Tennessee pastor returns after being held in India since October

Knoxville, May 20, 2020: A Tennessee pastor returned home from India May 19 night after being held there since October.

Pastor Bryan Nerren was arrested and accused of failing to declare money he brought on a mission trip.

On May 19 night, Nerren was reunited with his family at the Nashville International Airport. News 2’s sister station WATE spoke with him before he landed.

“When I saw the coast of New York, I cried for a long time and thanked God he figured out a way to get me home,” Pastor Nerren said.

That’s because Nerren hadn’t been home in more than seven months. He was arrested after claims he failed to declare money while passing through India on a trip to train Sunday school teachers.

“I went to prison for six days and they held me 7-and-a-half months, technically over a piece of paper, but it was never about the paper. It was always religious in nature,” he said.

Thanks to a U.S. Ambassador’s deal, it is all finally coming to an end. The pastor said he leaned on his faith through the ordeal.

“In the first couple of months, there was scary times. The last five months, I haven’t been scared at all, I’ve wanted to go home every day. But I knew God was doing something, and all I had to do was be still, and He would finish doing what He was doing,” Nerren said. “The toughest part of this whole thing, Elizabeth, has been what I’ve put my wife through.”

And that is who he says he’s missed most for more than half of a year now: His wife and his family. He was looking forward to being reunited with them.

“It’s going to be a whole lot of hugging and a whole lot of crying, and I don’t cry, and I don’t really enjoy hugging, but all of that has changed. It will all be different tonight to be back home with family and friends,” Pastor Nerren said.

For a little more perspective on what the last several months were like, Pastor Nerren told us he read books, watched YouTube, and waited for what the next week would bring.

He also said the message he wants to get across is one of encouragement to pray for and help people in India who want to worship God freely.

Pastor Nerren arrived in Nashville at 9:45 p.m. and was met at the airport by family and friends.