Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American pastor detained in Iran since 2012, faces a "very hard, cold and shattering" Christmas season in Rajai Shahr Prison this year. In a recent letter he wrote from his prison cell, Saeed says, "This is the first Christmas that I am completely without my family; all of my family is presently outside of the country... It appears that I am alone with no one left beside me." This is the third time he will be spending Christmas without his family.
Aside from not being able to spend Christmas with any member of his family, Saeed goes through difficult conditions in prison. He writes, "These days are very cold here. My small space beside the window is without glass making most nights unbearable to sleep. The treatment of fellow prisoners is also quite cold and at times hostile. Some of my fellow prisoners don't like me because I am a convert and a pastor. They look at me with shame as someone who has betrayed his former religion. The guards can't even stand the paper cross that I have made and hung next to me as a sign of my faith and in anticipation of celebrating my Savior's birth. They have threatened me and forced me to remove it."
The American pastor is confronted daily with threats to his life that he had to forgo his yard time in order to protect himself. Saeed has endured multiple beatings and torture from fellow inmates and from jailers since he was imprisoned. He has suffered from internal injuries as a result. According to his family, he has not received proper medical attention.
Yet, in spite of what he is going through, Saeed continues to find refuge in the love of God. "Christmas means that God came so that He would enter your hearts today and transform your lives and to replace your pain with indescribable joy," he says in his letter. "The same way that the heat from the earth's core melts the hard stones in itself and produces lava, the fiery love of God, Jesus Christ, through the virgin Mary's womb came to earth on Christmas to melt the hardest heart of sin and wickedness of the world and removes them from our life."
His wife, Naghmeh, says, "Reading this Christmas letter is quite difficult knowing the harsh condition that Saeed is in and the adversity that he faces daily."
To her husband, Naghmeh says, "I wish you could see the lives that are touched and transformed because of you standing strong in your faith in Jesus Christ. The kids and I miss you and cannot imagine another Christmas without you, but we are proud of you and your endurance. Don't give up hope. Many are praying and taking action to bring you home."
Pastor Saeed was first arrested in Iran in 2009, but he was later released under the condition that he would stop organizing house churches. In 2012, when he came back to Iran to help establish an orphanage, the police picked him up and imprisoned him. He received his eight-year prison sentence in January 2013 after many months of being imprisoned.