The Christian pastor who was recently released after spending more than three years behind bars in an Iranian prison is asking people to pray for his relationship with his wife.

Saeed Abedini made the request in a Facebook post Sunday evening, which he said was his first since he was released last month in a prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran.

Abedini thanked the “Dear Saints” who sent “thousands of letters of encouragement and LOVE to the prison” since he was jailed in September 2012 on charges concerning his Christian beliefs.

He wrote he loved his supporters, adding their “prayers and support changed my situation.”

“You created a LOVE story that even Muslims in Iran talked about,” he wrote.

One of Abedini’s most vocal advocates during his imprisonment was his wife, Naghmeh, who actively campaigned for his release. But she wrote in a Facebook post last month that she took “temporary legal action” against the pastor, who she claimed abused her during their marriage.

“Three months ago Saeed told me things he demanded I must do to promote him in the eyes of the public that I simply could not do any longer. He threatened that if I did not the results would be the end of our marriage and the resulting pain this would bring to our children,” she wrote.

She added she hoped and prayed the couple’s marriage could be healed.

“In very difficult situations sometimes you have to establish boundaries while you work toward healing,” she wrote in the post, which also requested prayers and support.

The pastor issued his own prayer request in his post over the weekend, saying he has sought counseling.

“I am grateful for marriage counselors who have been helping me but my wife’s relationship with me is not good at this point, so we need prayer that she joins this counseling process with us,” he wrote.

The Iranian-born pastor became a United States citizen through his marriage.