Interview by Susan Tanner
Andrew Brunson grew up in Mexico, the child of World Witness missionaries Ron and Pam Brunson. The Brunson family has been part of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC) for generations. 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 October 7, 2016, Andrew and Norine were arrested. Norine was released after eighteen days, but Andrew was held until October 12, 2018.
Andrew was held in solitary confinement for fifty days: fifty 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 were 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.
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