Nathan & Mahsa Elyaar: Kelisanet, serving the Middle East

Nathan was born in Tabriz, Northwest Iran, raised a Muslim in an Islamic society. He became a Christian in 2007, at which time he started sharing the story of Jesus to everyone. In 2008, he started discipling the first house church in Iran. At the same time, he worked through the internet to share the good news of the Gospel with Iranians across Iran.

Through his internet ministry and his travels every month, several house churches were planted in different cities in Iran. In 2011, he was arrested by  the security police while sharing the message of Christ and distributing New Testaments. He was in jail for 38 days. Then, he was released after paying bail and had to flee Iran to protect the house churches. 

He continued to serve Iranians through the internet by teaching, discipleship and planting house churches from his Bible school in Turkey. He married Mahsa in 2013 and they worked their internet ministry together and provided leadership and teachings to their local churches. Nathan served as the leader of churches in five cities. They planted one Arab church and one Persian church in Turkey.

In 2017, Nathan and Mahsa moved to the United States where they continued planting house churches in Iran over the internet. As of 2023, they have planted over 80 house churches in Iran and led hundreds of Iranians to be baptized. They also produced Bible video lessons that were published in social media and over the Farsi satellite Christian T.V. channel with an average audience of one million. In 2019, they became members of Prestoncrest Church of Christ and in 2020, they became missionaries supported by Prestoncrest. Find out more about their ministry @ https://www.kelisanet.com.