A Story of Forgiveness

Hearing stories of radical forgiveness are both challenging and inspiring.  They challenge us because we don't always like the idea that perhaps we are called to such radical forgiveness.  They are inspiring because they demonstrate that it is possible.

In early 2001 a middle-aged missionary couple in the Philippines, while celebrating their wedding anniversary, were abducted and taken hostage.  For the next 13 months they trekked through the jungles of the Philippine islands at the mercy of the Abu Sayyif – an Islamic terrorist group ultimately ran by Osama Bin Laden.  
Martin and Gracia Burnham were American missionaries with New Tribes Mission.  The things that they saw and the traumas that they endured were atrocious.  Night and day they were dragged through the jungle while their captors tried to stay one step ahead of the Philippine army – often they seemed on the verge of starvation, always they were under threat of bullets and bombs.  
Gracia Burnham, who wrote their story, talks of her horror at seeing the levels to which hostages would stoop – stealing and ransacking from hospital patients, for example, horrified her at first.  
‘People that are only concerned about their own needs will stoop to any length,’ she noted.  But then she admitted that by the end of her captivity she too had come to the bottom of such rungs.  
Her husband, Martin, commented to her one day during their captivity, ‘You know…here in the mountains I’ve seen hatred; I’ve seen bitterness; I’ve seen greed; I‘ve seen covetousness; I’ve seen wrongdoing.’  
Coming from a hostage who has spent months in captivity such an observation is no surprise.  Gracia wrote that she nodded her agreement, but then Martin added, ‘I’ve seen each of these things in myself.’

Martin and Gracia spent 13 months as captive hostages to the Abu Sayyif terrorists.  Then came a rainy afternoon following weeks of hunger, and long days and nights of marching.  They set up camp, tied up their hammocks, and began to drift off to sleep.  
All of a sudden the familiar sound of gunfire erupted.  This time the rebels and their hostages had been outwitted and caught in a precarious situation.  As Martin and Gracia desperately tried to exit their hammock and get to the ground – the missionaries were hit in the shooting.  
Gracia took a bullet to the leg; Martin was hit in the chest.  Gracia lay over Martin knowing he had been hit bad.  She knew he was alive and breathing but they played dead in the hope that the terrorists would flee without them.  Without a sound they lay listening to the roar of gunfire.  Then Gracia felt Martin go limp.  
Sure enough the terrorists fled; Gracia was free but her husband had died in the firefight.  After 13 months of mayhem, Gracia returned home a widow to three fatherless children.

Most of us will probably never be faced with the severity of hurt and offense that had been dealt to the Burnham family.  Yet, most of us would struggle to come to the level of forgiveness they have shown.  The Burnham family now do phenomenal things in ministering to the same people that have terrorized a family for the rest of their lives.  Gracia has set up a funding arm which works to minister to the very people that held her captive.  They supply Abu Sayyif members with Bible study materials.  They fund translation work for the native language.  They buy hand-made crafts from Abu Sayyif prisoners and inform them that Gracia Burnham is their customer.  She regularly exchanges letters with one of her captors and the family support Abu Sayyif prisoners like many of us support starving children.
Such a story of forgiveness is not just talk and sentiment.  This is the kind of genuine forgiveness that is able to seek the best for the very people that were forgiven.

You can read the Burnham's story for yourself in Gracia's book, In the Presence of My Enemies.  It is a gripping story that is moving and challenging.