Andrew Brunson was a missionary who served in Turkey for 20 years. He planted churches, discipled new believers and shared the good news about Jesus with those who wanted and needed to hear it.
Then, without warning, he was labeled a terrorist, taken into custody and throw into a variety of Turkish prisons. He was basically cut off from his wife, his family, his church, everyone.
But not from God.
Brunson tells his story with transparency and candor. He tells how through his two years of captivity, he often railed at God, questioned God's love, doubted God's grace. But after each crisis of faith, the Holy Spirit, working through God's Holy Word, lifted Brunson's spirits, offered reassurance of God's faithfulness and impressed upon Brunson that God would see him through this awful trial.
I was impressed at the lengths the US Government went to secure Brunson's release. Say what you will about President Trump. But the fact that he put enormous pressure on the Turkish economy just for the release of one man could have only been a "God thing."
Brunson's story is only one example of how Christians all around the world are being persecuted for their confession of faith in Jesus. If Andrew Brunson's book encourages us to be faithful in prayer for those have risked it all to be identified with Christ, "God's Hostage" has done its job.
