Thoughts From Michael and Sharon Rusten

Dear Friends,

Today I offer you the story of two valiant missionary ladies who were the victims of something that had nothing to do with them. It took place in April of 1974, and though I was a senior in high school that year, I never heard about it. This story is found in, “The One Year Book of Christian History” by Michael and Sharon Rusten. (If you love history, especially Christian history, you will love this devotional book which includes one story each day that happened on that particular day, for the whole year.) This particular story takes place in Thailand, April 30, 1974. It’s entitled “Political Casualties.”

“Thailand was a difficult place to be a missionary in 1974. The Vietnam War had spilled over into Laos, Cambodia, and northern Thailand. In southern Thailand there was ongoing conflict between the military and Muslim liberation groups that wanted independence for Thailand’s predominantly Muslim provinces. Malaysia, having a majority Muslim population, was supporting the Muslim rebels. The tense religious and political climate made missionary work difficult and dangerous.

Minka Hanskamp, a six-foot-tall Dutch woman who had grown up in Java as the daughter of missionaries, and Margaret Morgan, a nurse from a Welsh mining village, were missionary nurses with Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF). They had worked tirelessly in southern Thailand for sixteen and nine years respectively. They had a special burden for those with leprosy. Their ministry involved cutting away rotten flesh, treating ulcerated sores that emitted a horrible stench, and washing many leprous feet.

Every two weeks the women held a leprosy clinic in the town of Pujud. On April 20, 1974, Minka’s sixteenth anniversary at OMF, she and Margaret were lured away from Pujud by strangers who insisted they come with them to the mountains to treat some sick patients needing help. On April 30, 1974, Ian Murray, the OMF representative for Thailand, received two devastating letters. One was from Minka and Margaret stating they had been kidnapped by “jungle people” but were well and “still praising God.” The second letter was from their captors. It demanded a half-million-dollar ransom. The kidnappers also demanded that an official letter be sent from OMF to the nation of Israel in support of Palestinian rights. OMF’s policies did not allow them to comply with either demand. If they paid a ransom, every missionary would become more susceptible to abduction. It was against OMF policy to become involved in political issues.

Instead, Ian Murray met with Thai officials and representatives of the kidnappers, attempting to secure the release of Minka and Margaret. The meeting was unsuccessful… This crisis received international attention and prayer, but letters from the women soon stopped. Rumors of their executions spread but were not confirmed. Finally in March of 1975 (almost a year later) a Malaysian man confessed that he had shot both missionaries in the head. The chief of the Muslim gang had decided that the women had to be killed in order to keep the respect of his underlings in the rebel movement.

He said that the nurses were calm when they were told they were going to die, saying only, “Give us a little time to read and pray.” Although the Christian world hoped the story was not true, it was confirmed when two skeletons that physically matched the women were found in the jungle. They had been shot in the head about six months earlier.

On May 15, 1975, hundreds attended their funeral, not only Christians but Buddhists and Muslims as well. Many were shocked and saddened by the violent murders of the women who had come to help them. One man testified at the funeral that he had been a former bandit killer but had become a Christian after Minka had tenderly placed his ulcerated foot on her lap as she treated it. Following the funeral, native pastors and missionaries received more inquiries about the Christian faith than ever before.”

It is sad indeed when any life is lost, or we hear that people who went only to do good and help others, lost theirs over something they had nothing to do with. But God, who promises to “work all things together for the good of those who love him, and are the called according to his purpose,” can bring good out of the worst situations. These two ladies had gone to Thailand to do the Lord’s work, help others, and through their testimony and love for the hurting, hope to bring some to Jesus. And in this story we hear how God took this unfortunate circumstance, and used it to do just that – in a way, or to an extent, that may never have happened otherwise.

As a friend posted on their feed this morning, “All death can do to the believer is deliver them to Jesus.” It’s true. In eternity it will not matter that their lives were cut short. All that will matter is that in their death God was glorified and their most earnest prayers were answered; others came to Jesus through their lives and witness.

No one likes to see tragedy. Yet, what one can see in any situation often depends on how they look at that situation. Do they look through the lens of a solely temporal perspective, or the lens of an eternal perspective? It does make an immense difference.

To Those who Know we are Just Passing Through this World, Pastor Jeff