Jesus Speaks Farsi

Welcome back to Jesus Speaks Farsi! We've got lots of new stories and conversations from the Iranian church that we're excited to share with you. Today Jenn, Dara Lynn and our new host Chrissy have a chat about what's coming up on Jesus Speaks Farsi in the next few weeks. We're so glad you're here! Send us Fan Mail Download the Iran 30 app and pray for Iran with clarity, c...

In this episode of Chai Time, we’re wrapping up our last series of 2023, “ Many Threads, One Tapestry. ” Jennifer and Dara Lynn have a conversation about what it means for our individual stories of meeting and following Christ to be a part of the larger story that God is writing for His church. So, pour yourself a cup of tea and join us for another episode of Jesus Speaks Farsi . For more informat...

In this third episode of our “ Many Threads/One Tapestry ” series, Hannah has a conversation with Hessam, a well-respected pastor and teacher in the Iranian church who has been a follower of Jesus for 40 years. Years after his life was transformed by the Gospel, Hessam continues to train and equip the next generation of leaders in the Iranian church. For more information about the recent history a...

In this second episode of our “ Many Threads/One Tapestry ” series, Dara Lynn has a conversation with Darya, a German/Iranian worship leader whose songwriting and worship ministry has had a significant impact on the Iranian church in recent years. She shares about God’s restoration of her family, what living and ministering across two cultures is like, and why Iranians value their freedom to worsh...

In this first episode of our “Many Threads/One Tapestry” series, Dara Lynn and Jennifer chat with Dani, a young Iranian man whose unique story includes growing up in a Christian family inside Iran. He also shares about his mother's work as a Bible translator, his miraculous escape from Iran as a teenager, meeting his wife Niloofar, and working in ministry full-time with her today. Dani’s stor...

In this episode of Chai Time, we’re wrapping up our most recent series, “Church planting in the Iran region.” Joe, Jennifer and Dara Lynn have a conversation about what planting a church in the Iran region looks like as well as how that differs from our Western understanding of church planting. So, pour yourself a cup of tea and join us for another episode of Jesus Speaks Farsi. For more informati...

In this third episode of our “ Planting churches in Iran and Beyond ” series, Dara Lynn talks with Keyvan, an Iranian man who came to faith as a teenager and now plays a significant role in helping train church planters in the Iranian church. If you’ve ever wondered how church planting works in the Iran region or how church planters become church planters, this is the episode for you. For more inf...

In this second episode of our “ Planting churches in Iran and Beyond ” series, Joe talks with Samuel, an Argentinian pastor and evangelist, about God’s calling him to minister to people across the world from his home country, specifically in Iran. His unique church-planting story includes smuggling Bibles into a closed country, meeting and marrying his Iranian wife Sara, and serving as a senior le...

In this first episode of our “ Planting Churches in Iran and Beyond ” series, Joe talks with Kambiz about his story of encountering Jesus as a young soldier in the Iranian army and ultimately becoming a prolific church planter in the Iranian church. In this conversation, Kambiz shares his on-the-ground experience of what planting Persian-speaking churches in the Iran region actually looks like. Fo...

In this episode, Joe sits down with David Yeghnazar, Executive Director of Elam Ministries, to talk about the recent growth of the Iran church and the lessons the global church can learn from what God is doing among Iranian Christians today. They also share compelling testimonies of ordinary Iranians being transformed by the Gospel and going on to impact the Iran region through evangelism, discipl...

In this episode, we’re wrapping up our most recent series, “ Life After Prison. ” Joe, Jennifer and Dara Lynn get together to chat about this series’ conversations with Anahita, Ladan and Sara. They talk about what it means or doesn’t mean, to be “on fire” for Jesus, how being young (in life or in faith) doesn’t exclude believers from the call to ministry, and how persecution is never the end of t...

As part of our series on Life after Prison , this episode includes a conversation with Ladan, a senior leader in the Iranian church who ministers to Iranian women in the Iran region. In this episode, Dara Lynn and Jenn talk with Ladan about how her experience of being in prison for her faith and how she learned what it meant to fully trust God in an incredibly challenging time.   Ladan’s story hig...

As part of our series on Life after Prison , this episode includes a conversation with Sara, a senior leader in the Iranian church who works directly with Persian-speaking youth. Sara’s story highlights how God turns difficult seasons into blessing and beauty from ashes. She also shares about her recent experience of losing her father and how that hard experience is also stretching her understandi...

In this season, we’re catching up with a few of our Iranian friends about what life and faith have looked like after their very personal experiences with persecution. Today, Dara Lynn is joined by Anahita, a senior church leader in the Iranian church who serves in the Middle East alongside her husband Matthew. In this episode, we’ll hear about how the time she spent in prison shaped her faith goin...

In this episode, we’re wrapping up our most recent series, “ Pray, Give, Go, Stay. ” Joe, Jennifer and Dara Lynn spend some time talking about the implications of each of these opportunities to engage with the global church. They also share how their own imaginations were stirred as they talked with friends of the Iranian church about what it can look like to participate in the story God is writin...

As part of our Pray, Give, Go, Stay series, Neil and Celeste Rogers share their experience ministering to refugees within their own community in rural Texas. They encourage those looking for ways to reach the nations to simply look in their own backyards. The opportunities for mission work among Afghan and Iranian refugees where we all live only continue to grow. One note: In this episode, Joe men...

As we continue our series on how to effectively engage with the global Church through praying, giving, going, and staying, this third episode focuses on what it can look like to courageously go. Today, Joe and Jennifer are joined by Tom Hawksley, a Brit who has spent his adult life in ministry, particularly with the church in Iran. He shares about his unconventional way of learning Farsi, how he m...

As we continue our series on how to effectively engage with the global church through praying, giving, going, and staying, this second episode focuses on the personal and wider impact of obedient giving. Today, Dara Lynn and Jennifer are joined by Mark Howard, a non-profit development director with a pastor’s heart. He shares with us the impact obedient giving can have in the life of a believer as...

In this season of Jesus Speaks Farsi , we’ll be talking to friends whose lives have been deeply impacted and shaped by the story of Iran’s church – even though they’re all from the West. Our hope is that in hearing their stories on how they’ve become involved, your imagination would also be stirred for ways the Lord might have you become more deeply connected to what God is doing in the global chu...

This Good Friday, we wanted to share our friend Bahar’s story with you again. Her story is featured in our earlier series on Women in Iran , so if you haven’t already, we hope you’ll go back and listen to these incredible Iranian women share their experiences of meeting Jesus. In this episode, Bahar shares her story of growing up as an Iranian woman, which includes her experience of significant di...

In this bonus episode, we're marking the twentieth anniversary of the modern Farsi translation of the New Testament. 2.5 million copies later, stories of life transformation like the one we share in this episode are happening every day in the Iran region. In this episode, Joe sits down for a conversation with Rasool, an Iranian Christian whose life was changed dramatically after receiving a N...

In this episode, we’re wrapping up our Encounters with Jesus series. Jennifer, Joe and Dara Lynn get together at Jennifer’s farm to discuss the conversations in this series about what it can look like to encounter Jesus and the difference that made in each of our guests’ lives. Sharing their own personal experiences of spiritual encounters, our co-hosts find a lot to talk about in this Chai time....

David Yeghnazar, Executive Director of Elam Ministries, shares how God is moving supernaturally in Iran’s church today. This episode is a recording of a 30-minute message David gave at the 2022 Lausanne conference in Asia titled “Recovering the Supernatural.” In his message, David explains how Jesus is presenting Himself alive today in the Iranian church through His Word and through supernatural v...

In this episode, Joe is joined by fellow podcast teammate Moread, who handles the design and publishing for Jesus Speaks Farsi. We love having Moread on the team and we’re so grateful for his insight and first-hand experience of Persian culture. Born and raised in Iran, Moread left the country as an adult and has since become a follower of Jesus. Today, Moread is passionate about sharing the story...

In our third episode of the Encounters with Jesus series, Dara Lynn and Jen will be speaking with an Iranian woman who leads worship for thousands of Farsi speakers and encounters God’s presence in more ways than just worship music. Niloofar grew up in Iran in a nominally Muslim home where being a daughter was less valuable than being a son. When her parents became believers through a television p...