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By now you've probably seen Gracia Burnham interviewed on NBC's Dateline, CBN's 700 Club, or read about her in any number of periodicals. With the May release of her book, In the Presence of My Enemies (Tyndale), the former New Tribes missionary has reluctantly hit the publicity trail to share her grisly, heartbreaking story of being kidnapped by radical Muslim terrorists in the Philippines.

As American missionaries to the Philippines, Gracia and Martin Burnham were the focus of countless prayers across the U.S. and around the world from the time of their abduction in May 2001 by the notorious Abu Sayyaf until their rescue 376 days later in June 2002.

The Burnhams endured some 13 firefights, as the terrorists warded off the Philippine military's rescue attempts. When it was all over, Gracia emerged from the last gunfight wounded but alive. Her husband and Philippine nurse Deborah Yap were killed.

After the rescue, Gracia Burnham, 44, returned to her family in Kansas to recover. Today she is grateful to be alive but wonders whether more could have been done to save the life of her husband and the other hostages who were murdered. In an interview with Christianity Today, she questions the stringent no-negotiations policy of New Tribes Missions and other missions agencies that believe paying ransoms to terrorist groups would only put other missionaries in danger of future kidnappings. She told CT: "You go stand in that corner over there, and you don't leave until someone pays a ransom for you. [Then] see how long that ransom policy holds up in your mind."

Still, Burnham doesn't blame anyone but the Abu Sayyaf for her husband's death. During her captivity, she remembers one of her Muslim captors proudly saying, "We hate the cross. Any time we see a cross, we destroy it if we can."

Burnham hadn't given much thought to the symbol of the cross before that. "But I love the cross since my captivity, and I have it everywhere," she says. "My mind has changed because the Muslims hated it so much, what it stands for."

Missionaries to the end, the Burnhams tried to explain the message of the cross to their captors, but to no avail.

"I don't want anybody paying for my sin," said one of the men. "I'll do my own paying."

Still, Burnham is confident that one day they'll get it. "I know what's next for the Abu Sayyaf," she told ct. "One way or another, they're going to bow down and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."

Sources: Christianity Today, June 2003 and Baptist Press, May 1, 2003.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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