Imprisoned in Iran

How would I respond to being imprisoned without knowing why? With being verbally and physically abused and left in a cell by myself, still without knowing why? This is so foreign to us in America. We have rights after all. This couldn't happen here. But in another country our rights mean nothing. Dan Baumann found this out in January 1997.

He and a South African friend were living Turkmenistan and, with YWAM, working with the Turkman people. They had prayed about an opportunity to go into Iran and connect with the Trukman people there, some of them being believers, and see how they could help them and work with them. the Lord opened the doors and gave them some good contacts so they left for a two week "checking it out" trip.

Dan had duel citizenship with the US and Switzerland and always traveled with his Swiss passport in that area, since they weren't too fond of Americans.

As they were leaving the country they ran the Iranian officials confiscated their passports and told them they would have to go to Tehran to recover them. They took someone from the South Africa Embassy with them to recover the passports, however the embassy representative had to return to the embassy and the Iranians interrogated and arrested them.

Most of the book is about his experience in prison. He is very honest about his frustration, anger, fear, lack of faith, despair and of God's faithfulness and grace to him.

This book will remind us that God is in control, even when we don't get it, and that His plan is much bigger than we can ever imagine. He experienced comfort, peace, and encouragement when these things didn't seem possible. He saw how he was used by God as the waterer of seeds that had been planted 20 years before by Christians imprisoned during the overthrow of the government of the Shaw. He heard one of the guards telling the other guards the truth of the gospel that he had heard and witnessed from those prisoners and was now seeing in "this American."

This book blessed and encouraged me. I think it had more impact because it was someone from "my world" (he even grew up in So. Cal like I did) facing things that we think we will never face
and seeing a faithful and mighty God in action.