Jacob Pursley

Well, we have an English-speaking international church in Yerevan, Armenia, and it caters to all the internationals that come in.

And what is amazing is that Armenia borders Iran, and so Iranian Christians that flee persecution come up to Armenia as the only free and democratic nation in the region.

And so when they come up, they want to know what the Bible says.

They want to be discipled.

And so they come to our church, and we baptize them.

And so we have great ties and connections with the Christian community now within Armenia, but also in Iran.

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Yes, Armenia has freedom of religion.

It's the first Christian nation, 301 A.D., so they continue to allow that within their country.

And that is what brings the Iranians up to Armenia, because they know that this is a Christian nation, and they want to have freedom of religion, which they do not have in their own country.

They're not even allowed to have a Bible in their own language.

It's illegal.

And conversion from Islam to Christianity in Iran is capital punishment, death.

So it's a very risky thing to convert to Christianity in Iran.

But we are seeing Iran is the country in the world.

When you look at missions and the church growth, it's the fastest growing Christian nation in the world right now.

Well, I can't answer from a political perspective because I'm working as a pastor.

but I am sure that there are religious figures that are not happy about religious and Christian freedom.

Now, I don't know how that's voiced or what's going on behind the scenes, but Armenia as a country allows for religious freedom, no matter who that is.

So we have a mosque in Yerevan, we have a Jewish community, we have Yazidi community, Baha'i community, and everybody's worshiping freely with no persecution.