February 8 1999

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Pastor Kaezad Dadachanjee knows the Great Commission has a ways to go before being fulfilled. Dadachanjee has a daunting task in trying to evangelize his own unreached people, the Parsee. Out of 3.5 million Parsees in the world, only about 30 are Christians, including the 35-year-old Dadachanjee, who converted to Christianity in 1991.

Only recently—due to Dadachanjee's persistence and information-gathering—has the AD2000 and Beyond movement documented the status of Parsees to add them to the Joshua Project 2000 list of unreached peoples. Around 2 million Parsees live in Iran. Zarathushtra founded Zoroastrianism, the common religious term (Parsee is an ethnic designation) in Persia before 3000 b.c., and Cyrus and Darius in the Bible followed the religion. There also are about 350,000 Parsees in both Afghanistan and Kazakstan. Zoroastrians use much lower figures.

Parsees worship Ahura Mazda in the presence of fire, the symbol of righteousness, and they pray to the spirits of deceased relatives. Dadachanjee had been a devout Zoroastrian before becoming a Christian.

Few Parsees have been exposed to Christianity, although Dadachanjee has made inroads with some influential Parsee professionals in Asia. As a result, Dadachanjee says he is a marked man and has survived two assassination attempts. "I'm not saddened by hostile opponents of Christ trying to kill me," he told CT. "I'm saddened by them not being open to the gospel."

Dadachanjee (envoy@mailcity.com) is looking for Christians to help him reach his people.