HEN HOUSHYAR (HOOSH) LEFT Iran, he knew his life would be different, but he never imagined it would change so dramatically.

Hoosh was 15, the youngest of three sons from a close-knit Tehran family, and a devout Muslim. His two elder brothers had both left home in their teens to study abroad--one in California, the other in England.

When both of his brothers left home at such an early age, Hoosh vowed to stay in Tehran. After all, he was happy in Iran. He was very close to his parents and couldn't imagine life away from them. However, the years since the Islamic revolution in 1979 had severely changed Iran, and he knew that life would never be the same again.

Initially, he learned to adapt to and comply with all the changes that came as a result of the clerics and mullahs who were in charge of the government. Then the war between Iran and Iraq broke out in 1980, when Hoosh was 9 years old. It raged for the next eight years, claiming countless lives. Tehran was bombed, mostly at night, to avoid civilian casualties, but it didn't always happen that way. High school boys were often rounded up from their schools to become instant soldiers; most never returned. It became evident to Hoosh that he, as his brothers before him, would eventually leave Iran.

Starting Over
Hoosh's parents, wanting only what was best for him, let him go. His oldest brother lived in Maryland, and it was decided that Hoosh would go live with him. Since there was no longer an American embassy in Iran, the process of emigrating to America was nearly impossible. Hoosh and his parents left Iran for Turkey, where the nearest United States embassy was located. They traveled from one city to the next in hopes of receiving a visa. After four months of bouncing from embassy to consulate and vice versa, on his birthday Hoosh received a final rejection from the American embassy in Izmir, sending him back to Iran.

The following year Hoosh's brother hired a highly touted immigration lawyer to help him obtain his visa. Once again, Hoosh needed to go to a United States embassy outside of Iran to secure it, and so his journey began.

During a period of one year, Hoosh spent months abroad trying to obtain a visa. At first, his parents accompanied him, but then they could no longer continue to travel with him, and he was left in the care of his lawyer and her husband, who assisted him in his quest.

At times he felt like a human pinball, bouncing from country to country. Hoosh traveled to Germany, Switzerland, and Bolivia. In each country, at each U.S. embassy, his application was denied. Finally, in Antigua and much to his shock, he received a visa. With his visa secured, that very day he was put on a plane to Baltimore, Maryland. A cousin met him at the airport. Hoosh had come to America alone--not yet 16 years old.

Friends Indeed
Hoosh enrolled at high school, speaking hardly any English; but he learned quickly. After initial challenges adjusting to a strange country and school, with even stranger people and customs, he settled in. Almost instantly, he made good friends--many of whom would serve as catalysts in the dramatic change his life would undergo.

One of them, a bubbly and exuberant student named Annie, became especially close. Soon Hoosh and Annie started dating. He discovered that she was a Christian--a Seventh-day Adventist, as were many of her friends. They belonged to a congregation of mostly southern Asian immigrants who worshipped in a rented facility in Silver Spring.

"Muslims are required to know for certain that their faith is true," Hoosh says. "I was curious about other religions and wanted to learn more about them in order to know that my beliefs were the truth." Because of this, he was open to going to church. He visited several, including a synagogue and other Christian denominations, to learn all that he could about different faiths.

Hoosh's Adventist friends invited him to church, and he went on several occasions. He especially enjoyed attending the congregation's monthly socials. An avid basketball player, the events meant nothing more to him than opportunities to hang out with friends and play ball.

Hoosh's Seventh-day Adventist friends never pushed Christianity on him. "If they had," he says, "I would have quit coming." And so he kept coming--even though at times for no other purpose than socializing and spending time with people to whom he had grown close.

Another Ingredient
After a while Hoosh's relationship with Annie ended, but many of the friendships he had developed further piqued his interest in Adventist beliefs. Hoosh enjoyed discussing what Christianity meant to them. He didn't know it then, but his heart was being opened. "It wasn't the doctrines or the fundamental beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that turned my heart," he remembers. "It was seeing Christ in the lives of my closest friends.

"I saw Jesus in a busy couple who devoted their time, money, and efforts to the church and its members without any desire for recognition. I saw Christ in the selfless acts of friends who went out of their way to help friends in need. I felt the presence of the Savior in the lives of friends, who, in the midst of physical and emotional struggles, never lost hope. I saw Jesus in a girl whose positive personality brings joy to all those around her. And I saw Christ among church members who fasted and prayed for a stranger," he adds.

What began as Hoosh's intent to disprove the validity of Adventist beliefs evolved into a longing for a relationship with a loving, personal Savior.

One Sabbath after a baptism, Franklin David, pastor of the Southern Asian Seventh-day Adventist Church, made an appeal. To this day Hoosh says he had no intention of responding. But suddenly he found himself on his feet, and he didn't know how he got there. "It was as if someone, not something, lifted me up," he says.

An audible gasp of shock was heard throughout the congregation that brought tears to the eyes of those who had grown to love Hoosh and had been praying for him.

Hoosh began to study the Bible with his pastor, and on August 19, 1995, during the Southern Asian church's annual camp, Hoosh was baptized as a symbol of his dedication to Christ. Tears flowed freely that day from Hoosh, his friends, and his church family, who counted his baptism a miracle. "I thank the Lord for coming into my life and for using people to show me His love," he said. Hoosh left his home for a better life--and he got it: a new life with a Savior who died to save him.

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Wilona Karimabadi is a freelance writer who lives in Ellicott City, Maryland.