they respect it. When we say, ‘This is a holy Bible," they kiss it and put it with the Quran.’”
“We have started 2,000 churches with some streams to the 12th generation. The churches vary in size from four to twelve people.”
I asked, “Why don’t you leave Iran? Why not escape to a safe place?”
Diar answered, “We have experience with God. Now we tasted and we know this is real. Jesus is our savior, our God.”
“We saw a lot of people change their life. And we know this is true. We will die one day, but with Jesus, we have eternal life. We believe.”
Podcast: 344-Diar and Miriam’s Story
