The one thing Jesus warned about, possibly more than anything else, was deception. The enemy of our souls is known as the master deceiver. With the discernment given to us through the Holy Spirit residing within us, not only can we avoid being deceived ourselves, but we can confront deception that is keeping the lost around us from seeing the Truth. Deception comes in many forms. The passage of Scripture below is one example.
9 “But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, 10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.” 11 And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. 13 Then Simon himself also believed…” Acts 8:9-13a
With that in mind, I share the account of an unusual situation in which some of the brothers and sisters were requested to go to Raqqa and meet at a mosque where a large crowd had gathered. The brothers who went were Al-Hedmi, Al-Sishawi, Abu Ghalib, Abbas, and Wazwaz. The sisters who accompanied them were Sarah, Hafiza, and Ferial. When they got there a sheikh named Al-Bakawati was asked to go up front with the head sheik of the mosque, Abu Malik, and another sheikh by the name of Abu Nizar. Al-Hedmi and Al-Fishawi were also asked to join them.
Al-Bakawati was a magician and began to attempt to heal people but it was not working. He asked Wazwaz to submit to him, pray for him so that he could perform his magic before the people. Wazwaz had his Bible with him and he and his companions began to say, “O Lord, this book nullifies magic and turns magic against the magician. O Jesus, O Savior of people from injustice, O Jesus, send your light and nullify magic, O You who healed people from diseases, appear to us please with Your blessings.” Suddenly, a fire ignited Al-Bakawati the magician’s clothing and burned them. The House of Blessing brothers prayed again, “O Jesus, do not harm him, only O Lord, teach him a lesson that the Bible is a Book of truth and there is no joke or lie in it, so let it be a lesson for others also, O Jesus.” It didn’t take long for Sheikh Al-Bakawati the magician to cry out, “I believe! I believe! In Jesus’ name, I repent!
Later he described some of what he had experienced: “I felt a pressure on me and a light I had never seen before. At the time of the fire, I felt like I was in hell. When I came to belief, I realized I had not been hurt or burned by the fire. Look, there is no evidence of the fire on my body even though my clothes were burned.” Al-Bakawati removed his outer clothes down to pants and a white undershirt. The man had been totally on fire but only the outer garments had burned! He was brought another set of clothes and he formally accepted Jesus as His Savior. That led to well at least 830 people submitting themselves to Jesus Christ. Praise God!
Another report I received was from sheikhs Hael and Rashid. They provided an account telling the story of a sheikh named Al-Tarhi who was from Shahba, just north of As-Suwayda, Syria. After having studied the Scriptures for a considerable amount of time and getting to know it quite well, he decided to go to his village mosque. He had gone the Friday before and called a man up to the front who was in a wheelchair because of an accident in which he had been injured. Al-Tarhi prayed for him and told him to get up and walk. In front of everyone, he walked as if he had never been injured!
Al-Tarhi then told the crowd watching that he had prayed for the man in the name of Jesus, using his Bible! Instead of being joyful over the healing the man had obviously been blessed with, they shouted at Al-Tarhi to leave the village. Al-Tarhi took his wife and children south until he got to As-Suwayde. On the way, he prayed that the Lord would help him to find people who knew the Lord. When he reached As-Suwayde, he happened upon Sheikh Hael and Rashid. He told them that he was a well known sheikh and had been following Christ and asked if they would receive him as a guest. Hael and Rashid laughed and commented to each other about how merciful the Lord was to His people. They then asked Al-Tarhi if he knew that they also worship Christ. He was very excited to meet others who also loved the Lord!
The story continues with Al-Tarhi. He could not sit still and had not been able to sleep since he arrived in As-Suwayde. He decided he had to go back to the mosque in his home village in Shahba on the next Friday. The night before he was to go back to his village mosque, Al-Tarhi spent the whole night reading and reading and reading his Bible, sometimes singing the words quickly and other times slowly. The others were aware of his preparations for the next day. Friday morning, he took Abu Laila and Dhurgham and sisters Lubayba and Ikhlas to be with the women in the prayer hall and to watch the proceedings. When they arrived, Al-Tarhi insisted on delivering the message. There was now a new sheikh named Mubarak. When Al-Tarhi went up front to deliver the sermon, Mubarak brought some thugs with him and tied all three men up with ropes in front of the crowd. As they did, Al-Tarhi shouted out to the crowd, saying: “People, please believe in Jesus before it is too late. Jesus sacrificed Himself for all of humanity so that you can live an abundant life. Listen to me! I have been a teacher in this mosque for over 43 years and I never saw anything of benefit or value come from all those years of teaching.” It was at this point that Mubarak challenged him, saying: “Show me the power of your Lord Jesus. Loosen your ropes, loosen your ties!”
Al-Tarhi, Abu Laila and Dhurgham then began to pray: “O Jesus, show them your power, show them your miracles. Loosen our chains in their sight.” After seven minutes of prayer, the ropes on their hands and feet ignited into flames. The ropes fell off the men without anyone removing them and none of them were burned by the fires. This shocked the crowd and every person in the mosque became totally silent. Then a very strange powerful wind blew through the mosque and on all the people. The wind was sometimes hot and sometimes cold. The wind whipped through the mosque like a storm and shook Mubarak and the people to the core. They looked at Al-Tarhi and his companions: “What is this? What is this wind?” It scared everyone, including the women in the lower floor who said it felt like an earthquake for a few seconds.
This brought the new sheikh, Mubarak, and the people to their knees, asking the men for forgiveness. Al-Tarhi told them, “I am not the Lord! I am just one of His servants. Ask Him for forgiveness and He will forgive you. I will pray for you that Jesus forgives and pardons you. Put the Word of God in your heart and mind and everything else will not matter, not even money. The Lord has blessed you and we are ready to teach you.” This led to the entire mosque full of people bowing in repentance before the Lord Jesus.
There was then a great acceptance of the Gospel throughout all the attendees of the mosque, males and females. The sisters that had come with the men to the mosque have now been guiding the women and teaching them chapters from the Bible. They are celebrating their new found faith and learning to sing hymns. The Lord is greatly blessing these new believers and followers of Jesus!
In previous updates I have mentioned Persian people coming over the border from Iran. Many of these have found House of Blessing missionaries who have taken them in, shared the Good News of the Gospel with them and are providing Bibles and teaching booklets for them. There are also a large number of HOB missionaries who have managed to escape the infamous Evin prison in Tehran, both men and women. By the end of June, somewhere between 45 and 72 had arrived. There had not yet been an accurate count at the time. Another 250 or so are expected, 185 men and 65 women. These people have endured horrendous things and many of them have been incarcerated for many years in Iran.
At this time, I only have a few reports referencing the former prisoners of the Iranian regime. I have, however, personally received special greetings from some of the HOB faithful who were often mentioned in Mideast Updates years ago. These are their words: “Hello brother Jack, special greetings to you from the faithful and lovers of Jesus and the Gospel.” They have suffered a lot on the way from Tehran to Bosrah but are thankful to have arrived. Some of their names are: Al-Fahham, Al-Barazani, Al-Amd, Al-Tubani, Al-Salwadi, Al-Kharbatli, and Qleibo. All of them had been imprisoned for teaching the Gospel. Most of them were from Kurdistan and some from Iran. While in prison, they studied the Gospel in Arabic so the guards would not know what they were doing. They report that they were bitterly tortured in the middle of the night. They would throw cold water on them in the middle of the night and call dogs on them when they were confined in a dark room with no lighting. They did many barbaric things including inserted pencils into their foreskin to make urinating extremely painful. Both men and women were raped repeatedly in this prison. Many of them were forced to sleep on the dirt adjacent to the toilets so they tried to sleep standing up. However, they did not turn their back on their faith, knowing that one way or another the Lord would rescue them.
While in prison, some of the sheikhs (who were believers) were able to pray for healing for some of their captors, even epilepsy. This led to the faith of many of the captors in prison. That made for quite a conundrum for those who were their torturers! The torture of the prisoners often, however, had no effect, even with electric shocks and severe beatings. Much of this went on for years and left many visible scars on their bodies. When the brothers saw their condition, they prayed and asked for the Lord’s intervention. They held a big prayer service for them. I believe it was Omar who sent me this report and his exact words were: “My brother Jack, believe me, all of this (the scars) went away, of course, with oil and prayer for them. What a merciful God! There were even stitches. All the wounds are gone.” Some of the people had arrived and were bleeding because they walked barefooted for who knows how far. No shoes!
There will be more reports as the brothers get more information to share. Please pray for all of these brave people who have endured so much. None of them are complaining. They are, in fact, grateful to finally be out of the prison and together with their House of Blessing friends.
In conclusion I want to thank you all for your prayers and your financial support. The number of those bowing the knee to Jesus as their Messiah and Savior continues to multiply. Materials are being printed into both Arabic and Farsi. The need for Bibles and teaching booklets is enormous and we serve an Almighty God. It is He who is the Lord of the harvest! For those who would like to donate toward the printing of Bibles, please contact one of the two email addresses below. Thank You!
Forever in His Service,
Jake (aka Jack)