Welcome to Voices of the Middle East, a SAT-7 UK podcast.
SAT-7 is an international Christian media ministry bringing life-changing joy to the people of the Middle East and North Africa. Last year we had over 103,000 one-to-one conversations with viewers, and through these conversations we are hearing constant stories of the ways God is at work in people’s lives.
In this podcast, we’ll share some of their stories with you, and invite you to pray for SAT-7 and the people of the region.
Today, we bring you the story of Leyla, a young woman from Iran, who encountered the life-changing power of the Gospel in an unexpected way.
We all know that stories can be incredibly powerful. They can touch hearts and change people’s perspectives in a way that just plainly stating the facts often can’t. Perhaps that’s why Jesus spoke to people in stories and parables. When the story of the Gospel is told, something unique happens. Paul says in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel is “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes”. This was the experience of Leyla, who recently told her story on the SAT-7 PARS programme, Signal.
Leyla said, “One day at school we were being noisy, so they took us to the school’s prayer hall and the teacher put on a film for us. It was the Jesus film. I was spellbound and cried so much when I saw Jesus being crucified.”
This wasn’t what the teacher had intended at all, but God used it all the same. Leyla recounts, “The teacher came up to me and told me not to cry because the story isn’t true and has been changed.”
Despite the teacher’s efforts to dissuade her of the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion, the trajectory of Leyla’s life had been changed forever.
“From that day onwards, I set aside a corner of the school yard where I used to go and speak to God, and with Jesus specifically, and although I didn’t recognise Him as God, I did love Him,” she said.
Although Leyla wasn’t yet a fully-fledged believer, God continued to pursue a heart that had already been captivated by the story of Jesus’ love. Again, it was the power of stories, the testimonies of those whose lives had been changed by Christ, that brought her closer to Him.
The first of those stories was shared with Leyla early in her married life, when she heard about a woman who had been healed from cancer. The night before this woman was due to have an operation, she looked out of the hospital window and saw a church and began to cry. She asked Jesus to heal her.
“In the morning, they found no trace of the cancer. Jesus had healed her!” said Leyla. “My mind really changed, and I was drawn back to the love of Jesus, which I already knew something about.”
The second story came from one of her neighbours, who shared a dream she had. “[In the dream] she was driving up a steep mountainous road with her family,” recounted Leyla. “The car was about to fall into a precipice when someone appeared and saved her. She spoke to the man in her dream and asked him [who he was]. The man said, ‘I am Jesus Christ. Believe in me and I will save you and your family.’”
Again, Leyla felt the love of Jesus that she’d encountered so long ago when she first watched the Jesus film at School. She said, “From that time on everything fell into place and I had everything I needed to come to faith and believe that Jesus is the true way.”
Perhaps you can remember similar ways that God worked in your life to bring you closer, step by step, to faith in Jesus.
Leyla returned to where it had all begun. “I found a Christian satellite television channel and I watched the Jesus film several times,” said Leyla. But it wasn’t enough to just watch the story again; she wanted to read the words of Christ for herself. “I started to read the New Testament from the beginning. When I read portions about how Jesus forgave, I was so moved. I was so amazed by how He described forgiveness.”
She now understood how Jesus’ crucifixion, which had so moved her as a young girl, had the power to bring God’s forgiveness into her own life. With her sins forgiven, Leyla became a follower of Christ.
She recalled, “Before I came to faith, I saw myself as a defeated person with no hope, and I often thought about ending it all. Not anymore. Now I see myself as a well-loved daughter of God, and this is so wonderful.”
So wonderful indeed. During her interview on the SAT-7 PARS programme Signal, Leyla reflected on the way God had worked in her life, showing her the beauty of Jesus’s love through the stories she encountered, each one bringing her closer to him.
It was a story she wanted to share with others.
She told viewers, “Maybe now there is someone somewhere, perhaps in Iran, who has unintentionally turned on this channel, like I did. And maybe you have reached the end of the line. If you are at that point and cannot believe that Jesus is the Lord, if you think that there is no one who can help you in all the problems you face, I encourage you to call on the name of Jesus just once. He will definitely answer!”
That’s something we at SAT-7 pray for everyone who tunes into our channels. The stories we share have the power to transform lives, like Leyla’s, and encourage believers living in places like Iran, where the truth is suppressed.
Leyla’s story is one that can inspire and encourage others.
Let’s give thanks for the way God pursued her throughout her life, drawing her with His love until she gave her life to Him. Father, we thank you that nothing can stop the power of the gospel to touch hearts like Leyla’s.
Let’s pray as well for Christians in Iran and other Persian-speaking countries, as well as others who may tune in to SAT-7’s programmes. Father, we pray that SAT-7’s programmes will shine the light of Christ into dark places.
We thank you God for the power of stories, especially the most powerful story of all, of the great love of Your Son, who laid down his life to offer us forgiveness for our sins.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to Voices of the Middle East, a SAT-7 UK podcast. Our teams on the ground are creating powerful, faith-filled television and digital media that is watched by millions of people in 25 countries, and our viewer support teams are always on hand to help people with questions, counselling and prayer requests. Viewers’ names have been changed for security, and actors have been used to represent their voices.
To pray with us every day, visit sat7uk.org/pray and download our latest Prayer Diary.
