Dan Baumann

This week we have been talking mostly about our pasts and what the Bible says about how to deal with past sins and hurts. Last night we had a guest speaker who was imprisoned in Iran for 9 weeks. He told his story of being there and it was shocking! briefly stated, he went to Iran to preach the gospel because he felt like God called him to. He went there loving people and they (literally) were running up to him asking him who Jesus was. After his visa was about to expire (2 weeks) he got on the bus, but at the border he and his friend were told to go back to the capital to get their passports. They ended up getting imprisoned without knowing why and interigated daily in a 2x3 meter room. He wrestled about whether God is good, and he found out about 5 weeks after being imprisoned that he had 2 death sentances, but didn't know why. So even though he was scared to death, he figured he was a dead man and he ended up preaching in the courtroom for 30 minutes. He didn't know how long he would be in jail, and he contemplated suicide, but after 9 weeks, he decided that no matter what happened, he wanted to follow God, and no matter what he would surrender to His plan. 3 hours later he was given his clothes back (he had been stripped of all his clothes and belongings on day one) and he thought he was going to be executed, but rather, he was set free. His whole talk was about trusting God and that through even the depths of darkness, He was there.