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On August 3 last year, Shelter Now aid workers Dayna Curry, 30, and Heather Mercer, 25, were arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their situation was precarious—and then came September 11. Many people despaired of the pair's leaving Afghanistan alive, so their release on November 15 was a joyous answer to prayers worldwide.

Curry and Mercer talk about their work, imprisonment, and release in Prisoners of Hope: The Story of our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan (Doubleday). Christianity Today's associate news editor Stan Guthrie, who has covered missions for various publications, and CT senior writer Wendy Murray Zoba, a former missionary, recently spoke with Curry and Mercer about their experiences and their plans for the future.

When did you become friends?

Mercer: We met in November 1997 when we were both looking at going on our first short-term trip to Afghanistan in the summer of 1998. Dayna was working in social work. I was still a sophomore in college. We ended up being roommates on that trip. A year later, Dayna moved to Afghanistan. She had already been there almost two years before I showed up. We lived together there because we were both a part of the same team that had been sent out by our local church. We were the only two single girls on the team, so we ended up getting a house together and living in Kabul. Then we started tag-teaming on the ministry side of things as we interacted with Afghans.

Curry: I'd been there a year and five months. I came back to America for two months and I don't know if I would have come back if Heather wasn't coming. I had gone there originally with another single girl, but she got married and left. I hope I would still have decided to stay in Afghanistan, but I don't know. Heather's coming was one of the deciding factors for my committing another two years to Afghanistan.

Before you went, Heather, you prayed, "Lord, send me to the hardest place on the face of the Earth." Why?

Mercer: I've always had a sense of adventure. I've never been content with the status quo. I've never wanted to do what was "normal." Afghanistan ended up fitting the bill as far as the kind of place I wanted to go. I always wanted to go somewhere nobody else was going.

What was the hardest thing you ever did before this?

Mercer: Probably the thing that required the most determination and perseverance was running track and cross country in high school.

You've endured other trials, though. How old were you when your parents got divorced?

Mercer: They got separated when I was 13, and they were divorced when I was 15. I had a strong will, which isn't always the easiest with parents. I had to grow up really fast. I was the oldest, so there was already the expectation there.

Also, your sister died shortly before you went to Afghanistan.

Mercer: She had chronic physical problems, but she also had some emotional problems. She was taking some pain medicine prescribed by a doctor and she overdosed on it and nobody caught it in time. She had just turned 21. She was not quite two and a half years younger than I was.

Dayna, what made you go to this rugged landscape?

Curry: God's love just filled me and overwhelmed me. I never knew that that kind of love existed. When I heard more about Islam and the women, I wanted them to be able to know God's love. I felt like God's heart was breaking because they didn't know that they are cherished by him. When I was working in Uzbekistan—I worked in Tashkent for two years right after college—every once in a while I'd see the women fully veiled and would think, How do you reach them? Who's reaching these women? A family from our church came through Uzbekistan on their way to Afghanistan to serve there. And they told me, "If you ever want to be a part of our team, come." I thought, "If I'm willing to go, it's crazy not to go." So many people aren't willing to go.

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July 8 2002, Vol. 46, No. 8