Kia Hadaeghi grew up in a Muslim family in Iran. In 1998 he used tickets to Iran's World Cup matches in France as his way out of the country, then clung to the underside of a lorry to cross into England. To secure his place, he told the authorities he was a persecuted Christian. He was not. To make the story hold, he enrolled at a Bible school in Birmingham, where his years of observing Islamic duties helped him blend in. "I was a great student and blended into the Christian activities of prayer, singing and Bible study," he recalls.
But he could not study the Gospel of John in his own language and stay untouched. Reading in Farsi, Kia kept meeting Jesus' words: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). His whole life in England was built on a lie, and here was Jesus offering freedom through truth. "I wanted that freedom so badly," he says. One week in September 2000, everything he read in the Bible pointed back to truth, righteousness and Jesus' invitation to give peace to sinners. "One night, I went to my room, closed the door and wept for hours. Then I felt the presence of someone in my room, standing behind me with his hand on my left shoulder."
God's Presence made the borrowed faith his own. Kia confessed everything: to the Bible school, to his fellow students, and in a letter to the Home Office before his asylum interview. His solicitor warned he would be deported. He told the true story of his life and his real conversion anyway, and he was granted legal status.
Since 2003 Kia has served full-time with Agapé UK. He married Negin, an Iranian Christian, in 2010, and together they create biblical marriage and family resources in Farsi for the Iranian diaspora and underground church leaders inside Iran. Their teaching, broadcast on Mohabat TV and Sat-7 Pars, has drawn more than 6 million views.
Kia came to Jesus as a fraud holding a borrowed story. Jesus met him with truth and gave him a real one. If God can reach a man hiding inside a false testimony, He can meet anyone exactly where they actually are.