He was IMPRISONED In IRAN for Being A CHRISTIAN: Testimony by Dan Baumann

Dan Baumann
Danbaumann.com
danhbaumann@gmail.com

youtu.be/6K08yGso9qw?si=FD8Gs2yOouD1VaPZ

I grew up in Los Angeles, and my parents were from Europe. My dad was Swiss, my mother was Swedish, and they actually met in Los Angeles, coming for different reasons. That’s where they met, and I grew up in a little house in Los Angeles near the beach and had a wonderful upbringing with my parents, an older sister, and a younger sister. That was our life.

We were very much connected to a local church and very much connected to just learning about Jesus from very early on in my childhood. But my life with God really was more in my head than in my heart, and I really didn’t know how to change that. What it meant to be a Christian was to do the right thing, and do this and that, but it really didn’t connect to how to actually have a relationship with God. I really wasn’t sure how to do that.

So my whole life took a radical shift when I was 16, and it would shape my life even until today. A man came to my church and said this in our youth gathering. We were actually meeting in the mountains, and he said these simple words. He said to all of us, “Everything you do for God should come from intimacy with God.”

I was like, okay, what is intimacy with God? What is that? So he said it a few times to make me really think about what it might be. I took the afternoon off and found this river, and I was trying to figure out, well, how do you get this intimacy with God?

As I sat there, I picked up these rocks, kind of minding my own business, throwing them in the water, thinking about this. As I’m throwing these rocks in the river, a simple question popped into my mind: “Hey Dan, can I throw rocks with you?”

So I kept throwing rocks, like where does that come from? I don’t know. So I kept thinking, intimacy with God is like friendship with God. How do you get friendship with God? Can anyone be a friend with God? Can I be a friend with God, like anyone’s a friend with a friend? How does that work?

As I throw these rocks, thinking about it, a second time I heard this question: “Hey Dan, can I throw rocks with you?” Again, I’m looking around, just thinking, where is that voice coming from?

So I kept throwing rocks. I’m like, okay, well friendship with God… could it be? I could be friends with God when I’m shopping. How do you become friends with God when you’re doing the laundry? How do you become friends with God when you’re doing normal tasks? This was very much in my mind. I didn’t know how to do it.

Then a third time I heard the question: “Hey Dan, can I throw rocks with you?” I’m like, where is that coming from? I don’t think it’s the devil, because he wants to throw rocks at us. I don’t think it’s me unless I’m going crazy. But it can’t be God. God’s great and He’s out there, and He really only wants us to do the right thing. He really wants us to do important things. Just throwing rocks doesn’t mean anything. Why would He care?

So I kept throwing rocks, and finally I just kept hearing that simple question. So I finally turned to Jesus and said, “Yes, Jesus, if that’s You, of course You can throw rocks with me. But why?”

That’s when I felt Jesus look down from heaven and say this right to my heart: “Because you want to.”

I’m like, that’s it? He’s like, that’s it.

For the first time in my life, I discovered that Jesus likes me. I didn’t like myself—why would Jesus like me? On that day, I discovered that He enjoys me, that He enjoys who I am, that what I like doing, He likes doing. Why? Because He simply likes who I am.

On that day, I discovered the unconditional love of God. Man, I’ve struggled with that in my life—like okay, it’s unconditional, but you better do this; okay, it’s unconditional, but you better not do that. On that day, I discovered it’s actually unconditional. There’s actually nothing we can do in our entire life that would make God love us more than He loves us right now.

When I discovered that day, it changed my life.

As I travel around the world, I meet two types of Christians: those that are living for the Father’s approval, and those that are living from the Father’s approval. So many Christians are just trying to do a little bit more so that God will appreciate and love them. And then there are those that are discovering, no—we’re in. We’re in, and He loves us, and there’s nothing we have to do to make Him love us more.

The more I understood the unconditional love of God, the more my life was overwhelmed. Love is the deepest motivator of the human heart. When you know you’re loved, you want to love back. How do you love back? You find out what’s on their heart.

So for me, the very natural overflow of discovering that God loves me was that I wanted to love what He loves, which is a world that doesn’t know who He is. And that was my journey.

I began simply to fall in love. I began simply to enjoy life with God as a friend. I began to include Him in every little thing that I was doing. Why? Not because I had to, but simply because why wouldn’t I? Because He’s very kind and He just wanted to be with me. The kindness and the love of God won my heart, and it changed my life.

As it changed my life, I just wanted to serve Him. I just wanted to do whatever He wanted. With that came a life filled with understanding and concern for people in the world that don’t know who He is, and that very much became my journey.

I graduated with a degree from business college, still wanting people in the world to know who Jesus was. It was this one day—I was 22 years old—where I felt like God said, “I want you to move to Afghanistan.”

Long story short, the only way to get into Afghanistan at that point was with a degree of sorts to work in a humanitarian aid organization. There was one that had a hospital that was looking for people who had a business degree who could help with the admin of the hospital, and that was very much something I heard of and felt could be a way to live in Afghanistan.

So I began the journey of finally moving to Afghanistan.

So I began the journey of finally moving to Afghanistan. It took me about a year to raise the money and get everything together. I had never been outside of the United States before. I had never traveled alone. I had never been in a war zone. I had never experienced anything like this.

When the day finally came, I was 23 years old. I boarded the plane, and as I was flying, I was honestly terrified. I remember sitting on that plane thinking, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? I don’t know anyone there. I don’t know the language. I don’t know the culture. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.

The last flight was from Delhi to Afghanistan. As we were flying, I began to talk to God, and I said, “God, why are You sending me all alone? Why am I doing this by myself?”

And He said to me, “You’re not alone.”

And I said, “Well, it feels like I’m alone.”

And He said again, “You’re not alone.”

This conversation went back and forth a few times, until finally God said to me, “Do you want to see what’s happening right now?”

And suddenly, I had this vision.

I saw the airport in Afghanistan. I saw the runway. I saw the building. And standing there was Jesus. He was waiting. He was excited. And He was talking to someone next to Him, saying, “My friend Dan is coming. My friend Dan is coming to see Me.”

And then Jesus turned to me in the vision and said, “Dan thinks he’s coming to serve the Afghan people, and he will. But I asked him to come because this is the best place for our friendship to grow.”

When that vision ended, I was weeping on the plane.

I realized that the same Jesus who threw rocks with me at 16 was waiting for me in Afghanistan.

When I landed, everything was loud. There were explosions. There were rockets. There was chaos. There was fear. The city was not safe. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t know how to survive there.

But what anchored me was this: God likes me. God is with me. God is trustworthy.

I began working at the hospital. I began learning the culture. I began learning the language. I began building friendships. And in the midst of all of that, my friendship with God grew deeper than it had ever been before.

Eventually, I was asked to move into Iran. From there, my journey continued into places that were very dangerous. I was eventually arrested. I was put into prison. I was accused of things that were not true.

In prison, I lost everything. I lost my freedom. I lost my control. I lost my ability to help myself.

I remember sitting in that prison cell thinking, God, how did I end up here? I was trying to obey You. I was trying to serve You. I was trying to love You.

And yet, even there, God was with me.

In that place of despair, I learned something deeper than I had ever learned before. I learned that God does not rescue us only from circumstances. He rescues us from ourselves. He rescues us from fear. He rescues us from control. He rescues us from thinking we have to earn His love.

I encountered forgiveness in that place. I encountered freedom in that place. I encountered God in a way that I never thought possible.

Eventually, I was released.

When I came out, I was not the same person. I had been stripped down to the core of who I was, and what remained was this truth: God enjoys us. God is with us. God is faithful.

That truth has never left me.

No matter where I go in the world, no matter who I meet, no matter what story I hear, it always comes back to this: intimacy with God is friendship with God. It is walking with Him in the ordinary. It is including Him in the small things. It is letting Him enjoy you.

God is not distant. God is not cold. God is not waiting for you to mess up.

He likes you.

That is my story.

All glory to God.