Christianity Today Catches Up with Heather Mercer 10 Years After Capture by Taliban
A month before the 9/11 attacks, American missionaries Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry were captured and imprisoned by the Taliban. Their detention and subsequent rescue by American troops in November 2001 received extensive media coverage at the time, including criticism by “Dateline” correspondent John Larson about their proselytizing in a Muslim country. So far, however, it seems no mainstream media outlet has caught up with Mercer or Curry for a ten-year anniversary retrospective. Fortunately Timothy C. Morgan of Christianity Today did. You can read his interview here . I've included excerpts below (emphasis indicates Morgan's questions): The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is coming up. Your mind must go back to that period frequently. Was it worth your effort going to Afghanistan and being jailed? There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about it. God sent me to prison to set me free. I don't think I realized how much fear I actually had in my life until I had to confront some of my deepest, darkest fears. When I first set out to go to Afghanistan, I knew it might cost me my life to reach Muslims with the love of Jesus. Then I had this opportunity to face that fear of, “What would I do if someone tried to kill me for sharing the gospel?” God made himself known in such a profound way that now, what do I have to fear? There must have been some very hard times for you after 9/11. When we came out of that experience, there was this grace cloud that followed us everywhere. Antioch Community Church in Waco [Texas] cared for us, pastored us through. Healing came in telling in the story over and over. Through the telling, I was able to see the good that came out of the bad. Eventually, the good overshadowed the bad. Today, I can look back and feel like I've learned a million times more than anything I ever lost. Back in 2001, there were Christian nay-sayers out there who said, “You were na
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on September 12, 2011. Filed under