Source: International Christian Concern, December 1, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was born and raised in a [Kurdish] Muslim family in Iran. I only studied until junior high school. Then, I was expelled because I could not afford school tuition. At that time, my father became ill, and because I was the eldest of seven children, I had to replace my father as the breadwinner for my family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As [I belong to] an ethnic minority in Iran, the government doesn\u2019t care about my rights. For example, I do not have an ID card because the government does not provide it. Because I don\u2019t have an ID card, I can\u2019t work in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2013, I had the idea of moving to Australia to change my life. There is an agent who can make an illegal passport for me, and I had to pay around US$3,500. They said I could go to Australia by sea. At the port, the police stopped me, saying that if I wanted to go to Australia, I had to go through immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At immigration, they said that I needed to go through the UN agency UNHCR and this meant I essentially had to live in prison for about 16 months. And to reach Australia, one of the countries I had to go through was Indonesia. I got a placement in jail in Indonesia. After that, I was transferred to a refugee camp in another city in Indonesia. I chose to live in Indonesia instead of continuing on to Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Indonesia, I met an Afghan named Adam. He taught me about Christianity, who God is, and the Christian faith. I became a believer in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In early 2022, my friend Hassan came to Indonesia. He was my neighbor in Iran. In September, police [in Iran] shot Hassan\u2019s son for participating in a demonstration against the government\u2019s obligation to wear the hijab. He survived but was scared for his life. The police are looking for Hassan\u2019s son, but he has fled to a village in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m so grateful for my life now. I used to be a devout Muslim. When I learned about Christ, my heart felt peace and joy, which I had never felt before. Then, finally, I found what I was looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read Kurdish Church Growing Despite Increased Regional Tension<\/a> (INcontext International). It includes background on who the Kurds are and why Iran would blame them for the current unrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: International Christian Concern, December 1, 2022 I was born and raised in a [Kurdish] Muslim family in Iran. I only studied until junior high school. Then, I was expelled because I could not afford school tuition. At that time, my father became ill, and because I was the eldest of seven children, I had … Continue reading Indonesia: Discovering Christ as a Kurdish Refugee<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11581,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11580\/revisions\/11581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}