Women mourn fallen martyrs at WMU event

KISSIMMEE (FBC)—A somber and serious mood prevailed as the stark reality of the implicit danger of serving on the world’s mission field was brought home to the annual meeting of the Florida Woman’s Missionary Union.

The Mar. 19-20 meeting at First Baptist Church of Kissimmee was billed as a “Celebration of Missions,” but the timing—just days after four missionaries were killed in an Iraq ambush—rapidly transformed the weekend’s tone.

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Larry and Jean Elliott, Karen Watson and David McDonnell were killed by automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades fired by unknown assailants March 15 in Mosul, Iraq. The Americans were researching needs for humanitarian projects in northern Iraq. McDonnell’s wife, Carrie, was critically wounded in the attack.

With the slain missionaries’ photographs projected on the wide screen, Tim Wilder, pastor of the host church, explained “when you get serious about your faith, it’s dangerous business.” Calling the four missionaries “martyrs” and “soldiers who have fallen,” Wilder reminded the 671 persons in attendance, “to be absent from this body is to be present with Jesus Christ.”

The past 14 months have been the bloodiest in the history of the SBC’s International Mission Board after three missionaries were murdered by a terrorist at the Baptist hospital in Jibla, Yemen. Then just a year ago, an IMB missionary was killed in a terrorist bombing at the airport in Davao City, Philippines.

During the meeting missionary speakers spoke of their martyred colleagues.

“It has been a tough week,” admitted “Bob,” a former last frontier missionary whose name has been changed to protect his identity. “What kind of darkness motivates someone to hurt someone who was there to do them good? What possesses someone to think they (the missionaries) are a bigger threat than Saddam Hussein?”

He added, “I don’t grieve them for they are with the Lord now.”

Former IMB missionary Marvina Hooper and her husband, who now serves as minister of education of First Baptist Church of Mt. Dora, worked in Honduras alongside missionaries Larry and Jean Elliott.

After serving 25 years on the Honduras mission field, the Elliotts “felt God’s call to go to Iraq,” Hooper said. “They could have stayed in Honduras, but they sensed God’s calling to go to another place of service.”

The Elliotts specialized in water purification projects and played a key role in ministering to Hondurans affected by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed more than 5,600 people and left more than 200,000 homeless.

Hooper recalled Larry Elliott’s contagious laugh and the maternal instincts of “Aunt Jean” that took the young family “under her wing.”

“Their blood was not spilt in vain,” claimed Hooper, “but that we as Christians around the world would do the same.”

Dressed in traditional Middle Eastern garb-a black “balto” across her face and a white “thobd” on his head-former missionaries Bob and his wife, Paula, recalled the terrifying events on Dec. 30, 2002 when three of their colleagues were shot at the Baptist hospital in Jibla, Yemen.

The three IMB workers, Martha Myers, a 57-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist who served as a medical worker in Yemen for 24 years, hospital administrator William Koehn and purchasing manager Kathleen Gariety, were murdered when a lone gunman attacked the hospital. A fourth worker, pharmacist Don Casell, was wounded.

A computer expert, Bob was not present at the Jibla hospital when the shooting began, but quickly arrived on the scene to assist with crowd control. Learning that Myers was already dead, Bob cleared the hospital corridors. He recalled seeing shooting victim Koehn and knowing “he wasn’t going to be here much longer.” Meanwhile doctors in the operating room were trying to save third victim Gariety.

Bob recalled being filled with rage, as “everything God had built in me drained away. I wanted to get my hands on the man who went in there with a gun. I was not interested in the man’s soul. I was more interest in doing him harm.”

As he guarded the entrance, a high-ranking Yemen official came to the hospital, leaving his bodyguards outside the hospital with Bob. Unaware that the missionary clad in American jeans could speak fluent Arabic, the guards discussed how Myers’ death had been a long-time in coming. At that moment, Bob reported, the Holy Spirit nudged him to pray for the shooter.

The religion of Islam, he explained, teaches that “God needs man’s help, rather than God giving man help. They believe that they achieve something for God” by the murdering of Christian believers.

Bob predicted more bloodshed in the Middle East. “We’re making inroads like never before. Satan is real and we’re on his turf. He’s fighting a losing battle.”

To those who have suggested that Southern Baptists pull their missionaries out of the war-torn region, Bob replied, “We are exactly where we need to be. If Satan had to go to this extreme, we must have him worried.

“The bride of Christ, especially in the Middle East, is going to be a bloody bride indeed. It is a clear sign to press forward, not a time to run, but a time to pray.”