My wife and I attended this conference yesterday in Pinellas Park FL. Just west of St. Petersburg.
There were 4 speakers.
Dr. Hormoz Shariat who is to be the Billy Graham of Iran. He stated that the Gospel is getting into Iran via Satellite and satellite is illegal there. He show a picture of apt building loaded with dishes. Said that the national flower of Iran should be the Satellite dish.
He talked about the Muslims who are coming to Christ and sharing the Gospel with others. He also played a couple of clips of women calling into his show, on Christian tv. and eventually repenting of their sins and sharing the Gospel. He said one lady was told that she might die and she said she felt dead when being a Muslim so why should she be worried. She has found eternal life and if she were to die she would be with Jesus.
2nd speaker was Sarah Liu from China. She shows a video of her story of being in prison for 6 years. She looks to be about 30. She said she spent 2 months in jail. 3 years in a labor camp and then another 3 years in a labor camp. Her English was broken but could be understood. She did come to near tears during her talk and that is most likely due to recalling the memories of what she was saying. My wife and I managed to talk to her for a few minutes, when it was all done. Bought a book and asked her to sign it. NOrmally I like pictures but pictures nor video was allowed here.
'Brother John' was next. He is 30 something from Syria. He played a video of a family with 2 small kids. The mom encourage the kids in the faith and said that if ISIS comes here is what they are probably going to see and here is how to react. Essentially for the kids it was to be quiet or just praise Jesus to answer ISIS. If they get scared to just close their eyes because they may get killed. We later found out that this was the story of 'Brother John's' sister and her family. I noticed that he stepped out for a minute with a tissue. Poor guy. He said Syria was a nation of 24 million and a mega church was 200 people. He believes that the refugees are an answer to prayer because he believes that God is using it to bring them the Gospel.
Gracia Burnham was the last person. She looks very different then she did in 2001 when she and her husband were kidnapped. She had a prepared speech. She told us the story of how they got kidnapped and their adventure through it.
When the conference was over we were able to get a book from Sarah and speak with her for a few minutes. I also asked her to sign the book. She did and also put 'Jesus love you' in Chinese.
I got 2 books from Gracia. She was taking part in a prayer gathering in the parking lot so we went there as well. When that was over we asked her to sign both books. Then we talk to her about PH. My wife is Filipino. She said she has only been back once and that was to testify again the Abu Sayeff. She said that she may never get to go back because the NBI (FBI of pH) Say they could not guarrantee her safey. What was amusing is she spent 17 years in PH but said she can't speak tagalog and Abu Sayeff spoke Cebuano.
All in all it was a fun time. We spent 45 minutes in prayer. 30 minutes in one session and 15 minutes at the end in corporate prayer praying for regions of the world and the front line workers there.
