President Obama Meets with Wife of Imprisoned Pastor

For the past 28 months, American Pastor Saeed Abedini has been held prisoner in Iran for his faith. His wife, Naghmeh, has been a tireless advocate for his release. On Wednesday, January 21, Naghmeh had one of her prayers answered as she was able to meet in person with President Obama.

Naghmeh says that the fact that President Obama flew from his State of the Union speech to Boise had the local media and city officials baffled — why did he choose Boise? Naghmeh has a simple explanation: prayer and fasting.

Naghmeh says that since January 6 she had been on a Daniel fast praying for God to provide a way for Saeed's release and had invited those following her and Saeed's situation online to join her. When she heard the President was coming to Boise, where she lives, she immediately began fasting from all food, praying that somehow the President would meet with her — though up to this point, all her efforts to meet or even speak with the President had been unsuccessful.

Three days into her fast, the phone rang.

"On Tuesday, I got a call from the White House saying that the President would like to meet with me," Naghmeh says, the excitement of answered prayer still in her voice. "After his speech at Boise State University, I met with him and two other officials in an office behind the stage. I felt a bit like Esther going before the king."

However, the first thing she spoke about to the President when she met him wasn't Saeed — instead, she explained to the President why he was meeting with her. "I told him it was ordained by God, through prayer and fasting, that we would meet," she recalls saying. She also shared that as Christians, their family prays for him and loves him.

In her Facebook posting following the meeting, Naghmeh shared that President Obama told her that getting Saeed out of prison is a top priority for him and that he is working very hard to get Saeed home back to their family.

A touching moment took place when Jacob, Naghmeh and Saeed's young son, asked President Obama to bring his father home for his birthday on March 17. "I'm going to try very hard to make that happen, Jacob. I am going to try very hard…," the President responded.

Although the meeting with the President was only for about 10 minutes, Naghmeh says that they had "a great conversation" and that "God was so evidently present in the meeting."

She is also convinced that the President's meeting with her was not a politically motivated decision, but a decision brought about by God and will result in steps being taken to secure Saeed's release. In fact, some steps have already taken place.

Within hours of the Wednesday meeting, Naghmeh was contacted by the White House by phone and email, working to set up a meeting with her and Rabbi David Saperstein, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. She believes Saperstein, who is charged with monitoring religious freedom abuses around the world, may be the key to not only seeing Saeed released, but many other Christians who are imprisoned for their faith in Iran and around the world.

Through this experience, Naghmeh says this clearly reveals the power of prayer and fasting, as this was obviously the hand of God at work.

"A lot of times we see Christian persecution, horrible stuff, in the world and we feel so helpless," she says. "But we shouldn't. We have the King of kings and Lord of lords and can access Him at any time, but we don't. I want to motivate the body of Christ to know the power of prayer and fasting, to know the God we serve, and to trust Him."

"I urge people to renew their efforts to prayer for Saeed and the dozens of men and women falsely imprisoned for their faith in Iran," says AG General Superintendent George O. Wood.

"God can move hearts," Naghmeh says. "He can change history as long as we go to Him in prayer and fasting."

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.