The year was 1979.
The Incredible Hulk action figure and LEGO space sets were the rage.
Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of the United Kingdom, and after nearly 15 years of living in exile, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran to take over the government and form an Islamic state.
David Nasser remembers that February day.
“My whole family was glued to the 13-inch black-and-white television set that day.” Nasser said. “Crowds flooded the streets of Tehran, shouting, ‘Allah (God) is great!’ The announcer declared Khomeini’s return as a triumphant homecoming.”
He was just 9 years old, and his whole world was falling apart.
“Streets were filled with demonstrators, setting rubble ablaze. Islamic forces began taking over radio and TV stations, police stations and military posts,” Nasser said. “Leaders and military officers loyal to the shah started disappearing.”
His father, a colonel, helicopter pilot and flight instructor as well as third in command at a military base, was one of those loyal to the shah, Iran’s previous ruler. The Nasser family risked everything to escape from the country.
Nasser tells the story in his latest book, “Jumping Through Fires,” a memoir of his journey from Iran to Alabama. The book is set for release in October.
“I did not set out to write a memoir. I felt like I had not lived long enough to write a memoir,” said Nasser, a member of Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover, in Birmingham Baptist Association and president of D. Nasser Outreach. “The goal was to write a book waging war against religion, focusing on how I escaped religion and found grace. The more chapters I turned in to my publisher, the more they believed it was a memoir and a testimony of a great God.”
The title came to him as his family celebrated Chaharshanbe Suri, which marks the beginning of the Persian new year.
“Bonfires are lit at dusk and fed all night. Then you jump over the bonfires, believing something safe and solid awaits you on the other side. Most importantly, you jump holding to a hand you know and trust,” he explained.
“The tradition is that when you jump through the flames, they burn away all the bad things that had happened during the past year.”
Nasser shared that watching his son jump over the small bonfire that night in his parents’ driveway, reaching toward his father’s hand, he could see how God had held him through all of life’s fiery trials.
“Experiencing revolution, religion and redemption have all been scary,” Nasser said. “But in reflection, I see how I was held by the hand of God.”
Nasser said before finding redemption, he didn’t think much about religion because it had destroyed his entire world as a child.
“Growing up Muslim, my assessment of God was that He was law and rules. Islam is about people following God’s law to earn His love,” Nasser said.
“What I found in Christianity is that it’s all about grace through Jesus.”
He credits Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, in Birmingham Association for showing him that Jesus Christ is real.
“This church never gave up on me. The youth ministry and Dr. Charles Carter (Shades Mountain Baptist’s senior pastor) sought after me,” Nasser said. “Their overwhelming patience made a difference in my life. They loved and encouraged me as I struggled to find real truth.”
He was 18 when he accepted Christ, but becoming the first Christian in a Muslim family was difficult for him.
Nasser admits there were many times when he became discouraged over his family’s salvation.
“I petitioned the Lord for my family and asked everybody to pray for them,” Nasser said. “God was bigger than my wildest dreams, for my entire family has come to know Jesus.”
Accepting the call to ministry in 1989, Nasser said Carter gave him an opportunity to share his testimony during a pastors conference at Shades Mountain.
“After that night, God opened up multiple opportunities to share my testimony in other churches,” he said. “Shades Mountain played a big role in growing my ministry into what it is today.”
Nasser currently speaks to more than 700,000 people every year, offering them the truth of Jesus.
It’s something readers will find in his book as well.
“All of us have been through fires in our lives. We trust the hand of God to bring us through them better than we were before,” he said, pointing to the fiery trials’ greater purpose.
“Some fires are destructive and some are refining. In the end, they all make us more like Christ.”
For more information, visit www.davidnasser.com.
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