Persian Diaspora Partnerships Update (Safehouse and Dariush Golbaghi) February 2025
Dariush Golbaghi and his energetic team with Safehouse Ministries have shared some updates with us! For security purposes, we cannot share locations, and names have been changed.
First, Dariush shared about Ali. Ali grew up in a religiously conservative family, feeling trapped by guilt and a lack of direction. Through a small group connected with Safehouse, he encountered the gospel for the first time. As he engaged with the Word of God and began to experience the love of Jesus, his life completely changed. Ali now leads a group of young adults, boldly sharing his testimony despite the risks, and mentoring others in their faith journey.
Then here is Zeba’s testimony. At 22 years old, she found herself questioning her place in life, dealing with a growing darkness of anger and depression, and finding no good answers from her religion. Suicide and atheism are on the rise in her country. Her friend, Layla, who is on the Safehouse in-country team, met with her at one of the many coffee shops lining the city streets. The more Layla listened, the more she resonated with Zeba’s darkness. She had the same experiences years before. Layla opened the gospel to Zeba, sharing that every day in the prayers, they ask Allah to show them the way. “I have found the way.” This stirred her to ask more.
Layla invited Zeba to her small group. She was surprised at the laughter in the room, the stories they told, and the way they spoke about God as a loving Father who knew her name. They read the story of Jesus and the lost sheep. This moved Zeba deeply, and she kept reading the Bible with Layla, eventually committing her life to Jesus. Today, Zeba is part of Safehouse’s youth discipleship group. Her faith is growing, and she hopes to share it with others. However, as is often the case, she is careful not to say much to her family, though they notice the change.
Dariush has an optimistic and challenging schedule for 2025!
-March 20-24: Safehouse is leading a witnessing and worship conference during Norouz (Iranian New Year) in Türkiye. Dariush invites all those interested in joining his team to come! For details, please contact Tom Boone (tom@theoutreachfoundation.org).
-Dariush is joining with Mehrdad Sajadi, another of our partners, to provide Farsi language-based training to in-country Muslim background believers on mission strategy, worship as mission, and discipleship training. They will be co-leading our visit in November, which you can read about here.
-Safehouse is planning several trauma-healing workshops both in the diaspora community and in their home countries. This is in addition to the several worship and evangelistic events they have planned.
-Dariush is producing new episodes of Women Beyond Time, which highlights the stories of women in the Bible and applies them to the lives of women today.
-His Depth of Worship program will launch. He intends to help Persian-speaking Muslim background believers understand the biblical foundations of worship and how worship is a way of life and can help in their witness about Jesus Christ.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Please join us in praying for Safehouse, Dariush, and his wonderful team! We also welcome all gifts of any size to support Safehouse, so that more stories like Zeba’s testimony can continue to be the fruitful work of this ministry. You may make a gift by sending in a check to the address below or you may give online via the link below.