His children cry out for him. His wife wonders about his “survival battle.”

Such is the struggle of the family of an American pastor recently sentenced in Iran to eight years in prison for his Christian beliefs.

The couple’s two children “miss him terribly. They cry, they ask for him,” wife Naghmeh Abedini says. “They’re struggling every day.” Her husband Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen of Iranian birth, was arrested and charged in Iran last June during a visit. Abedini, 32, converted to Christianity from Islam and then became a pastor, living in Boise, Idaho. He has reportedly been detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison since late September. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, a Muslim who converts to another faith can face the death penalty.

“They’ve charged him with Christian gatherings, and they’re saying it is a threat to the national security,” Naghmeh Abedini said.

Her husband had visited…