You might remember Pastor Andrew Brunson as the missionary to Turkey who was thrown in prison and held in harsh conditions for two years. Christians around the world rejoiced when he was finally released.

Directly after his release, he was brought to the White House where he prayed for then President, Donald Trump.

That was almost five years ago. How is Pastor Andrew doing now?

I was able to sit down with Pastor Andrew and his wife over lunch and discuss the vision of the Chinese underground house church. Before our meeting, I downloaded his book detailing his time in prison, called God’s Hostage, which details his calling to be a missionary and how it originated from the Chinese missionary, Hudson Taylor.

Andrew recalls in his book:

“From the time I was a child I had a strong sense of call to missions that went all the way back to Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China. When he was an old man, a mother took her two young sons to him and asked that he pray and set them aside for mission. They did become missionaries and when one of them, Stanley Soltau, was an old man, my mother took me and my sister to him. She asked that he do for us what Hudson Taylor had done for him and so he did.”

His book, God’s Hostage, can be purchased here.

 

Andrew and his wife, Norine, have spent their lives launching churches, training leaders, providing aid to refugees, and even started a house of prayer in Turkey for 23 years, until being falsely accused of terrorism in October 2016.

Since his release from prison, Andrew has been sharing his heart with those on the mission field and preparing the church for the wave of increase that is coming. Andrew and his wife now run a ministry called WaveStarters.

WaveStarters is a ministry focused on the Muslim world, the persecuted church, and preparing the next generation to stand in difficult times.

It it clear that the enemy tried to crush Pastor Andrew during his time in a Turkish prison, but God had other plans. Instead of crushing him, the time in prison catapulted his life into a completely new phase of ministry to help build up the church in the last days.

I am sure that Pastor Andrew can today look at the Turkish officials who brought false charges against him and threw him in jail for his faith, and can now say the words found in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”