Missionary Martyrs in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/2004martyrs.fbw

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.

SWBTS students, faculty mourn one of their own

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--David McDonnall was a master storyteller who was willing to die so that others could hear the story of Jesus, close friends said in a memorial service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary March 23.

Slain aid worker sought God’s attention

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (BP)–Yvonne Lawson’s fingertips caressed the crate containing the coffin of her daughter, Karen Watson, oblivious to the crowd collected about her, family and friends who met the plane bearing the body at Kern County’s Meadows Field.

Iraq attack survivor recuperates in Dallas

DALLAS (BP/FBW) — The lone survivor of a March 15 attack on five Southern Baptist humanitarian aid workers in Iraq is back in the United States.

WHY?
RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–Why?

That anguished one-word question is being asked by many people after five Southern Baptist aid workers were shot in Iraq March 15.

[SoftUnderbelly]

1. when their country is being blown to fuck

its sort of understandable that iraqis dont want to know how much jesus loves them? missionaries are just another tool of colonialism.

[Faux pas]

2. They don't belong there, anymore than our military does. n/t

[roguevalley]

3. first of all, its a war zone. secondly, they feel this is a religious

crusade against Islam, buttressed by the fact that missionaries of the oppressor's main religion are there working and third, they don't belong there. Imagine the outcry if thousands of Muslim missionaries arrived here, assuming you were either without a religion or the one you had wasn't worth anything.

[marylanddem]

4. Not a great time to go proselytizing....

[Crunchy Frog]

5. Potential Darwin Prize winners?

I hate to say it, but that's how I view missionaries to Iraq under the current circumstances.

[SoulGlo]

6. I will sound cold

but I really don't care. The arrogance of fundamentals make me sick.

[Lars39]

7. Franklin Graham and his missionaries were on the ground in Iraq

practically from day one.
I still want to know if any soldiers have died trying to protect the missionaries.

[0007]

8. Somehow I believe Karen could have done more by helping the inmate

in the jail where she worked.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (BP)–Karen Watson counted the cost. Then she followed God with her heart and with her head as she entered the war zone of Iraq to share with people there the message that had made her willing to sacrifice everything.

"That experience led her to a realization that God was calling her into missions," Neighbors said.

The church directed her to the IMB, and she was accepted to serve overseas. She resigned from her job as a detention officer at the Kern County Sheriff’s Department in Bakersfield and sold her house and her car.

"This girl sold out for Jesus," Neighbors said, noting Watson had a good job at the sheriff’s department involving the evaluation and placement of inmates.