A Hollywood film producer joined forces with a church that has been raising funds to support the family of wrongly imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini for a huge event that is providing funds for the family to purchase a home.
Daniel Lusko, who has written and directed the still unreleased film “Persecuted”, held a special private screening of the movie with all proceeds benefitting the Abedini family’s fund with Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel.
The church has been actively taking care of the family during Abedini’s imprisonment.
Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh, attended the screening and told attendees that her husband is still in an Iranian hospital being treated for internal bleeding because of the beatings at the hands of guards and other prisoners. He is still be denied much needed surgery.
Lusko said that he is planning two more sneak previews of the film with all ticket sales going to the Abedini family.
“Movies come and go and filmmakers like me don’t face much persecution. But men and women like the Abedinis face persecution and death every single day,” Lusko said.
The Muslim guards at Iran’s Evin Prison used the excuse of inmates resisting an inspection as a reason to brutally beat a Christian pastor located in another part of the prison.
Pastor Farshid Fathi, who is serving six years after being convicted on the same kind of false charges used to keep American pastor Saeed Abedini in custody.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide told the Christian Post that the pastor suffered broken bones in the brutal assault.
“Today I celebrate our Lord’s resurrection in a mixed feeling of joy and pain in a different way and in a different place,” Pastor Fathi wrote from his cell. “My left foot is in a cast after they broke it last Thursday in violations they applied against helpless prisoners under the excuse of inspections. After three days of pain, finally they took me chained and shackled to a hospital on Easter morning. Though I was in a dire pain, I took it as a gift from our Lord to get out of prison even for few hours.”
Pastor Fathi has been subjected to extreme mental torture during this imprisonment.
Saeed Abedini, the 33-year-old American pastor imprisoned in Iran because of his faith, has been able to have an Easter message smuggled out to the world.
Abedini reportedly passed the message to family members who were allowed to visit him at the Tehran hospital where he has been held for the last five weeks.
The letter begins with wishing all a Happy Resurrection Day and then says that while he was praying in his hospital room, the Holy Spirit impressed upon him the massive number of Christians around the world today with a dead faith. That so many Christians around the world are not able to reach their spiritual potential because of their lack of faith.
Abedini goes on to say that most Christians want to experience the good things in life but don’t realize to experience the resurrection and glory of Christ we have to first experience death with Christ and die to ourselves and selfish desires.
Abedini was sentenced to 8 years in prison in January 2013 on charges that have no basis in fact. He had previously been harassed when living in Iran because he was helping home churches in worship and growth.
The wife of jailed American pastor Saeed Abedini was praising God at an appearance before the watchdog group International Christian Concern.
“The Lord has counted our family worthy enough to send Saeed to a dark place that he would be able to share with people who are in complete despair,” Naghmeh Abedini said.
She said that while her husband had been in prison there have been many prisoners who have given their hearts to the Lord.
“This has been very hard, but spiritually it is the best time in my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she said. “My new reality forced me out of my self-consumed life. I realized I had a right to speak out for those who are being silenced, to speak for the Christians, for the Jews, for the Baha’i, and other fellow human beings who are being imprisoned simply because of their beliefs.”
The family’s lawyers with the American Center for Law and Justice said that Pastor Abedini is still in an Iranian prison but the authorities are still denying potentially life-saving surgery.
Imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini is finally receiving hospital treatment for internal injuries suffered at the hands of his captors in Iranian prisons.
Naghmeh Abedini told Faith Radio her husband is finally being given decent meals and pain medication to deal with this wounds. He had been transferred to a hospital from Rajai Shahr prison, called Iran’s deadliest prison.
However, Saeed reportedly still needs to undergo surgery.
Iran backed off and called a “mistake” their recent actions where they shackled Abedini and denied him any medical treatment. The reversal came after a worldwide outcry of abuse.
His lawyers with the American Center for Law and Justice say the Iranian guards are still blocking visitors.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz told the students at Liberty University’s convocation to stand up for their faith because Christians in America will be facing increasing attacks.
Cruz said that religious freedom in America “has never been more imperiled than it is right now.”
“Religious liberty has never been more under assault,” Cruz said, “As believers we are called to action, not to sitting quietly hiding our faith under a bushel, but to stand and speak no matter what the consequences.”
Cruz pointed out the mandate by the Obama administration in the Affordable Care Act that requires employers to cover drugs that can induce abortions as an example of the erosion of religious freedom in America. He said the current case at the Supreme Court involving Hobby Lobby is not about birth control but whether the government can “force people to violate their religious freedoms.”
Cruz spoke about two pastors who have been imprisoned because of standing up for their faith and said they were example for the students: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Saeed Abedini.
Wrongly imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini was shackled by prison guards at an Iranian hospital and then refused potentially life saving surgery.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who has been trying to obtain Abedini’s release, said that while the pastor was awaiting surgery with an elderly relative, the guards came in and shackled him to the bed. His relative was then forcibly removed from the room by the Iranian guards.
Abedini has been in need of abdominal surgery because of multiple beatings during his time in Iranian prisons. The ACLJ says he was sent back to the prison with only some medication to help him with pain.
The ACLJ has noted the questionable timing of Abedini’s hospital transfer and return to prison. The pastor was taken to the hospital when the High Representative of the European Union arrived in Iran. The EU has been much more active in raising the issue about Pastor Abedini than the American government. The moment that Representative Catherine Ashton departed the country, Abedini was seized and returned to the prison.
“This disturbing turn of events reiterates the need to keep pressure on Iran,” the ACLJ said in a statement.
Pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned in Iran for his faith in Christ, received a small bit of good news when he was transferred from the murderer’s ward of Rajai Shahr Prison to the ward where they hold political prisoners.
However, his attorneys say the move is only a slight step toward justice for Abedini.
The American Center for Law and Justice said in a statement that Pastor Saeed is still in the deadliest prison in Iran and facing a serious medical issue. Members of Abedini’s Iranian family was able to see him for the first time in six weeks and said that he is still throwing up and has extreme pain in his abdomen.
A prison doctor actually recommended surgery and told prison officials that it was medically necessary for Abedini’s internal injuries. He gave Abedini medication to try and ease the pain. Iranian officials have not responded to the doctor’s request for surgery.
“There is a glimmer of comfort to know that my husband has been transferred out of the murderers’ ward, but my heart aches to know the pain he continually suffers and that his injuries necessitate surgery,” Saeed’s wife Naghmeh Abedini said in a statement. “As a family, it is difficult to be so far away and unable to comfort him in his pain.”
The Christmas season has been a very somber one for the family and supporters of Pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned in Iran for being a Christian.
Pastor Saeed’s wife Neghmeh has criticized the Obama administration for not taking steps during recent negotiations and communications with Iran to have her husband freed.
“Initially, when I went to the U.S. government, they said we don’t have a direct relationship with Iran,” Naghmeh Abdeini said. “Here we were sitting across table from Iran. It was our best leverage. It should have been a precondition.”
She also was critical of an Obama administration action to release an Iranian copy who tried to steal nuclear weapon technology from the United States without securing the release of American captives.
Pastor Saeed’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said that he has been routinely beaten by fellow inmates and prison guards and is infested by lice.
Supporters are spending time today praying for the release of Pastor Abedini and for God to reunite him with his family.
The wife of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran for being a Christian is outraged that the Obama Administration did nothing to secure her husband’s release while in talks over that country’s nuclear program.
The White House confirmed over the weekend that they made no efforts at all to secure the release of Saeed Abedini during the nuclear negotiations.
“It’s unbearable,” Naghmeh Abedini said to Fox News, “to think of another Christmas without him and see my kids not have him home for Christmas.”
Abedini’s supporters say the deal with Iran takes America’s best leverage off the table for the release of the persecuted pastor.
Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law And Justice said that President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have “turned their backs on a U.S. citizen.”
