Yasin is a secret believer in Iraq – he has to be very cautious about who he tells about his faith. But he is determined to keep defying threats to share the gospel.
Yasin* picked up his Bible and looked at the tape he had stuck to the cover to conceal it from his family. He slipped a fingernail under one corner, and started peeling it back…
This was the moment Yasin risked everything.
After years of seeking God, this Muslim convert could no longer keep his faith in Jesus secret. His children had seen him change and wanted to know why. Now, Yasin was making the brave decision to reveal his hidden Bible to his family.
More than that, it was Yasin’s first step on a dangerous journey. Because in Iraq, where Yasin lives, if you are fearless enough to share the gospel, fierce persecution will follow…
‘Not true worship’
Yasin grew up in a Muslim family but was uncomfortable with religion. “When I went to the mosque, it was a habit, not true worship,” said Yasin. “So I said, ‘God if you are real, I want to live with you. Show yourself to me.’”
One night, Yasin had a powerful dream. A man, beautiful and compelling, told Yasin, ‘You are my beloved child. This is the way, follow me.’
“The words of Jesus gave me peace in my heart.”
Yasin
Yasin asked a Christian in the village what the dream meant, and was told: “God is showing himself to you.” A local pastor read the Bible with Yasin – and Scripture touched his heart. “The first thing I read in this Bible in my own language was Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount,” he remembers. “I cried because of the beautiful words in it. The words of Jesus gave me peace in my heart.”
Dangerous places
Iraq is in the top 20 most dangerous places in the world to follow Jesus, and converts from Islam face extreme persecution. Yasin, a shopkeeper and father-of-two, risked imprisonment, violence and even death by attending church. But despite trying to keep his new faith secret, Yasin couldn’t hide the work of the Holy Spirit…
“Before, I was violent towards my family, so when the gospel turned me into a better person and I started serving them, my wife and children asked me why I suddenly behaved like that,” said Yasin.
It took him months to summon the courage to tell them about Jesus and reveal his hidden Bible. Soon afterwards, persecution started.
Attacks and threats
“My brother tried to kill me several times.”
Yasin
“One day my brother came to visit me,” said Yasin. “The mullah had told him I was distributing Bibles and he should stop me. My brother tried to kill me several times. One time he broke my nose. Another time, they threw a firebomb at my house.”
Yasin lost his job and had to take low-paid work as a shepherd. He received threatening letters. His own mother refuses to speak to him. But still, Yasin follows Jesus…
Last year, with support from Open Doors local partners, he attended a conference with 200 other Iraqi believers and his faith deepened. Yasin’s wife and children became Christians, and two other villagers also started coming to church. “My daughter is a master’s student and now evangelises to people and is also preaching the gospel, like me and my son,” Yasin says proudly. “God has blessed our family.”
““The persecution is continuous but there is no other way. I give everything to God,” says Yasin. “Jesus was insulted and died on the cross, all to redeem me. I will not deny or leave him.”
Now, Yasin is on a mission to reveal hope in Iraq – but he can’t do it alone.
Stand with Yasin
Yasin stands in a long line of believers who take extraordinary risks because they know the worth of the gospel. This courageous faith is a hallmark of Open Doors’ history, ever since Brother Andrew started smuggling Bibles into Communist Eastern Europe in 1955. Seventy years later, Bibles are still transforming the lives of people like Yasin, and those he ministers to, in places where God’s Word is dangerous to pass on.
Every HK$250
could disciple a secret believer by enabling them to meet, pray and study the Bible with other Christians.
Today, you can stand with secret believers like Yasin. You can help precious Bibles get to those who must urgently need them, and help deliver the kind of training that equips Christians like Yasin to keep spreading the Word in risky regions.
And you can stand with him in prayer. Yasin knows what a difference it makes: “I ask you to pray for me, because I believe in the power of prayer,” he says. “I ask you to pray that God gives me strength to evangelise to as many people as possible.”
Today, will you help Christians like Yasin reveal hope?
*Names changed for security reasons
please pray
Give thanks for Yasin and his fearless faith, as he shares the good news of Jesus in his village.
For Yasin’s wife and children, that they will be protected amidst persecution and will not feel alone.
For other brave believers revealing hope in the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian.
please give
Every HK$250 could disciple a secret believer by enabling them to meet, pray and study the Bible with other Christians.
Every $300 could provide two secret believers with a Bible in a country where God's Word is not easy to access.
Every $530 could help a vulnerable Christian establish a livelihood, giving them long-term financial security.
*Any excess funds from this appeal will be used to strengthen other persecuted Christians where urgent help is needed.
