For nearly 20 years, David Bial lived in Turkey, where sharing the Gospel of Jesus could result in imprisonment or deportation.

Eventually, David was expelled from Turkey, and now he lives in Europe, where there's a lot more freedom of speech and freedom to worship.

That transition from an Islamic nation to a free Western nation has made him ask this question.

Why aren't more Christians going out and using the freedoms they have here in Germany?

I mean, we were out on leopold plots on the north side of Berlin just today, and then people came up to us on the street believers, and they're like, in all my years living here, I've not seen any Christians doing public proclamation here on this very busy street plot, you know, city plaza.

And I'm like, how can that be? I mean, it's super easy to get permission to do this. Why don't we use the freedoms we have?

Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact, he told his disciples that the world would hate them. He sent them out as sheep among wolves.

Jesus' words came true in the life of the apostles, and they're still coming true today in the lives of his followers around the world.

Join host Todd Nettleton as we hear their inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.

Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My name is Todd Nettleton. We are connected online today, and we're going to record this interview with David Bial.

Those of you who have listened for a long time to voice the Martyrs, you will remember David Bial was with us back in 2017.

He is a long time gospel worker in Turkey. In fact, almost 20 years in Turkey, subsequently kicked out of the country, and we'll talk a little bit about that. David, welcome back to Voice of the Martyrs Radio.

Thank you, Todd. It's great to be here.

When we talked in 2017, you had been essentially kicked out of Turkey. You had gone to court to say, hey, I don't deserve to be kicked out.

I shouldn't have been kicked out. The court said, okay, we'll let you stay while the court case is going forward.

But a lot of things have happened since then. So catch us up on what happened after that on your legal case and just kind of where you're at in ministry today.

That has indeed happened since then. And the big thing was, which you could sort of say politically speaking, started a whole series of events was when Andrew Brunson was released from prison after being in prison for two years.

And we can look back now years later and see that since that day, there's been dozens and dozens of foreign Christians that have been forced to leave Turkey.

I was right at the beginning of that thing. I like just the fact that the day that Andrew Brunson was in the White House praying for the president, I was being arrested in Ankara.

And I spent five hours getting a question. I think they asked me about 200 questions. They took me that night to the main police station in Ankara.

They took me in like the three or four floors below ground in this super, super safe prison. I remember thinking, you know, they're like, why do they think I'm so dangerous? I'm not the danger.

But even though I was deep down in the earth and there's no one else around me, these super thick walls around me, I was not alone. I just felt God is here. Jesus is here in the cell with me. People are praying. It's an honor and a privilege to be here.

...