Vahid Norouzi
Co-founder
Vahid grew up in Iran in a household where he was not wanted. He was not allowed to eat with the family, and he sheltered in mosques through the winter simply to stay warm — which is how he came to give the call to prayer five times a day.
At eighteen he left for Türkiye. At twenty, searching and hopeless, he shouted at God on a beach in Istanbul: did God know pain, rejection, hunger? A Muslim friend took him to an Iranian church so he could argue with the Christians there. He arrived mid-service and found Iranians singing to God as Father. He got as far as Matthew 11:28 — come to me, all who are weary — and stopped, because rest was the one thing he had never had.
He later forgave the family who had hurt him. His stepmother came to Christ watching his worship broadcasts alone in her room. He now disciples the half-brothers who once wanted him gone, at their own request.
He has written more than 250 worship songs, sung today in house churches across the Farsi-speaking world.
