"Men with long beards took me away to interrogate me. They made me sit in jail for seven hours, and then questioned me for 3 hours, asking me all kind of personal details about the Iraqi pastors in the city. I told them that I do not know their history or what they do.
"But these bearded men did not stop questioning me about trying to convert Muslims, speaking with them about Jesus and baptizing them. I said: ‘When I answer yes to any of these questions, you will kill me’, but they said that they will not kill me”, shares Leron, an Iraqi pastor, about his return from abroad to his home country Iraq."-
Leron continues his experiences: “When the other interrogators left, one man stayed behind and asked me: “Now I have the most important question to you: ‘Who is the son of God, we hear about the son of God, but don’t know who He is.”
At that moment I heard the Lord speaking to me: ‘This is why you have had 5 years of training in recent years.’ So I asked the interrogator: ‘Do you have time’? He said ‘yes’, so I started in Genesis and told the story of God’s creation, His plan about sin and how everything went wrong and finally ended up with Jesus and the cross. It took me an hour and when I finished my story, he said: “This is the first time somebody explains it to me, now I understand it.”
I do not know what has happened with this man, but I do know that he has heard and understood the message I shared with him that day.”
Underground
The police handed Leron his passport with force and told him: “Here is your passport, and we want you to take your family and leave our country.” So I left the seminary, where I have been studying for 5 years, changed my address, got my children out of school, but did not leave the country. I continued my work in the church in that country and in a way I went underground, hiding for the police. And God started to teach me not to lean on anybody else for support.
"God supported me this time in miraculous ways. People would give us some money and we would have enough food for the next few days. Again somebody would find a way to give us something. Sometimes we cried and often we were surprised how God provided for us.”
Going back
But finally Leron received the call from God to go back to his home country Iraq: “After two years of underground living in that other country God was speaking to me to go back to my home country, and He also spoke to my wife and daughter about the same issue.
"At that time everybody was telling us that we were crazy and that God did not do these things, but we left anyway.”When Leron with his wife and daughter arrived at the border of Iraq, he had no fear, which was remarkable, since Iraq was in war at that time.
“I felt that I had overcome the fear for Iraq. And the country was in a terrible shape, since so much had been destroyed. It was overwhelming for us. The people were tired and they did not read their Bibles and did not pray. It was very hard work, but I started to disciple them and to encourage them.”
Purpose
Leron is happy to be back in Iraq. “God had sent me to Iraq and I believe it is the time for Iraq to be blessed. My church wants to bless Iraqis and the country itself. We have started a Day-care center and one of the Iraqi officials told me: ‘Now we understand who you as a church are, and we understand that you are called to be a blessing.’
"As a church we do prayer walks in the streets and we bless the houses of the people. When we return, we are very excited and feel that God uses us and we also have more of a sense of purpose in what God is doing through us. “
Bookshop
In his church Leron has a small Christian bookshop, which he has a great testimony:
“An 8 year old boy bought a Bible story book with pictures, and when he went to school, his teacher asked the students to bring their favorite book. The boy took his Bible story book to show the teacher and asked if it was okay to read this. The teacher and the kids in his class loved the book so much, that the boy had 15 kids from his school coming to our bookshop and buying the book. God is at work in my country. ”
Leron ends his testimony with sharing some lessons he has learnt until now: “Do not be afraid, God is with you. Do not depend on anybody’s money, but depend on the provision of the Lord. Do not always listen to people’s advice, but seek firstly wisdom from the Lord and be obedient to the Lord first and to peoplesecond.”
