Leland is pleased to announce that American pastor and former political prisoner Andrew Brunson will be the featured speaker at the upcoming Open House or students and alumni on Oct. 23rd.  (Due to a scheduling conflict, Bob Fu will no longer be able to attend.)

 Rev. Andrew Brunson was the evangelical pastor of a Protestant church in Muslim-dominated Turkey, where he and his family had lived since the mid-1990s. In 2016, Brunson was arrested and imprisoned on allegations of spying as part of the purges that followed a failed 2016 coup attempt. He reportedly lost over 50 pounds over the ensuing two years in prison. In May of 2018, Brunson was tried for espionage, igniting a trade war between the Trump and Erdogan administrations. Heightened political pressure resulted in his release and immediate departure from Turkey in October of the same year. Brunson wrote about his experience and the faith that sustained him in his memoir,  God's Hostage: A True Story of Persecution, Imprisonment, and Perseverance.