By Nile Hosni –
After breaking up with his girlfriend, Patrick Bet-David wanted to talk with his mom – for the first time in five years. It was 1 a.m. “God, if you exist, I would love to talk to my mom,” he prayed.
His phone rang. “How did you get this number,” he asked his mom.
That’s how the atheist from Iran came to faith in Jesus. Today, Patrick is an insurance sales mogul and a podcaster of Valuetainment.
Growing up in Iran, Patrick Bet-David found it hard to believe in God because of the bombs falling all the time as part of the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-88.
“When you live in Iran, you have a hard time believing in God,” he says. “Why is it that if we’re getting bombed in Iran the parks I’m going to, that building we used to go to, the whistling sound of attention – the sign of red means that planes have crossed the border – and boom. All of these thoughts stay with you. Yeah I didn’t believe in God.”
The Assyrian/Armenian went to Germany with his parents as a refugee. His parents got divorced. Embittered, Patrick believed LESS in God.
After he moved to America, Patrick enlisted in the Army. Because he excelled in training, he was promoted in 1997 to AIT – Advanced Individual Training. That included some perks, like a pool table. It also included a compulsory Bible study, which Patrick disdained, sitting at the back playing with billiard balls. The trainer/Bible study leader approached him afterwards.
“Hey son, my parents gave me this Bible as a gift in 1974 December 24th,” he told Patrick. “I think you need this more than I need this I.”
“I’m the wrong guy to give this to,” Patrick responded. “It’s a waste of your parents’ gift.”
“Trust me,” the trainer said.
Against his will, Patrick received the Bible.
As he started to read the Bible, he started to pray. He wasn’t really seeking God. At best, he was giving God the benefit of the doubt.
“God, I don’t believe in you. I think it’s fake. I think it’s for weak people,” he prayed. “But if you’re out there, great, I want to know something about you. But if not I’m talking to you, anyways, here’s what’s on my mind today. I start going on a journey.”
Mostly, he knew about Hezbollah. He tried Scientology and scaled up through L. Ron Hubbard’s classes.
Around that time, he had the fight with his girlfriend in the car at 1:30 a.m. and thought about his mom.
“God, I haven’t spoken to my mom for five years,” he prayed alone in his Expedition. “But if you exist. I would love to talk to my mom.
“Thirty seconds later, I get a call from a blocked number.”
It was his mom.
“I got the feeling you were in pain,” Mom said.
Patrick reassured her that he was ok.
“I sat in the car that night, on top of the hills. Chills ran all over my body,” he recalls. “My God,
either this is ironic or this is real. But the level of coincidence is a little too real.”
When Billy Graham came to Pasadena, CA, he attended every night of the crusade of 2003. At age 25, he got saved, got baptized and began attending Friday night Bible studies that lasted until 2:00 a.m.
He held a posterboard with John 3:16 on it outside nightclubs at 1:00 a.m. He used to party six nights a week, so he was good for the late night outreach.
Patrick got married to another girl. He has four children. He became an insurance sales mogul and launched a podcast Valuetainment. He’s one of the best interviewers in the best and takes on hot button issues.
