In my sermon on August 8, 2010, “Spirituality in the Real World,” I talked about Archbishop Oscar Romero and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, both of whom were martyred. We received this past week (the week of August 8) that one of the ten aid workers killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan on August 5 was Daniel Terry, 64, a United Methodist lay person who served in Afghanistan under the umbrella of our United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. The UnitedMethodistChurch remembers a modern martyr.
There is a local connection: Dan Terry’s son-in-law Chris has been serving as Seminary Intern at the New Wilmington Presbyterian Church. Chris’ wife Anneli is the martyred Dan’s daughter. Chris and Anneli will be traveling to Afghanistan for Dan’s funeral. The following is an excerpt from an article from the United Methodist News Service:
Daniel Terry spent 40 years of his life working as a volunteer with those most in need in Afghanistan.
Fluent in several regional languages, the 64-year-old United Methodist layperson had a deep understanding of the Afghan culture — an understanding that he used to guide the staff of international nonprofit organizations.
So it came as a shock when leaders of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, which has supported Terry for 30 years, learned that he was among the 10 aid workers killed Aug. 5 in a remote northeast section of the country. The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the murders.
Only one other United Methodist aid worker has been murdered in recent decades. In 1977, Glenn Eschtruth, a doctor who served in a Kinshasa mission hospital in the African country then known as Zaire, was killed by mercenary forces.
“It is almost beyond belief that Dan Terry would be murdered in Afghanistan,” said Thomas Kemper, chief executive of Global Ministries. “He loved the country with a passion and worked tirelessly on behalf of its most marginalized communities.”
One of Terry’s skills was building relationships with the Afghan people, said David Wildman, a Global Ministries executive and Afghanistan expert. “He understood the wisdom of poor communities,” he added. “In all his work, he was always asking, ‘What can I learn from the community I’m with?’”
At an Aug. 9 press conference in Kabul, Dirk R. Frans, executive director of International Assistance Mission, confirmed that the 10 people killed were volunteer members of the group’s missing Nuristan Eye Camp team.
“This is a sad day, particularly for the relatives and friends of those killed,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all of them. We pray that they will find strength in their faith and in the communities to bear this unbelievable loss.”
Frans disputed Taliban claims that the team was proselytizing and distributing Bibles in the Dari language.
While registered as a Christian organization, International Assistance Mission functions solely as an aid agency. He pointed out that their teams would not be invited back to the villages where they work “if we were using aid as a cover for preaching.”
He also presented letters at the press conference offering proof that the team had permission from the Afghan government to conduct its eye camp.
Such instances of modern martyrdom are sobering and, at the same time, humbling. I have shared with you before, the courageous testimony of one of my former students. Pittsburgh Theological Seminary sends our students on mission trips every year. For the last several years, we have been sending students to Viet Nam, a communist country where it is dangerous to openly live a Christian life. My Hebrew students who go to Viet Nam always return to the U.S. with their understanding of Christianity changed; indeed, with their lives transformed, because they get to spend some time with people for whom Christianity is not something nice and comfortable that you do on a Sunday morning. No, for Christians in Viet Nam, Christianity really is a life and death matter. One of my former very fine Hebrew students decided to return to Viet Nam after she finished seminary to teach at a church-run mission school there. She stayed in Viet Nam for about six years and decided just last year that she had had enough. About three years ago, when she was home on leave, she stopped at the seminary to see me. I asked her how her ministry was going. She said, “Dr. Durlesser, honestly, I fear for my life every day.” I will always be humbled when I think of my student’s faithfulness and commitment to her Lord and Savior.
In Mark 8:34, Jesus declared, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” For those who take up their crosses, where might that lead? It might lead to martyrdom. Just as Jesus was martyred, so might his followers be martyred. As we face our daily struggles, probably not life and death issues, just normal daily struggles in an often very secular world, may we have the faith and courage to take up our crosses, whatever they may be, and faithfully follow our Lord, wherever that may lead.
