A Brief History about a Founder
The Islamic Republic of Iran is home to a Christian community that flourishes in secret. Joshua is one of the founders of the largest Christian groups in Iran today. It is estimated that Joshua led over 100,000 converted Christians in Iran in 2025.
Joshua was born into an affluent, religiously devout Muslim family. At the age of 9-15, Joshua became a good wrestler, and he memorized 2/3 of the Quran. At very young age Joshua rejected Islam in his mid-teens, while still not know anything about Christianity, he claimed he was a Christian. He was arrested and sentenced to 91 days in adult prison because of his claim.
After a rebellious youth he converted to Christianity and focused on his business and grew in his faith. In 2004-5, he officially began his ministry with the homeless and addicted of Tehran(Iran), and that shaped his first underground house churches. In 2006, Joshua started smuggling Gospel from Iraq and Turkey into Iran. In the same year, Joshua was arrested, tortured, and incarcerated in the notorious Evin Prison for 15 months. During that time, his group grew to 600 members.
Very soon Joshua’s ministry had more than 3,000 members. Because of security and safety concerns, Joshua left Tehran and moved to the northwest of Iran and continued his ministry. In 2011, Joshua was forced to leave Iran and flee to Turkey. In that time estimated that Joshua’s ministry had about 18,000 members. In 2011-14, Joshua was a refugee in Turkey while attending seminaries to grow in his faith, he established another house church in Turkey for the refugee community.
In June 2014, His journey as a refugee brought Joshua to the U.S. in Lansing, Michigan. In 2017, Joshua was adopted by a devoted American Christian family, and together, they established the nonprofit organization “Go and Do” in the United States to represent the IUHC.
Joshua Lives in the USA, and work as a Faculty in college in the US. During his 8 years career as a faculty in the USA Joshua helped more than 2,300 Muslim students with love and acceptance and converted more than 184 Muslim students who were curious about Christianity. Joshua never earn any money from his position as a Pastor and the CEO of IUHC, he also donate more than 60% of his income (from his job as a faculty & personal investments) to the IUHC. His main view as a Pastor and leader is , “You received free, give it Free”- Matthew 10:8
In Evin Prison in Tehran “Iran” the islamic gov of Iran throw him into a pitch-black, five-foot cube with a low door. He couldn’t stand, stretch, silence consume him, time blurred, for 120 days (picture on the left)
And 36 days into the smaller pitch-black (picture on the right)
