Hamed is an Iranian refugee now producing Radio PARS – Yaski Radio’s Persian-language broadcast for Afghan and Iranian refugees in Indonesia – that airs on Heartline Radio Jakarta and online. Hamed’s own faith journey began in the most unlikely way.
Around 2011, while still in Iran, a friend started talking to him about Jesus Christ. Not a pastor. Not a missionary. But someone who, like Hamed, had grown up with no Christian background at all. That conversation planted a seed. But it took years – and a move to Indonesia – before it broke ground.
“For the first time, I felt love,” Hamed says of his first visit to an Indonesian church. “All the people showed love to me. Every smile, every welcome, they were really warm to me.” He enrolled in Bible study classes, drawn by something he had never encountered before: salvation. Not just forgiveness, but permanent rescue. He was baptised in 2019.
One verse captured his heart and has never let go – Isaiah 49:15. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast?… Though she may forget, I will not forget you” (NIV).
That promise now drives everything Hamed does. He produces two Radio PARS programs every week covering refugee rights, biblical teaching and practical hope. Four nights a week he runs Bible study classes. He organises futsal teams to build trust and open doors. He personally visits families across Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung and beyond – more than 1,000 contacts so far among the estimated 5,000 Persian-speaking refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia.
Through your partnership with Yaski, those contacts are hearing the gospel in their heart language.
Consider one family Hamed met through the radio ministry. They had tried to reach Australia by boat. Police caught them. They were sent back. Their asylum claim was rejected. They wanted to die. “They didn’t have any hope,” Hamed recalls. Through Bible study and radio, the father came to faith and was baptised. His wife and daughter are now coming to believe as well.
Then there is the Iranian man who arrived in Indonesia trapped in drug addiction. For months, Hamed’s team walked alongside him – studying Scripture together, offering practical help, refusing to give up. Slowly, over six or seven months, the man began to leave the drugs behind. One night, he testified, a figure in long white robes took his hand. Hamed believes it was Jesus, coming to him personally. He has been clean ever since, and he still attends Hamed’s classes.
These are not overnight transformations. They are the fruit of patient, persistent discipleship – faith walked out week after week in community. And it’s your partnership with Yaski Radio that gives people like Hamed the platform and the reach to stay the course with people who are searching.
Five thousand Persian-speaking refugees and asylum seekers live in Indonesia. For many of them, Radio PARS may be the only voice telling them they are not forgotten. Hamed is determined to reach each one. And he doesn’t do it alone, thanks to you.