A letter from Sadegh Sepehri in Germany
October 2013
Iranian Presbyterian Church of Berlin
Summer conference, August 23-26, 2013
Praise to the Lord that He always supports His followers and is with them as He has promised.
After 3 month bible course now is baptizing in seminar.
Back in 2003 we decided to have a gathering of those we had met in Europe during our first five years of this work based in Berlin, Germany. We had a four-day seminar, which was very successful. We invited speakers from Iran, England, the U.S.A. and Germany. The participants were from many European countries. The four days allowed every speaker to have enough time for sharing with those who came from different places.
After that we received a request for continuing such a seminar at least once a year. We tried but could not arrange the budget for it, because most of our members are asylum seekers and cannot pay. In 2013 these requests were increasing—so we started praying and thinking very hard and began to talk and write letters to different church and Christian organization leaders in Germany, Canada, England and the U.S.A. asking for advice and financial help. Praise the Lord that the answers were positive and they helped generously and gave good donations. After much searching we were able to find a nice and reasonable place in Berlin in a youth hostel (Jugendherberge) and started to inform people in Berlin and other parts of Germany.
After baptism, Mrs. Sepehri is giving Baptism cetificates.
During two months time 85 persons were registered, although only 75 were able to come, and the seminar started on Friday, August 23, 2013. It was a great joy to welcome 75 new and old believers from Iran and Afghanistan. Believers gathered from different parts of Germany, but mainly from the Iranian Presbyterian Church of Berlin and Paderborn, where my son, Rev. Mehrdad Sepehri, serves.
Two subjects were discussed during the four days—salvation and Christian life. And we had two teachers from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Rev. Dr. Sasan Tavassoli and my son-in-law, Rev. Mansour Khajepour. We were all encouraged by their knowledge and the messages they brought to us. Praise the Lord for them. And praise to the Lord for the time of singing and praying and our fellowship, which all blessed us.
A participant shares his testimony before bastism.
Some of these people were asylum seekers in my baptism course and accepted Christ as their Lord. These classes take about four to six months. We teach about Jesus’ life and read one of the Gospels during this time. There were 12 of them who were baptized at the seminar on Sunday worship and took part in the Lord’s Supper.
I received an email from one of the believers in Luxembourg who had attended this conference. He wrote:
Now[it has been] a few years that I am out of Iran and living in Luxembourg. There is no Iranian church here. I feel that my relation with [the] Lord had broken but during this conference I was able to renew it again and now I have a strong relation with the Lord.
We thank the Lord for His presence at all times during the conference and deeply appreciate all of you who prayed for us and generously helped us make it possible to have this conference. Please continue helping us by your prayers and your donations. You help us to be able to help others.
I have been a Presbyterian missionary for about 20 years. It is now about 25 years that I have been living and working in Germany as pastor of the Iranian Presbyterian Church in Berlin, as well as evangelist in Europe. Before I came to Germany I was executive secretary of the Iran Bible Society, which was shut down in 1990 by the Islamic regime. Also I served as moderator of the Persian Presbytery of Iran and voluntary pastor of Emanuel Church in Teheran and chaplain of American Hospital in north Iran and administrator of Hope clinic and social service center in south Tehran. I became a Christian 52 years ago and accepted Christ as my savior.
Sadegh Sepehri
Sepehri40@gmail.com (or use the link below)
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 283
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