The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Psalm 91:14: “I will deliver him; I will set him on high, beause he has known My name.”

Only recently, a friend gave me a book entitled, WHEN FAITH IS FORBIDDEN. It chronicles the ventures of Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs. This short chapter seemed most appropriate to our times and our lives.

“Azerbaijan, 2002

“Before Pasor Yalov bacame a fervent Christian and bold evangelist, he was a passionate Muslim –more fervent in following Muhammed than most men in his nation. He was well-educated and well-off financially, yet never seemed to find true peace.

“Being a devout Muslim, he read the Quran to find answers to the questions his heart kept asking. He also fulfilled one of his Islamic obligations by making the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj. He was doing everything his religion taught him to do, yet still lacked peace in his heart. Despondent, he began preparing to take his own life.

“’I tried to live my life by the Shariah Law,’ he told me and a coworker during a visit to Azerbaijan’s capital city. ‘I felt something was not enough in my life. In the Quran, I found no answers for my questions. I thought I was stupid, that I didn’t have enough knowledge in my head. So I read more and more. But as I read, I had more questions.’

“A pastor invited Yalov to join in a Christian meeting where there were six Azeri believers. Yalov was the seventh man in the group, the only one already committed to following Christ. For six months, Yalov attended the group’s meetings and read the Bible. The pastor told him about Jesus and the opportunity to know for sure what would happen after he died. Yalov continued to read the Quran also, comparing the words of Muhammed to the words of Jesus.

“One day, as he opened his Bible, his eyes fell onto the words of Psalm 91:14: ‘I will deliver him; I will set him on high, beause he has wknown My name” (NKJV, emphasis added).

“’I need to call out to God,’ Yalov tought in a seeking prayer. ‘But I don’t know what His name is.’ God heard his prayer, and after six months of being the only non-believer in his Bible study group, the Bible verses he’d been reading and the things the pastor had told him finally clicked in his heart and mind. Yalov committed his life to Christ. Now the group was seven Christians reading the Bible together.

“The change in Yalov was immediate and dramatic; seeing the difference Jesus made in the life of her husband, Yalov’s wife soon also followed Jesus. But not everyone in the family was so pleased with Yalov’s choice. His own mother expelled him from the family home, saying that by leaving Islam he’d brought shame on himself and all his relatives.

“For more than two years after that, Yalov slept in his office. He would pull two desks together every night to form a makeshift bed. He sought further training in the gospel and in following Jesus; he wanted to lead not only his own family to Christ but also his countrymen. He was discipled and sent out for ministry.

“Such ministry is costly in a Muslim nation. Soon, Yalov was arrested, along with another believer who had joined him. They were held fifteen days, interrogated, and pressured to return to Islam and stop their evangelism work.

“The following year, he was arrested again, along with another pastor, right in the middle of leading a worship service. They were held eight days in underground solitary confinement cells. The cell was three feet wide and only five feet long; not even enough room to lay straight on the floor.

“There was a small window in the door of the cell for guards to watch the prisoners. Yalov, though, perhaps remembering Paul’s instruction to Timothy to ‘be ready in season and out of season,’ assumed the window had been left there so he and his coworker could preach to the guards. Yalov and the other pastor took turns.

“One of the guards was complaining of severe stomach pain. Yalov, through the small window in the door of his cell, prayed Jesus would heal the man’s stomach. Immediately, the guard began to feel better as Yalov’s prayers were being answered.

“’The guards knew that we were not crminals,’ Yalov told me. He and the other pastor asked the guards to bring them a copy of the JESUS film. The guards agreed not only to bring a copy of the movie, but also to allow the two pastors to show the film to other prisoners!

“’We showed the JESUS film right there in the prison,’ Yalov said. ‘Many of the guards accepted Jesus.’

“Their ‘cell church’ kept growing. Ten inmates chose to follow Christ and accept His offer of forgiveness. When I met Yalov, after his release from prison, three of those former inmates had been released. They were now members of his church.

“As our time together was coming to an end, I asked my new friend if he thought he would be arrested again. It seemed odd to me when he answered the question, smiling broadly.

“’I would be very willing to be arrested again,’ he said. ‘Anyone who arrests me will hear the Word of God. It will be another opportunity to preach the gospel. It is too late to stop it. No one will stop the gospel.’”
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I am simultaneously thrilled and shamed by Yalov’s zeal for Christ Jesus. If we only had his zeal, our nation and the world-at-large would be a safer and more loving atmosphere for living. May God excite and use us all, as He has Yalov!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom