A MOTHER’S PRAYER FOR IRAN’S YOUTH
Being a mother can be challenging in the best of circumstances. Katayun*, a believer in Christ, has deep concerns for her daughter and the young people of Iran.
“I am a mother and I love my country,” she writes to SAT-7. “Every day I witness the ruin of our young sons and daughters who are the same age as my own daughter. The children of this land are like my own. Their pain is my pain, their destruction is the destruction of the flower of our country.”
Katayun struggles with physical pain. She lives with diabetes and sight-loss. Yet she says: “I suffer more seeing the flower of youth wither before it has had a chance to blossom. They are trapped by addiction to traditional and man-made substances.”
DRUGS EVERYWHERE
About 90% of the world’s heroin is produced from opium grown in Afghanistan, of which around 60% passes through Iran on its way to Europe and beyond. Many Iranians fall prey to addiction to opium, heroin and other drugs.
Katayun witnesses to the pain parents experience watching their children becoming trapped. “My daughter and her friends have been bemired and ruined,” she says. “I pray day and night, and haven’t lost hope because Jesus heals. I have faith but I am struggling.”
ONE OF MANY PROBLEMS
Despite the growth in the number of Christians in Iran, the ongoing drug problem is one of many, and too big for the Iranian Church to effectively deal with.
Katayun has asked other believers to join her in prayer, but they are often unable to do so and she feels discouraged and helpless seeing the challenges young Iranians face.
She asks everyone to pray: “for the salvation of these young people who are being devoured by wolves; pray for the hungry, for those with no one to protect them. My heart aches seeing that no one heeds the cries of the helpless.”
FAITHLESS GENERATION?
Katayun notices that many young people have become resistant to religion, and are completely put off by anything resembling faith in God.
Katayun explains: “The youngsters say ‘auntie, you’re telling us religious tales.’ I tell them about Christ and they say: ‘we’ve had religion and saw no benefit and now you tell us about Jesus.’ They mock me and say ‘maybe you have managed to deceive yourself but we don’t believe or trust anything.’
“Their temple is drugs. Young girls get into bad relationships and end up having abortions. They carry knives with them. I have my own young one who is being consumed before my very eyes. I have reached a dead-end, along with thousands of other mothers.
“Please pray ceaselessly; I am waiting to see the mercy of God and witness the salvation of my child and the children of my land. Day and night I weep and pray.”
*All names have been changed for security purposes.