Why do the Nations Rage?
Acts 4:24-29

(A New Year’s sermon by Jerry Rankin, President of the International Mission Board, reflecting on the murder of three workers in Yemen on December 30, 2002.)

Introduction

The telephone call came at 1:50 a.m. Monday morning. I listened in shock as a representative of our Northern Africa and Middle East office told that a gunman had just murdered three of our workers at the Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen. Hospital administrator Bill Koehn (pronounced “cane”), surgeon Martha Myers and purchasing manager Kathy Gariety had been killed instantly, and pharmacist Don Caswell had been wounded. Within an hour our crisis contingency team began to assemble and within hours Southern Baptists, Americans and the world were reacting to this shocking tragedy. In a press interview just two weeks earlier, I reflected on the death of a missionary with another agency, Bonnie Witherall in Lebanon, and said that it was not unlikely we would someday be touched by such tragedies, as no other mission agency has so many personnel deployed so extensively, pushing to the edge of lostness to fulfill the Great Commission. But the shock and the grief were overwhelming when it happened. ...

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Quotables

“Our personnel, as Americans and Christians, are well aware of the risks of living and serving in a place like Yemen. Yet their love of the Yemeni people and obedience to a conviction of God’s leadership has been expressed in a willingness to take that risk—and to give of their lives. Our hearts go out to their families, colleagues and local friends, who join us in grieving this tragic loss.”
—Jerry Rankin, International Mission Board president

“We were moved to hear of crowds of local people lining the road to the hospital in respect for those who had served them so faithfully.”
—Jerry Rankin, International Mission Board president

“This (gunman) did not take their lives; they chose to give their lives” to Yemen long ago. “Loving God, they loved the Yemeni people.”
—John Brady, the International Mission Board’s regional leader for Northern Africa and the Middle East

“All Jibla weeps for them.”
—Malka al-Hadhrami, a long-time friend of Myers, speaking through tears

About Martha Myers

“She had an insatiable compassion for people, especially people in need.”
—Ira Myers, Martha’s father, Alabama physician and former state public health director

About Bill Koehn

"This is my father. "I have to do this."
—one of the Yemeni hospital workers who helped build the caskets, dig the graves and lower Koehn’s and Myers’ bodies into the ground

“People here loved these people so much. Yesterday Bill gave sacks of wheat and sugar to widows and divorced women in the city. He’s been doing that almost every month with relief donations we receive.”
— Kaye Rock, another Southern Baptist worker at the Jibla hospital

About Kathy Gariety

"From the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, she was devoted to this ministry and felt that God had called her to be involved in this hospital." —Keith Cogburn, executive director of the Lakeland Baptist Association in Wisconsin

About all three

“People talked about the ways Bill encouraged them to be a leader, to think and listen and to care for the Yemeni people. They spoke about Martha’s great passion for the Lord and the selfless way she gave herself to Yemenis, no matter what the cost. They praised Kathy’s deep desire to serve people and the way she touched so many lives behind the scenes.”
—John Brady, the International Mission Board’s regional leader for Northern Africa and the Middle East

“If you had asked any of these people, ‘Would you give your life to birth the church?’ they would have replied, ‘Absolutely.’”
—Lee Hixon, another Southern Baptist worker at the Baptist hospital in Jibla

About continuing ministry

“I think all of our personnel recognize there’s some risk. Certainly we do take security precautions. Our personnel are trained to be sensitive to those issues. This will heighten their awareness of the need for security wherever they’re serving. (But) we would not choose to end our ministry and service because of risk and danger to our personnel. If we did, we would probably be ending our ministry in many countries throughout the world.”
—Jerry Rankin, International Mission Board president

“They’ve been doing what they can to make life more bearable for a lot of folks. Many [Yemeni] count these folks as family. It’s a terrible separation. They’ll be encouraged to see folks come back.”
—Lee Hixon, another Southern Baptist worker at the Baptist hospital in Jibla

“We can’t let someone with a gun make us afraid to do what God wants us to do. We’re asking people to pray that these deaths will not be a senseless waste, but that God will complete all He has intended here and that He will be glorified.”
—Kaye Rock, another Southern Baptist worker at the Jibla hospital

About Yemen

“You can’t minister without personal contact. They’re very much like us; they just haven’t had the advantage of the gospel like we have. They’re hungry.”
—Al Lindholm, another worker at the Baptist hospital in Jibla

“The people here who love us are decimated even more than we are, because they don’t see the big picture. But the Bible says ‘Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the blood of his saints.’ The church is built on the blood of the martyrs, and any of those three people would have gladly given their lives for that.”
—Kaye Rock, another Southern Baptist worker at the Jibla hospital

“For the last 35 years there’s been a lot of plowing of hard, almost punished earth. But, yes, there’s a harvest here. God is working in people’s hearts.”
—Lee Hixon, another Southern Baptist worker at the Baptist hospital in Jibla