No doubt you heard of Turkey on Wednesday taking into custody over 1,000 people in 72 provinces and suspending 9,103 police who may have ties with the failed coup last July. Since nine months ago, a total of 40,000 people have been arrested, along with the firing or suspending of another 120,000 from professions ranging from teachers, to public servants and soldiers.

Today we are speaking of one, a minister originally from North Carolina and pastoring in Izmir, who was mistakenly arrested in October, charged with being a member of of an armed terrorist organization. He and his wife had labored quietly in a Turkish church for over 23 years and the authorities knew of their work and stellar reputation.

Then he was taken into custody.

His eyeglasses, wristwatch, pen, Bible and water were reported to have been taken from him. He could not meet with American officials, his wife, nor an attorney. Pastor Andrew Brunson has seen some of those issues reverse, but has languished in Turkish prison for six months, his wife fighting for his release.

With the large numbers being imprisoned, it may seem like a drop in the bucket to gain one American’s release, but we must work for his freedom. Please write, call or e-mail the Turkish Embassy in your country to demand Pastor Andrew Brunson’s release and dismissal of all false charges. In the U.S.:

-Call/Write/Contact: Respectfully request the immediate release of US Pastor Andrew Brunson.  (I would also boycott and refuse to travel to, or through, Turkey at this time, a main hub airport….)
-E-mail: [email protected].
-Write: Embassy of Turkey, 2525 Mass. Ave., NW, Wash., DC 20008 (Amb. Serdar Kiliç).
-Call: 202-612-6700/6701.

And pray. Definitely pray for him and his family.
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