A letter from the Depths of an Iranian Prison from a U.S. Minister

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

Saeed Abedini and his family via ACLJ

TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) -- A letter from Saeed Abedini, a U.S. minister imprisoned in Iran, has made its way, through family members, to the Assemblies of God national offices in the United States.

The letter, carried out from Iran's notoriously brutal Evin Prison, in northwestern Tehran, tells of beatings and interrogations, around-the-clock bright lights and ongoing lies designed to create hope, in order to crush it.
According to a story from Dan Van Veen of the AG News & Information Service (www.ag.org), "The remarkable letter also reveals a depth of faith and compassion that could only be granted by God."

Pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. minister, has been imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran for his faith since Iranian authorities removed him from a bus in September 2012 while he was visiting his homeland.

Sign outside the prison

Recently, Naghmeh, Abedini's wife, received a letter from her husband through family members who were able to visit him in prison. Naghmeh passed the letter on to Assemblies of God (AG) General Superintendent Dr. George O. Wood, with the encouragement to share the letter with everyone.

"Saeed's letter is nothing short of a modern-day Pauline epistle," states Dr. Wood. "As I read his letter through several times, I could only marvel at how God's faithfulness transcends time as the same Holy Spirit that was with Paul in his times of desperation is fully evident in the words of our brother Saeed."

"I always wanted God to make me a godly man," Saeed writes in his letter. "I did not realize that in order to become a godly man we need to become like steel under pressure. It is a hard process of warm and cold to make steel. The process in my life today is one day I was told I will be freed on bail to see my family and kids on Christmas (they are all lies) and the next day I am told I will hang for my faith in Jesus."

"It's amazing to me how this letter, from an imprisoned pastor, inspires and ministers to me when he, it would seem, is the one who needs our prayers," Wood states. "I encourage believers to allow this letter to inspire them to greater things, to pass it on to friends and to continue to uplift Saeed, Naghmeh and their two young children to God in prayer."

To read the letter, which is less than 500 words, click this link: http://s2.ag.org/abendiniletter. To read the original "AG News" story about the imprisonment of Pastor Abedini, see: http://s2.ag.org/saeedstory.