After a while one runs out of words to describe the senseless, shocking murder of Christian missionaries. On Dec. 30, 2002, three more names were added to the list. Alabamian Martha Myers, together with William Koehn of Texas and Kathleen Gariety of Wisconsin, were martyred for their faith when a Muslim gunman walked into a conference room at the Baptist Hospital in Jibla, Yemen, and opened fire. All three were killed instantly.
These join the ranks of other missionaries who were killed because they were Christians. In November, British Baptist nurse Bonnie Penner Witheral was shot in the head in Sideon, Lebanon, where she served with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Authorities said witnessing to a Muslim woman was the incident that prompted her martyrdom.
In January 1999 Australian Baptist missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Philip and Timothy, were burned alive by a group of Hindu radicals who set fire to the car in which they were sleeping. Staines operated the Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home and had lived in the area for 16 years.
Such actions are almost beyond comprehension for those of us living in the United States. This nation’s commitment to freedom of religion means one is free to espouse varying beliefs. For most in this country, persecution means social exclusion. In many other parts of the world, persecution can mean death.
Myers and her Southern Baptist missionary colleagues knew their world was a dangerous place. They lived in a culture where guns were a part of one’s normal apparel. Armed guards protected the entrance to the hospital and enforced the “no guns” restriction that hung above the door.
Myers visited in the villages. She understood their conversations. Like her colleagues, she understood the dangers. Still, she stayed. So did they all. Why? Stories being told following the shooting have a common thread. Each missionary loved the Yemeni people. Each one felt called of God to serve there. That is why Myers, a surgeon and obstetrician, spent 24 years working in an ill-equipped hospital with limited resources. That is why Koehn spent 28 years there and Gariety, more than 10 years.
Missionaries cannot survive overseas without knowing they are there because God called them. Living in a foreign culture is hard enough under the best of circumstances. Living in a foreign culture that is hostile and threatening is more than one can bear without the certainty of God’s call.
But God’s call is no guarantee of safety. This incident demonstrates that once more. Through the years missionaries have been murdered during robberies. They have died in auto accidents and plane crashes. They have died from strange diseases as well as from starvation. Being called of God does not exempt one from the challenges of the human experience.
But being faithful to God’s call is a guarantee of fulfillment. Myers said she lived a rich life, her family reported.
Her heart was in Yemen. Her wish was to be buried there, and she was. Her body lies in a small cemetery aside the bodies of missionaries from other countries who have given their lives for the gospel of Jesus Christ in that part of the world.
When asked about the decision to bury his daughter in Yemen, Dr. Ira Myers of Montgomery said, “In Alabama, Martha’s grave would just be a grave. In Yemen, her grave is a testimony.”
The lives, as well as the deaths of the three Southern Baptist missionaries, are testimonies to a God of love. The God made known in Jesus Christ loves so much that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of all who will believe in Him. The God made known in Jesus Christ loves so much that He calls men and women to live out their lives in service to others as Martha Myers and her colleagues did; as thousands of other missionaries are doing.
How different that kind of God is from the god their murderer sought by killing them.
The world is a dangerous place. It is hostile to the Christian gospel. Breaking through the barriers of prejudice and hate with a gospel of love and forgiveness is a daunting task requiring all the resources of God’s people. Let us pray for our missionaries. Let us pray for their safety, for the certainty of their calling, for their faithful obedience, for the blessings of God’s Spirit on their ministries.
And let us band together to lift up Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. It is serious business. There is no time to play word games or squabble with fellow believers. The eternal destiny of men and women is at stake. As senseless as these shootings are, they would be even more so if we missed our opportunity to share the gospel because we were distracted by less important things.
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