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ESCAPE FROM NICARAGUA Jimmy Hassan, Campus Crusade director in Nicaragua, tells of his harrowing capture and escape.         Jimmy Hassan, Campus Crusade for Christ director in Nicaragua, wants to see his country saturated with the gospel. But the communist government there is dead set against that goal. As authorities told him, "The problem is that you preach to young people about Jesus Christ, and because of that, they separate themselves from Marxism. And we will never permit that in Nicaragua."       Hassan and other evangelicals had endured harassment from the Sandinista government, but last fall he and his wife and children were forced to flee for their lives after a series of arrests. Now living in Mexico City, Hassan toldWorldwide Challenge about the harrowing events leading up to his escape. The interviewer is Judy Ford. Can you explain how the persecution began?       At 6 a.m. on October 31, my family and I heard violent knocks on the door. When I went out, a lady captain told me that I needed to go with them because I was printing counterrevolutionary literature and therefore had violated the state of emergency.       They took me to the Campus Crusade office and told me to hand over our material. They confiscated all of our material--including about 50,000 Four Spiritual Laws [evangelistic booklets]. Did they free you at that point?       No, they took me to the "Media Office" of the Interior and began to interrogate me. They demanded that I surrender my underground print shop. After this session, they kept me alone for several hours and then took me to the office of the captain who had come to my house in the morning. After a couple of hours of recriminations, she put a pistol to my head and told me that if someone found out what had happened, I was going to be sorry.       That night the security police arrived at my house at 11 p.m. They gave me a summons to appear at 8 a.m. at their office the next day. About 2:30 a.m., two [Campus Crusade] staff men came and told me they had been called in, too. We spent time praying and set two objectives: that we would be sure we were filled with the Holy Spirit and that our purpose in going was to share Christ with as many people as possible.       The next morning when we arrived, other people associated with Campus Crusade began to come in. So we sat together in a row and began to repeat the Lord's promises softly. Were you allowed to stay together?       No. They put me in a small office, and three security officials began to talk with me. One told me, with a terrible hatred, "The first rule here is that you are a dog, and your life is worth nothing. We are all-powerful." When they asked me what I thought, I said, "You are mistaken, my life is worth very much. It is worth exactly what Jesus Christ is worth, for that is what He paid to save me."       They accused me of preaching a counterrevolutionary message, so I said, "Why don't you let me tell you what I preach, and you analyze for yourself whether it's revolutionary or not!"       One said, "Go ahead." So I began, "Just as there are physical laws . . .," and I shared the Four Spiritual Laws with them through to the invitation to receive Christ. How did they respond?       They sat there in silence, looking at me for quite a while. Then the head of the three jumped up as though he had received an electrical shock. "You're preaching to us!" he said. "Don't preach to us!" After about two hours, they told me that they were going to put me in prison.       They took me to an underground building and put me in a tiny cell, like a phone booth. It was totally closed and dark. Three hours went by; then they took me out for more interrogation, put me back and, after a while, took me to a very cold room.       I thought that was going to be the hardest of all, because the cold provokes my asthma. I asked the Lord to make me warm, and I didn't feel the slightest bit of cold, except when I went in. What happened then?       An official took me back to the small cells. One of the men and a woman in the cells were naked. Finally he took one who was clothed out and put me in his place.       They told me that if I confessed they would set me free. After a while I could hear a woman crying, and since they had told me they were going to bring my wife in as an accomplice, I thought it was she. They put me back in the small cell and later took me to a small office. I could hear them in the next room saying they were going to destroy me.       Finally, the lieutenant in charge came in and said they were going to give me another opportunity, but that Campus Crusade was finished, and that if we printed one more booklet, they were going to wipe me from the face of the earth. Then he said, "You're going with us to the Campus Crusade office."       They took me and one of the other staff members back to the office. Five or six of the volunteer staff members--about 16 years old--were there praying and fasting. The officials put them against the wall and interrogated them. Then they read [our] files. This took several hours.       After they made notes of everything, they loaded all of the literature and office equipment into their vehicles. The chief officer said I could go home, that they didn't want my family to suffer, but that I was not to leave for any reason.       After they left we went back into the office and gave thanks to God. We went back to my house then and had some cake--it was my birthday--but we couldn't really eat because of all the emotion. I had thought that my wife had been taken into custody, but there she was. ?Your ordeal wasn't over yet, was it?       From that time on, patrol cars were constantly in front of my house. My moment of greatest desperation came one day after seven security officials came to interrogate me within [a span of] three hours.?       I got into the car and began to drive all over. My wife was with me, and we were praying, and I even cried and said, "Lord, I can't take it, please get me out of this."       I wanted to lose the agents who were tailing us, and I drove to a building where we could go in one side and out the other. Not even when I was in the cell did I feel so depressed and desperate.       When I parked the car, the first thing I saw was a staff member from another Latin American country. I rubbed my eyes and asked him if he were who I thought he was; seeing his face at that moment was tremendous for me.       We went into the house where he was staying, and he told me that the ministry had sent him, that they had been praying for me. This raised my morale tremendously. We prayed together, and this gave us strength to go on. How did you get out [of the country]?       We went to ask for exit visas, but the official said I could not leave the country. When we went back again, the same official said she could not give me a visa until 1986, but then she came back with one valid through February.       We waited for the best time, and one day we said, "This is the day." We sent the children with friends, and my wife and I left for the airport. By the time we lost the agents tailing us, we had missed our flight. All of the airlines were booked until January, but we found a flight with five empty seats!       Through several other miracles, we were able to get onto the plane, and within a short time the flight left without any other problem. Are you continuing strong in the Lord as always, or how has all of this left you?       This has been a school for me. The whole experience from the time I was in that little cell made me see how God acts in the smallest details and how prayer produces results.       Always at just the right time God was working--sending us angels or showing us in some way that He was working. And that gave me courage; that enabled me to trust in God. How do you feel now that you are out of Nicaragua?       I am enjoying being here so much because of all that was so difficult. Every day when I wake up and pray and see that I am free from such tremendous pressure, I rejoice.