David Nasser – author, minister, speaker – is the visionary behind D. Nasser Outreach (DNO), which allows him to speak to more than 700,000 people each year at revivals, citywide rallies, festivals, conferences, special events, camps, and concerts. Never concerned with building a big ministry or platform, David simply wants to present a relevant message of Jesus to a hurting world.
David’s work leads him to many speaking engagements, especially in youth ministry, even to the Ukraine through Student Life/Servant Life, where youth camps go to experience different cultures and work with other youth within these cultures. This is just one of the many events he participates in throughout the year.
David was born in an idyllic time in Iran in 1970. The country was enjoying a time of wealth and prosperity. His family was sophisticated, educated, and culturally Muslim. A world traveler by age 2, David had visited nearly every continent by the time he was a teenager. His early childhood memories are filled with happy times with his generous family and friends. He had everything a child would want.
But, as a 9-year-old boy, David’s world turned upside down. Every part of his normal life fell into chaos. His beloved homeland, Iran, was embroiled in a violent revolution. The international economy was in turmoil due to skyrocketing oil prices. David’s father, fearing for his family’s safety, decided they should flee the country leaving everything they owned behind.
November of that same year, 66 U.S. citizens and diplomats were taken hostage by a militant Iranian group. David and his family hoped for asylum in the United States, but the turmoil in the Middle East made immigration impossible. After almost a year in exile, David and his family were able to come to America.
“I have vivid memories of waiting every day to come to America,” David said. “It was like a longing to win the lottery. I watched my father work channels to make a way for us to get here. (During our exile) the whole time we were in Germany, and we didn’t want to be in Germany. We wanted to be in America.
“Here we were, an affluent Iranian family that now lived in low-income housing and had to watch every penny.
We had to consider things we didn’t have to think about before. Every day my sister and I would take the subway to the army base, where we attended a military school. We learned English while we were there, so I guess in a way this transition time was really a time of preparation.”
Yet life in suburban America (Alabama) brought its own set of difficulties. Different clothing, skin color, and his heavy accent made David an object of merciless taunting. For years, David never felt like he fit in. As a teen, he began to search for value and meaning through whatever his peers said was acceptable – cool clothes and nice cars, drinking and fast living.