How the Bible is growing the faith of Iranian refugees

How the Bible is growing the faith of Iranian refugees

James Howard-Smith

At a church in the south-west of England, a young Iranian receives an easy-to-read Bible in modern Persian. He can't believe it. 'If they see you holding a Bible like this in Iran,' he says, 'they kill you.'

Bible Society is known for international Bible translation and distribution, but the story that inspired its founding 220 years ago (Mary Jones and her Welsh Bible) involved providing Scriptures within Britain in a non-English language. Today, while Bible Society remains the main publisher of the Scriptures resources in Welsh, multilingual domestic outreach also means putting the Bible in the hands of refugees.

A great example of a welcoming church is a small congregation in the south-west of England who have found newly arrived Iranians very receptive to their outreach. The church asked us not to name them because they're concerned for the safety of their Iranian members; the British Government's latest sanctions against Iran were introduced in response to violence and threats against Iranians in Britain and their families in Iran. More than two-thirds of people in their pews on a Sunday are now Iranian.

'Hotels round here filled up with refugees,' the church's minister said. 'Word got round that this was a place that was welcoming in an otherwise hostile environment. And we've gone from 30 to a hundred people. We've tripled in three years.'

What turns visitors into members? It would seem to be the Bible. If refugees are coming for the welcome, they're staying for the word. Chantelle Baker is Bible Society's Community Engagement Manager. She says: 'We believe that the Church offers an invaluable haven of community and support for refugees and asylum seekers. We work with churches and detention centres to make sure that Bibles are supplied, free of charge, to those who need them.'

'We want to disciple these people,' a member of the church says, 'and you need a Bible for that. We could just be a lovely welcoming community, but we have something else to offer; the good news of Jesus, expressed in God's word. If we couldn't give people a Bible, we are only offering them half the package. The Bible makes it complete.'

More....