I’VE NOW BAPTIZED THE FIRST ONE HERE IN JAIL! – UPDATE FROM TORBEN

What a life! It is like living the book of Acts with everything that is happening! Eighteen days ago, I got detained by the FBI and Homeland Security because they had heard falsely that I had been smuggling weapons from Mexico to America. After being put in handcuffs and full chains, I spent one day in Orange Jail, and then I was transported to Bakers Detention Center, spending ten life-transforming days in isolation.
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I was then moved to an open bay, and the first day was very, very hard. But now I’m seeing why I am here. God has sent me here to help “Apollos” with what was missing in his life, like we read here in the book of Acts 18:24-26, “Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” 

Here we read how Aquila and Priscilla met Apollos who was preaching, but with what was lacking in his faith. He only knew about the baptism of John, but they stepped in and helped, and he got baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, and he grew a lot and became a very strong disciple of Christ.

I was sent HERE for “Apollos”, which I will call him here. “Apollos” repented here in jail, and has been having meetings in a cell with 4-6 people. He loves Jesus, and he’s been sharing what he knows, but there were many things lacking in his life. He had not yet gotten baptized into Christ or received the Holy Spirit, so I’ve been spending a lot of time with him these last days, teaching the way more clearly, and what was lacking.

Two days ago, he got baptized in water and the Holy Spirit, and it was a really special, unforgettable moment! He confessed all his sins to me, things he had never said to anyone before, but he knew God had sent me here to him (which he often says to me, “God sent you for me! God sent you for me!”) therefore he trusted me enough to confess everything, even though he had just met me.

When I baptized him, it was with a cup of water over his face, as we don’t have any other opportunity to do anything in here, and he has been here for years, and he don’t know when he will come out. The Holy Spirit came over him and he spoke in tongues for the first time. It was really a beautiful moment! I will never forget this. We were praising God together in our cell, with water all over the floor. It was a big cup of water and it was full. “Baptism” is normally with full immersion, but when we don’t have any other things to do like this, I’m sure God can use what we have.

The day before, I prayed for his sister over the phone. She had, for many months, a very loud ringing in her ears 24/7, and it was very hard for her. The Holy Spirit came over her powerfully there over the telephone when I prayed, and she got set free and healed over the phone. She was crying, and when he spoke with her afterwards he was also crying, so God is really moving in him and his family.

“Apollos” is just CHANGED, and it’s so beautiful! Yesterday we had a gathering in my cell, and there were nine people there. I was preaching the Gospel, and “Apollos” was translating, since many here don’t understand English. I shared about my life and what God has done in my life, and then I shared the Gospel very radically with no compromise, using chess pieces. We train people in our school how to share the Gospel using cups, and we call it “Cups and Cookies,” and we also have something called the Gospel Cards. See the link here:
https://youtu.be/sNme1cRSODI

But now I’ve found another good way, using pieces in a chess game, and it’s actually really, really powerful! So, I was sharing the Gospel, and then I prayed for several people who got healed. “Apollos” was one of them! For many years, he’d had a problem with his back. I also prayed for the young man I’ve been working with. The other night, he had a demon come into him in the night time when he was laying in bed. He woke up and was suddenly paralyzed. He couldn’t move anything in his body. He could not say anything in the beginning and he felt a demonic presence all over the room. In the end, he was able to say, “Jesus,” and it slowly disappeared. Yes, there are MANY demons in here. I prayed for him and the Holy Spirit came, and he fell down between the toilet and the wall, and there on the jail floor, from up above the toilet seat I cast out a demon from him, and everyone was in shock, not having seen anything like this before.

We ended up praying and prophesying over several of the people who were there, and it was just a beautiful moment! It was like being out in the freedom doing the work of our Father. I totally forgot in the moment where I was. I was truly FREE, and I was just serving my Lord Jesus Christ, and it was beautiful, and I was truly THANKFUL for God sending me here and allowing me to experience this!

In the next days, we will sit down with them, one by one, and I already know there are more now who are getting ready to follow Christ. God sent me here for “Apollos” and the men here, and when I’m gone “Apollos” can continue the work that has started here. I’ve spent many hours with him the last days, discipling him and teaching him the way, and he has grown a lot! He is ready. He was already ready. He just needed someone to disciple him!

Yes, there are MANY beautiful things I can testify to that God has been doing here the last days, in my life, and in other people’s lives, over the last days and weeks. But I also feel that the time has come to an end, that I have done what I needed to do here, I HOPE so. I know I could be wrong, but I truly hope that the time has come that I can come out of this place. My lawyer is right now working on a bond so I can come out soon, and I cannot tell you how much I’m praying and hoping that this would work, that God would open a door so I’m able to come out soon! I truly miss my wife incredibly much, and my girls, and my family and friends.

So much has happened, and I would in many ways not have been the same without all that has happened in the last eighteen days, even though it has been one of the hardest times in my life. But God has truly been working in my life. He has truly pruned me as a branch in Him, so that I can bear even more fruit (John 15). He has taken me aside, for me to slow down and spend many hours with Him, and in His Word. All these things I will take with me when I leave this place. Yes, I am not the same as I was eighteen days ago, and I have no intention to let it go, or to let any of what I’ve experienced here be wasted! I pray that the pruning which has happened in my life will bear much fruit, as He says in His Word!

Make me proud, and serve our Lord Jesus Christ with EVERYTHING He has given you! REMEMBER, this earth and everything in it will one day soon disappear, but those who do the will of the Father will receive the reward and live forever and ever!

Please pray for the people in here and for “Apollos”. Pray that the work will keep growing to more and more people. Pray for my lawyer, judges, and all of those who are working on the bond and asylum. Please pray that I soon will be free to see my family again. Please pray for churches out there that in so many ways is lacking this life Jesus has for them, and the true Gospel!

God bless you all!

-Torben Sondergaard,
Prisoner for our Lord and Savior, but FREE in Christ!

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We believe that what we read in the book of Acts is also for today and that we need to come back to the simple disciple life the first Christians had.