Franklin Graham Leads Worldwide Prayer Vigil for Persecuted Pastor Saeed Abedini
Naghmeh Abedini is inviting Christians around the world to band together on Friday, the two-year anniversary of her husband Saeed Abedini’s sentencing to an Iranian prison.
To date, a prayer vigil is scheduled in all 50 U.S. states as well as more than 30 countries worldwide.
“I’m doing a prayer vigil on this day to remember Pastor Saeed and others who are imprisoned for Christ,” Naghmeh said. “But also as a chance to come together as the body of Christ and see the move of God as we pray together.”
Franklin Graham will be in Washington, D.C., on Thursday for a special prayer meeting just outside the White House at Lafayette Square to help launch the next day’s worldwide prayer effort for Pastor Saeed and others imprisoned for their faith in Christ.
“And they have beaten him. They have tortured him,” Franklin Graham said. “They have done everything they can to try to make him recant his Christian beliefs and come back to Islam, but he will not do it. And now I think they’re slowly trying to kill him in prison.
“This is a huge injustice. To think that in the day in which we live, that you can be imprisoned for your faith.”
There are many ways to get involved, and Franklin Graham strongly advocates every believer to take action.
“We ask that people pray,” he said. “To write their congressman. And to write the president—President Obama, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C., 20500—and ask that he demand, not request, but demand that Saeed Abedini and the other Americans that have been held in Iranian prisons be set free.”
The father of two grade school-aged children, Pastor Saeed has received death threats from ISIS militants and imprisoned members of al-Qaida who have already attempted to kill him.
“He’s in the hands of the most radical government that doesn’t listen to anyone,” Nahgmeh said. “I don’t know what Iran is going to do. It’s like there’s no closure. It’s just taking it one day at a time.”
Despite the brutality and beatings, Pastor Saeed wrote in a letter that a huge encouragement for him is knowing “that in my chains the body of Christ has chained together.”
Click here to find a prayer vigil in your area, or start one with your local church.
This article originally appeared on BillyGraham.org.
