 The Holy Spirit is moving all around the world and in your home. Are you ready for it? We hope you are because we're so glad you're joining us for Hope Today. I'm here with Tom Hollis and A.B. Schaefer, and we are going to talk about something that is so powerful, so important, and so insightful that all of us need to be aware of how God is moving somewhere special. That's right. God is moving all over the world. Coming up on Hope Today, you're going to hear and learn about an organization whose single goal is to bring the gospel and love of Christ to the people of Iran. We're talking 88 million people. Alana Silk is the CEO of Transform Iran, and she will be joining us in just a bit to share how her organization is reaching Iran with the gospel and how we can do our part to make this happen. You know, guys, while we're here in America, we're here on Christian television freely declaring the gospel and the good news of Christ, but that freedom is not in every nation, so this is going to be some important discussions today. Very important, and I'm really looking forward to hearing the stories about how people are coming to Christ there in Iran. We also have something later in the program we're going to be sharing about the Projecting Hope Film Festival. You know, we just saw how powerful the movie Jesus Revolution is and how it made such an impact in our culture and in the church and in people's lives. We're going to be talking about that and some other movies that are out at this film festival. They've been doing this for years, guys, and to see the quality of what's coming out now with a Christian message, Sidney, and a strong Christian base to it, but powerful and really well done. You know, I think I really feel that God wants to shake up the Christian media mountain. I think for years, you know, a lot of us are, you know, we go out and we watch the movies, but God is truly calling up Christian creators and those who do the storytellers. And I think even what's happening all around the world of just, I was talking to a friend yesterday just sharing different stories and things that are happening and, you know, the greatest way to share the good news of the gospel is by storytelling. And I think it was T.D. Jake's one time said if like Jesus was working nowadays, he would be a filmmaker, you know, like just imagine all the parables and the stories that he told. So it's encouraging. It's exciting what God is doing all around the world and using through the power of media and just all the things that are happening. I know. And I love movies. I am a movie person. And I think there are people, I could watch about any movie and find some sort of meaning behind it. So I think as believers that we have to, we don't have an option, we have to support faith based gospel movies. I mean, the Jesus revolution movie. Tell me that that movie has not shaken the nation as far as just fanning the flames of revival and what God is doing. Even I know John Gellman has taken out a Jesus film, not the not the famous one that everybody thinks, but he's traveled all over India with teams and just sharing the gospel that way. It's a powerful way to do it. And I'm glad that God has called this station in the media and to be part of that, you know, that answer. Yeah, we are the answer. And you know, so we're just so glad that you are tuned in today. You know, we always just want to say as always, you know, we are here for you 24 seven. One of our missions here at Cornerstone is our prayer line available 24 seven at 888-665-4483. So at any point of the day, you can always call us and we will be here just for you. The dream and vision of our next guest is to bring freedom to the people of Iran by seeing the nation transformed in one which bears the image of Christ. No small task. Lana Silk is here and she serves as transform Iran's chief executive officer USA branch and she joins us now to share how her organization is helping people come to know the love of Jesus. Lana, welcome to hope today. I think we're we're not we're not hearing Lana. Listen, there's one person we really want to hear from today and that is Lana. Amy, I can hear you loud and clear. Are you not able to hear me? We hear you now and okay it is vital that we hear what is happening in Iran. What your ministry is doing and how we can support and help and pray. But first off, tell us the background and the beginning of this ministry. I think it is so cool the story of your mom and dad. Thank you. I love sharing the story of my mom and dad and how the Lord blessed them with the calling that they serve with today. So my parents were born at a time when Iran was a completely different country to what we hear about today in the news completely free and really quite secular in many ways. The turning point came right around when I was born actually in 1978-1979 when the people of Iran decided they wanted a religious regime and Islamic regime and of course we've heard in the news how the Ayatollahs came in, how Khomeini returns to Iran and established an Islamic theocracy. So in the lead up to this time my parents were involved in a thriving Pentecostal Christian church in Iran. In fact this church was born in my dad's father's home and it was kind of like an act story where the Lord came and met with the family. They met every night with the Lord and the church really grew and people kept coming to hear what was happening and get to know Jesus and see the miracles that were happening and they outgrew the space and had a building and that kind of exciting background. Fast forward to the early 80s when the Islamic regime came in and suddenly there was an oppression that came across the land and people's freedoms were curtailed in all sorts of ways and one of those was an expression of faith other than Islam. In the mid to late 80s the Lord began to speak to my parents about leaving Iran and they were very resistant to this because they knew that their call and their heart was with the people of Iran but what happened was they went off and prayed and sensed that the God was really telling them to leave. They took this to the senior leadership of the church and the overseeing pastor said no you must have heard wrong we need you here in Iran they were very happy to hear that and then the Lord spoke to this pastor in a dream and said no you must let Lazarus and Maggie leave and they must leave quickly so I was nine years old at this time and I remember the upheaval and urgency of it all because Pastor High could come to the home and said I've had a dream God has told me to tell you you heard right the first time you have to leave and you have to leave quickly so within a few months we left and you can't take anything out of the country you know you're searched on the way out so literally it was a case of give everything away pack up and go and we landed in England where the Lord then clarified the vision he said to them the church in Iran is about to be driven underground persecution is coming and you must prepare I'm going to need you here to mobilize the forces get the people together and be ready to serve what is going to become an underground persecuted church and of course that's what happened within a few years. You know recently in the news all of our attention has been on a young lady you know from Iran I believe her name is Massa Amini and you can correct my pronunciation but tell us how that has affected tell us the story and how that has affected the people of Iran. Yes it's just devastating what happened to Massa but how what that represents because she wasn't the only one many young men and women have suffered that kind of brutality and Massa became a beacon that rallied people together she was a 22 year old Kurdish girl who was traveling to Tehran to visit family and she was pulled across by the morality police so this is a force a branch of the police whose job is to enforce morality so how people look basically how they behave in public settings how they dress she had her job which is her head covering but the morality police decided that she hadn't covered her hair enough and they arrested so what they do is they put these women usually women sometimes meant to in these vans and you know we people talk about these vans as vans of death or the abyss because there's such horrific stories coming out of what happens to people in the vans let alone when they where they take them afterwards and three different witnesses did say that they saw Massa taking a beating inside the van over her head as well and when she was taken to the police station she collapsed it was very um uh it took a long time for any medical aid to come to her and when they did they took her to hospital she was in a coma for a few days and she did die from her head injuries of course the authorities insisted she already had a health condition but her family was saying she was fit and well she was a 22 year old young girl with everything to live for so that led to a national uprising with people saying enough is enough and because the issue with her was her head covering it became a real symbolic act for women to take off their head coverings to burn them in the streets to cut their hair in the streets and you know as they were doing all of these they knew full well that the repercussions would be brutal but it gets to a point where there's nothing else to live for in fact we've spoken to many people who've said to us you know what we're dead anyway if they're going to kill us because of what we're doing our lives are pointless anyway we might as well try and of course the government did do what people expected they would they they kill people in the streets they beat people in the streets but they've also rounded up tens of thousands of protesters and the reports that we've had of what's happened to them in um in prison if you could call it that and some of them have been clandestine torture centers if you is probably a more accurate term have been um it's difficult to use words they've been brutal what they've been doing to them and that this is what it is the government is afraid now and there's silence and people as much as they can but in the midst of oppression and darkness your ministry transform Iran is bringing hope and help and the gospel tell us the many facets of what this organization is doing in Iran Amy our country is hurting it's broken there is such a loss of hope a loss of identity and when we come in with the gospel we know that the Jesus is the answer to all of those things but it's not enough just to stand there and say you need Jesus you need you need to bring the full package you need to introduce them to people to Jesus to connect them deeply and to walk them through a process of transformation and our heart is to bring that whole process to people so we all our activities are based on three pillars the first is evangelism the people of Iran are desperately hungry for truth and they are seeking it out it's important that we're there with the message ready to connect them with the only truth the only way to the life that they're looking for so we use every media available to us internet tv radio in person evangelism printed literature every possible way that we can we put up the message of the good news of Jesus and Iranians are finding it and then they're coming in with their questions so that takes us to our second pillar which is discipleship leadership development it's great that people are converting to Jesus and they are so many thousands upon thousands are giving their lives to the Lord but now it's important that we intake these people and we nurture them we teach them the truth we grant them in the in the gospel properly in biblical truth and we do we invite them on a year-long journey with us for weekly discipleship where we train them we give them Christian foundations we teach them about apologetics about evangelism and actually part of that course is really church planting leadership development because what happens through that process is they are sharing their faith and very often what will happen is somewhere through that process our um counselor will call in for the weekly call and the person on the other end in Iran will say do you know what everything you've been telling me has been life-giving my life has changed i have told so many of my friends and family about it i hope you don't mind i'll put you on loud speaker there's 30 of us here in the room and we all want to know and that's how the church is born so house churches are multiplying in that way so now this person who was a young christian any months ago is a church leader so we walk with them through their development and we nurture them as as a young pastor and help them in their in their own personal development leading others too and that takes us to our third pillar you know the end goal isn't a whole list of fancy leaders or a whole list of churches or even translated bibles the end goal is the people of Iran and the transformation of a whole nation and in every way that we can we want to make sure that we're considering the needs of our people Iran is broken in so many different ways there is poverty there is struggle there are incredibly high rates of drug addiction of depression clinical depression the list goes on so it's there are a whole range of ways and we see we need to meet the needs of the people and we come in with with counseling with trauma counseling with aid for the poor in every way that we can thinking about the different sectors of society know there there's a huge number of illiterate people you can't just print bibles and send them into the country and expect the illiterate people to access it so how do we bring the gospel to those who can't read how do we use radio effectively and and the list goes on you add to that all the victims of sexual abuse Iran has a horrific record of abuse to men and women sexually um the legal age for marriage for girls is 13 it's 15 for boys but there are legally recorded marriages for girls as youngest five years old you add to the mix the fact that there's a there's a legalized I mean I would just call it sanctioned rape where a man can take a female of any age to a religious leader and have that leader bless what they call see her which is a temporary marriage that marriage could be half an hour it could be two hours it could be a week so now you have a whole generation of women who growing up with just systematic abuse you add to that the fact they can't express themselves in how they dress they can't behave certain ways they can't go certain places they can't study certain things so the whole issue of a woman's identity is at risk so we we try to address all these things in the different activities that we take part in wow so so exciting though to see that god is doing something even in the midst of this horrific situation we've heard of church growth close to 20 fantastic what what god is doing what is transformer ron doing specifically for children and for youth for that next generation that's so often youth you seem to lead the way in in any kind of a revolutionary or you know a life changing earth shattering way that the youth seem to lead that many times what is what is your organization doing there absolutely tom these are key for the future of our country and they're a high proportion 60 percent of iranians are under the age of 30 and youth of the ones who are tech savvy are looking beyond their borders to find out what's happening in the in the world outside of iran and bear in mind this is illegal iran's media is controlled access to media outside of their borders is illegal and yet they seek it out constantly so we're aware of the the ways in which they try to access information and we try to make sure it's available to them we use mobile apps we use social media to make sure that the message of the gospel is presented in a way that's accessible and appealing to a younger generation our programming whether it's on tv internet radio has segments that are youth specific we have we're on an apologetic center where again young people are many times the ones who have the questions the deeper questions and you know they've grown up in a very oppressive islamic regime so their questions are often centered around Islam versus Christianity what does Christianity have to say on this topic that i've been told this about so we take their questions it's a completely interactive center where they can come in and ask and we we connect with them one to one and help them grapple with the subjects that they're grappling with lana last night i had my whole family sit there and watch the video that you have on your website transform iran and my husband immediately said how can we get involved what can we do how can we support so i ask you that question thank you amy we do need help we absolutely do first up we need people to pray for us this is a supernatural war that we're engaged in and we know that the only way to to be victorious is really by the power of god himself it's it's all about what he wants to do it's all for his glory and we are totally dependent on his power his protection his leadership and we we need people to be praying for us and regularly so we invite people to come to our website transform iran dot com you can sign up to a monthly prayer update and then each month we will let you know what are the specific things that we need covered in prayer and we would invite you to join us on an adventure praying and seeing what god is doing and aside from that we need practical help there's no way around it all these things cost money and it's difficult to get going as a nonprofit when you're constantly trying to fund all the various projects we often identify with simon as he was back then when jesus sent him out and said go cast your net again in the deep and simon said but lord we've been fishing all night we've caught nothing and jesus said go and do it again and of course we know the story when he went out he put his fish his net and the word of god tells us he caught so much that his necks were breaking under the weight of his catch and he had to call others to come and break to come and help him collect this catch so this is how we feel right now we have caught a huge harvest and the fish are coming we don't have a problem convincing people to come to jesus in iran they are looking for jesus and they want to know him the question is how can we gather it all how can we help nurture it all our nets are breaking who can come and help us can you do you have resources you can help with help us with is there a way that you can help us financially every amount makes a difference come and sign up and be part of this adventure because you will be helping us draw in this catch that the lord has given us wow thank you so much lana for transform iran and all that you're doing the work that you're doing the heart that you have the vision and the ministry we are backing you with prayer and we are supporting you and praying for you let everybody you talk to and iran know that thank you i appreciate that thank you so much well after the quick break we're going to be uh sharing some more about the projecting hope film festival you're really going to enjoy we've got a couple of great trailers for you that uh i know that you'll have a good time watching so stay with us when laura called our 24 seven prayer line she had so much fear that she didn't want to leave her house she had lost her husband of 54 years just six months earlier laura was flipping through tv stations when she came across cornerstone television she felt compelled to call one of our prayer partners talked listened and prayed with her for 45 minutes at the end laura said how much the ministry had helped relieve her fear praise god for how he's using ctvn when you give you become part of what he's doing this month when you give we'll send wild expectations as our way of saying thank you this book will inspire you to live your life as god intended to give and request your copy visit us online at ctvn.org slash donate or call us at 888-665-4483 hope happens here well coming up this weekend march 24 through the 26th is the projecting hope film festival it's the pittsburgh mills cinemas in torrenton pennsylvania and uh we've got a couple of great trailers for you so let's go first to nothing is impossible if you humble yourself before the low all the answers to life's questions are easy to find i mean i want to do more with my life and just give up you were so close to getting to the NBA that's you and the trophy kids that's me in the trophy case and this is me now god is not done with you he's still working through you this weekend the noxville silver knights will be holding open tryouts at the arena you used to be with the knights owner we're not playing the knights scott are you trying out aren't you like 40 not yet are we rebuilding a franchise or are we casting a reality show forget it archie you're not going to try out some old romance for the cameras never underestimate the power of a really good Cinderella story through you i can do when it's made it to the second round pop we certainly have a lot for someone with nothing to lose we all tripped in mr scott they look a lot taller in real life scott beck was passed through to the final round with no intention of signing it don't you understand what's happening here that don't he didn't use you to get to the nba he used the nba to get you and god is going to do something amazing he starts with the impossible that looks great nothing is impossible trying out for the nba i wonder if they need like a 60 something low post guy you know i might i might might have a might have a place there guys i mean if we're gonna dream we got a dream right this is your moment that looks like a great story well we have another trailer for you that i know you're gonna be interested in uh so many of us have loved the chosen here is season three's final here's the trailer john the success of this trip depends on simon jesus gave her healing and joy but he hasn't given that to me i won't be in your way for long have faith simon faith isn't my problem i think i was a mistake what have we here my friends you seem upset you want to dilute our faith take your followers back west where you belong we didn't come here to cause trouble well it could appear that trouble has found us what is stirring in your hearts in the middle of such division and unrest is father god being revealed to you come to me all whom labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest without the food they're out of food can you bring me anything five loaves of bread and two fish this feels familiar let's eat let's eat you know jesus isn't isn't worried all he has is a little bit to work with and he does amazing things what a what a uh something for us to remember about our lives if we give that little bit jesus can take it and multiply it incredibly yeah i mean we were talking about the darkness and oppression and brutality that was in iran what about the oppression darkness and brutality that's in the arts and entertainment industry also and that no matter where we are what our metron is what our sphere of influences we go into that arena and we bring light we bring truth and we bring the gospel city it's time for a bold and courageous church we really didn't like so many people i'm like so like sitting and i think a lot of us are processing to what lana was just saying about iran and i think just the reality sometimes it's sobering you know here in america we don't face the same sort of things you know outward oppression that is in those places but it is so needed right now that as the body of christ is that god has he's written a whole story and he's telling us from the beginning in the end and we have it in the word of god and i think it's so important in this season that we all seek the face of the father that we ask jesus what can we do to go out and be light in the midst of the darkness you know i was just talking to a friend i met with her yesterday and she's preparing to go to an unreached place in the middle east and is preparing for martyrdom and i think it's like these things that when there's people that are willing to put themselves in the front lines it gets real like in the same way jesus put himself on the front line so we just encourage you today you know we have a lot of things that are happening in our world but ask god like where are you positioning me just like amy said like we all have a metron we all have a sphere of influence and god is calling us to be bold in this season to stand up and speak for truth but to do it in love so seek the heart of the father today and ask him what is my part what am i called to do and i think that there's so many different ways that's why we we do think we we bring the gospel uh by our own life we bring the gospel through things like these movies and by the way i do want to mention that you can get tickets the day uh at the day of at the box office or reserve online at projectinghopepgh.com but guys it is so important that whatever sphere we find ourselves in whatever your friend going to a place where she is expecting to receive persecution wherever it is we've got to be the light we bringers of the light we we are the the epistles paul says known and read by all men so we are the ones and they're not going to hear about jesus unless we tell them any final thought my final thought is now's the time for you to step up stand out and be bold with the gospel how jesus loves jesus saves jesus rescues jesus redeems jesus is the way jesus is the light and he is the hope for you today on tomorrow's hope today learn how you can receive god's anointing through the miracle of the oil speaker and author joshua mills shares about the miraculous power of god's anointing that will help you discover healing wisdom and many other spiritual blessings that's tomorrow on hope today cornerstone television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible