“Ministry moves at the speed of relationships.”
I first encountered that succinct and undeniably true phrase when a pastor friend of our ministry used it to describe the relationship between his church and ANM. Long-term, fruitful partnerships are at the very heart of ANM’s culture and mission. Our long relationship with Sam Yeghnazar, founder of Elam Ministries, is a case in point.
Our founders were early friends and supporters of Sam’s ministry to the Persian world. Today, we maintain that relationship through ongoing support, love, and respect for Elam’s evangelistic, discipleship, and leader development work in the Iran region. Sam is now retired and provides full-time care for his wife, Lin, whose health is in decline. David Yeghnazar, Sam and Lin’s son, now heads Elam’s wide-ranging ministry headquartered in England.
A Warm Reunion
On a recent ministry trip to England, I visited Sam and Lin at their home south of London. A long underground tube ride to Waterloo Station and an hour’s British South Western Rail travel brought me to Sam’s hometown. It was good to see him again. It had been several years since Sam had visited ANM at our offices in Virginia.
I thought back to my first meeting with him two decades ago. We had lunch together when he came to meet with the leadership of World Help in Forest, Virginia. Elam had just finished translating the New Testament into modern Persian (Farsi), and Sam was looking for partners to help print it in large quantities. His quiet strength and measured response to my questions regarding Elam and the translation impressed me. Today, almost three million copies have been printed and distributed.
A few years later, I visited Elam’s headquarters south of London. Sam greeted me warmly and led me to a quiet office where we could speak without distractions. I shared my calling scripture, Isaiah 50:4, with him. We talked for almost an hour, discussing our lives and the possibility of my teaching Iranian refugees in Turkey. Again, I was impressed, this time with his generosity with time.
Sharing Coffee, a Warm Floor, and a Second Reunion
I paused my reflections as we arrived at Sam’s home, just a few minutes from the train station. Lin greeted me, along with a neighbor who had been with her, while Sam picked me up. Sam made me an excellent cup of coffee, and we sat down at their kitchen table.
As is the custom in many cultures, we had removed our shoes at the door. I was pleasantly surprised that the kitchen floor was heated. It was a chilly and rainy day, and the heat was quite welcome. Sam and Lin’s daughter, Sharon, came by to say hello. I had only seen her once since my last teaching mission to Istanbul in 2013. Sharon had headed the training centers in Turkey at the time. She is now married with two children and lives in the same town as her parents. Sharon ordered lunch for us all and then left to pick up her children from school.
A Significant Event
At the kitchen table, I shared with Sam a significant event in my life that occurred in 2012 in the Cappadocia region of Turkey. This region is mentioned in Acts 2:9, as are the Elamite people, the namesake of Elam Ministries. After teaching in Istanbul, Sharon sent me to a small city in Cappadocia to speak at an Iranian refugee church pastored by an Elam-trained evangelist. The Turkish government had spread many Iranian refugees among several cities throughout the country. Elam had planted numerous churches among these Persian-speaking refugees who often knew little Turkish. Iranian Muslims primarily belong to the Shia branch of Islam, while Turkish Muslims are mostly Sunni. Despite both being Muslim, the refugees have little in common with their Turkish hosts.
The refugee church consisted of a religiously mixed group of Iranians, some Christian and others Muslim, often from the same family. The church was one place where they all spoke the same language and shared the same cultural background. Jesus’ prodigal parable in Luke 15 was my primary text. I shared with Sam that this had been my first time speaking to a truly mixed audience and had prayed that I would be given an appropriate invitation to faith in Jesus.
An Invitation to the Father’s Table
At the end of my message, I found myself inviting those present to come home to the Father and sit at His family table. This was the invitation in Jesus’ parable. I did not ask them to give up their ethnicity or culture, but I made it clear that the only path that leads home is through faith in Jesus.
After the pastor concluded the invitation, a man quickly came forward and asked for prayer. Others followed. At dinner afterward, I asked the pastor what that first man had said to him. The pastor responded, “He said he wanted to come home to his father.” I was astounded. God had given me the right invitation and He led the man to respond. The man had been a Muslim with a wife who had recently come to faith in Christ. I shared with Sam that I have never had an experience like that before or since and thanked him for providing such an amazing opportunity.
A Legacy of Fruitful Ministry in the Iran Region
Lunch arrived, and we shared the meal together. Afterward, Sam showed me his office and some of the manuscripts for Bible translations into several languages in the Iran region that Sam had facilitated. In cooperation with Wycliff Bible Translators, Elam had also produced the full Bible in modern Persian about ten years ago.
On the wall was also an anniversary gift from his children. A puzzle, put together and now framed, with pictures of Sam and Lin’s wedding day and a more recent photo of them both. Looking at that special gift and the decades of their lives together that it represented, I was flooded with an almost visceral sense of God’s presence, providence, and protection over their lives and the ministry of Elam.
As I made my way back to London that evening, I reflected anew on the privilege it is for ANM to partner with Elam, and for me to know this man, his family, and his legacy of fruitful ministry in the Iran Region.
