Profile

Largest Religion:

Muslim, 98.6 %

% Evangelical:

0.2 %

Population:

89,172,767

Continent:

Asia

1. Iran contains some of the largest unreached, unengaged peoples in the world. Missions are not free to minister in Iran, but some tentmaking opportunities exist. Pray for the door to Iran to open in God’s perfect timing.

• The Zoroastrians (Parsees) follow an ancient Persian religion founded 1,000, years before Christ.
• The Baha’i religion started in Iran, but the government seeks to drive its followers out. Very little Christian love and witness to them exists among either the 300,000 in Iran, or the 5-7 million worldwide.
• The nomadic and semi-nomadic Luri, Bakhtiari, and Qashqai live in the Zagros Mountains. Only a few dozen known believers exist from these groups. Persian Christians have begun to reach out to them.
• The Turkic Azeri and Turkmen in the north have had almost no positive contact with Christianity. Azeris form the largest minority group within Iran.
• The Gypsy communities have no Christian workers committed to outreach among them.
• The Persian-speaking Jews descend from those exiled to Babylon 2,700 years ago. Their numbers decline as more and more move away to escape harassment, but a number have become active, witnessing Christians!

1. The Iranian Diaspora is around four million. Most have found refuge in the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Turkey, Gulf States and other lands - where they can be evangelized. Western countries are making it harder for Iranians to immigrate. Pray for:

• Diaspora churches. There are probably over 1,000 Persian-speaking Iranian churches and house fellowships, totaling more than 200,000 people. Unity is frequently a challenge. Yet these diaspora Christians are highly active and generous regarding ministry into Iran and among other Iranians abroad; their contribution in this regard is crucial.
• Ministries reaching out to the diaspora, providing not only evangelism tools and outreach but also church planting, discipleship and leadership training, so that Iranians living abroad will be reached and hopefully then reach other Iranians. Christian refugees fleeing from persecution are also assisted. Many diaspora Christians visit Iran and powerfully minister to their countrymen. Significant ministries include Elam Ministries, 222 Ministries, Persian World Outreach, Iran Alive Ministries and Iranian Christians International.

1. Christian media for prayer:

• Bibles are in very short supply and very high demand - 10 million Bibles would be readily received. It is illegal to print and distribute the Scriptures, yet they continue to slip into the country. Several ministries, especially Elam Ministries and Open Doors, focus on increasing the availability of Scripture to Iranians. There are three translations of the Bible in Persian, with another version due out in 2012. Pray for innovative and effective ways of distributing God's Word and for a deep impact to be made through it. Pray also for translation teams to be raised up for the other languages that have a need for Scripture translation.
• Christian literature, when available, is much sought after, but many more publications are needed, especially in Persian. Elam, 222 Ministries, Sohrab Books, Persian World Outreach, Iranian Christians International and others are involved in production and distribution. Pray also that the Lord will raise up more indigenous writers to produce Christian material to meet the accelerating demand from the Iranian Church. Pray that God will continue to open new avenues for distribution. Pray specifically for the development of children's materials - a glaring need with 15 million Iranians aged 15 or younger.
• Radio remains a valuable ministry. Millions listen despite government restrictions, and thousands of response e-mails and letters are received. Voice of Christ Media Ministries, TWR and others prepare daily programmes in Persian and Azeri and broadcast them on satellite, shortwave and medium wave.