On December 30 a student attending Al-Iman University in Yemen, an institution of higher learning described in the January 11 issue of World Magazine as a "hotbed of Islamic militancy," walked into Jibla Hospital and methodically shot four Southern Baptist missionaries before surrendering to security guards.

Administrator William E. Koehn, 60, obstetrician Martha C. Meyers, 57, and purchasing agent Kathleen Gariety, 53 were all fatally shot in the head. Pharmacist Donald Caswell, 49, was shot twice in the abdomen and was expected to recover after surgery.

It was reported that the man had shot the Americans because "they were preaching Christianity in a Muslim country."

The writer of the book of Hebrews describes the persecutions experienced by those bearing God's message. "[They] were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented."

To the American mind, this reads like fiction. We live in a country where it costs nothing to be a Christian. Persecution and martyrdom are foreign concepts. We read about murders every day in the newspaper and usually the motive is robbery or can be characterized as a crime of passion. But killing a person because he reads the Bible and wants to share its message with someone else? The mind strains to make sense of it all.

The First Amendment protects speech, and despite almost 50 years of Supreme Court decisions denying freedom of religious expression principally in the public schools, Americans are still largely free to worship God as they choose.

The situation is totally different in countries where governments are hostile to Christianity and missionaries sharing the Gospel are not welcomed. But missionaries cannot resist the burning call of God in their lives -- a combination of obedience and love -- to go and tell the Good News in spite of the very real dangers.

Just before Jesus left this earth he told his followers that they would be given power to preach the Gospel: "to be my witnesses." Then he commanded them to leave their cozy churches and venture out into the surrounding communities, to other cities and "to the uttermost parts of the earth."

They were not to take up swords or use physical force to convert unbelievers. "The love of Christ," was to be the supernatural force that compelled them, as Paul explained in one of his letters written to the congregation in the church in Corinth.

It was this love that compelled Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer -- the missionary women who were held captive by the Taliban for six months before their Hollywood-style rescue -- to go to Afghanistan. It was this love that led Martin and Gracia Burnham to the Philippines. During their attempted rescue, Martin was shot and killed by Abu Sayef terrorists. His wife survived a gunshot wound in the leg.

The writer of the book of Hebrews concluded that the world "was not worthy" of these great men and women of the faith who were willing to forsake all -- riches and houses and lands and in some cases their own families -- for the cause of Christ.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com. Visit our website at www.amyfound.org.