This interview was originally published in The ARP magazine and is used by permission.

The Brunson family has been part of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC) for generations. Andrew Brunson grew up in Mexico, the child of World Witness missionaries Ron and Pam Brunson. After college and marrying Norine, Andrew received his MDiv from Erskine Seminary. Andrew and Norine were then called by World Witness to church planting in Turkey in 1994. They served faithfully with the ARPC until 2010. At that point, they transferred to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), where they continued to work as pastors in Turkey. On Oct. 7, 2016, Andrew and Norine were arrested. Norine was released after 18 days, but Andrew was held until Oct. 12, 2018.

Andrew was held in solitary confinement for 50 days: 50 days with four walls and a bed. He didn’t have paper, books, or anything but his thoughts. He had no idea why he was being held. The case was sealed and not able to be accessed.

“Solitary is very difficult,” Andrew said. “When prison guards want to break people in the military, they isolate them, and prisoners become sleep deprived. I was isolated, and because of the stress and fear, I was only sleeping two to three hours a night. It was really wearing me down.”

Andrew admitted to being afraid and even suicidal. He knew that most Americans would be deported within a day or two if there was a state of emergency. When he went into solitary, he knew something was different and wrong. He thought he wouldn’t get to see his wife or children again.

“I was scared. It became a very intense experience. As a child, we are taught things in Sunday school: ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (Phil. 4:13). My expectation when going through persecution was that I will have an unusual grace and feel God’s grace and strength. I thought I would be overjoyed even though it would be difficult. That wasn’t the case for me. I was afraid the whole time. Isaiah 50:10, ‘Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God.’ My fear didn’t leave.”

After a week or two, during the change of the prison guards, one of the guards, unaware of the special restrictions against Andrew, gave him a book, Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man, by Mike Bickle. This provided Andrew with structure to his days. The book had 10 areas for praying along with Bible verses. He spent hours every day pacing back and forth in the room praying through those areas, trying to hold on. He spent most of his time talking to God and focusing on Him because if he didn’t, he would feel himself slide back into very negative places. Andrew said, “In the midst of fear, we can be courageous. You may be afraid, but you can still be brave. Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It is the obeying in the midst of fear. Continuing on, pressing on.”

Norine admitted to thinking they would disappear into the system, especially after she saw the guards had checked on their forms, “involvement in terrorism.” Norine had to fight to visit Andrew. He had no rights, and each visit had to be approved by the Ministry of Justice in the capital city. She applied over and over. “When it comes to persecution, there are no promises,” she said. “There are no promises that he would get out nor that I could visit him.”

At Andrew’s lowest moment, moving to a high-security prison, he came to the realization that instead of pursuing his freedom, he must pursue God. “I knew Jesus and had the promise of eternal life. Nothing was more important than loving God.”

Life after Prison

Since Andrew’s release in Oct. 2018, he has a new outlook on life. “It was very lonely in prison. I was isolated and away from all Christians. To be out of that is amazing. I am enjoying the small things and enjoying being back at church,” Andrew said.

“I have had trouble sleeping, and we miss our ministry in Turkey. We were there 23 years, and we miss our church and our Turkish friends. While I am happy to be free, I miss my time with God. In prison, every day was consumed with God, and I was dependent on Him.

“I didn’t realize just how many people were praying for me until recently. My fear while in prison was that I would be forgotten. There was a God-driven tsunami of prayer. Because God is God and can work on so many levels, He was using the prayers of God’s people to strengthen me and to eventually release me. There is a much wider purpose that He is accomplishing. There is the unifying of the church in Turkey. The Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants were praying for me. The Holy Spirit was at work. I am embarrassed that people were waking in the night to pray for me, that people were weeping for me. I am a very small man, but God was doing something very big around me.”

What Now?

The Brunsons are waiting to see what their next assignment will be. They hope to be back in missions to the Muslims, but they don’t know what God’s plan is for them. Andrew had the opportunity to speak at the National Day of Prayer event in Washington, D.C. He said to those in attendance, “Do not forget those that are persecuted, and pray for them daily.”

Andrew wants to be remembered as a lover of Jesus Christ. He has no regrets and encourages us to evaluate our hearts. “If you love Jesus, then that is the only thing that matters. If we have hearts devoted to God, it is the only way to maintain perseverance.”

Susan Tanner is editor of The ARP (arpmagazine.org), the denominational magazine for the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

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God’s Hostage: A True Story of Persecution, Imprisonment, and Perseverance

Andrew Brunson, with Craig Borlase | Baker Books | 2019, 256 pp., $26.99 | Reviewed by Shelby Winkel

For two years, Andrew Brunson was unjustly held in Turkish prisons. In God’s Hostage, readers are taken into the world of Brunson’s arrest; his solitary confinements; his infrequent and often restricted visits with his wife, lawyer, and consular officials; his isolation and loneliness in an overcrowded cell where everyone else is a Muslim; and his kangaroo court appearances. It is clear to see in the telling that there is both a spiritual and an earthly battle at hand.

At its core, though, God’s Hostage tells a simple story. Andrew Brunson’s suffering and doubts are not simple. His persecution and imprisonment are not simple. We know that these trials are not simple from what we read in Scripture, from other’s accounts, and from our own experiences. Rather, the story’s simplicity comes from what each believer is called to do each day: a simple, faithful walk with the Lord. Albeit, Brunson’s simple faith is played out under the circumstances we read about in the Bible: Job and Jeremiah come to mind, and Brunson references them in the book.

Brunson and Borlase’s writing style is clear and engaging. While the content is heavy at times—the book is, after all, dealing with persecution and imprisonment—the narration moves at a fast pace and the book could easily be finished in a few sittings. One thing that would have been helpful to include is a timeline.

The writers are honest. Brunson does not try to conceal the doubts or despair he often felt. He says in the epilogue that “Maybe God chose a weak man to serve as an encouragement to others who feel weak.” He openly describes how he struggled during his imprisonment; a daily task was surrendering his situation, his will to the Lord. At times, he questions God and feels abandoned by Him. During Brunson’s time in the high-security Sakran Prison, he struggles the most, feeling like Job and experiencing what he dubs a “faith meltdown.” Depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and suicidal thoughts afflict him. He wonders why he does not have the joy other persecuted Christians wrote about having during their ordeals.

Brunson goes through the pits and high points that many of us can point to during our walks with the Lord. Through it, though, he spends time in prayer and the Word. After Brunson is transferred to a maximum-security prison, God renews Brunson’s faith and hope. It is a pleasure to read of how the Lord rescues him from his despair, turning Brunson to the hope found only in Jesus Christ. The reader sees the freedom he experiences when he rests in the Lord’s sovereign hand and can be encouraged by Brunson’s example of rejoicing even when he does not feel like it.

Pain, fear, doubt, trauma, and injustice are very real, plaguing things. But God’s Hostage testifies to the truth that God’s love, mercy, justice, and salvation are just as real, are unchangeable, and are permanent.