Lives Given, Not Taken: 21st Century Southern Baptist Martyrs

by Erich Bridges, Jerry Rankin

Book by Erich Bridges, Jerry Rankin

Genres: Christian

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Georgia Herod · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book as I was preparing a lesson on the topic of “discipleship,” focusing on Jesus’ words: “If any man wishes to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me . . . . lose his life for my sake, and not be ashamed of me.” Luke 9:23 ff.

Detrich Bonhoffer said, “The call to discipleship is the call to die.” Jim Elliott said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Both men were killed because they chose to be obedient to Christ.

While reading Jerry Rankin’s introduction to the book, I was looking for commentary on what “discipleship” really means. I was hooked by the lives of eight men and women with radically different personalities, backgrounds, experiences, and skills, who shared a burning passion for Christ and a willingness to follow Him anywhere—regardless of the consequences.

Bill Koehn, Kathy Gariety, Martha Myers—assigned to the Jibla Hospital in Yemen, were killed by an angry Arab whose wife had been treated and shown love by Dr. Myers. The murderer said she showed his wife the love of Christ.

Bill Hyde, 25-year veteran of ministry in the Phillipines, was killed as a result of a terrorist bomb planted outside the Davao airport, where he and his wife were meeting another missionary family.

David McDonnall, a radical, living–on-the-edge young man, completely sold out for Christ; Larry and Jean Elliott, career missionaries in Honduras, recently shifted to Iraq; Karen Watson, a woman who came to Christ as an adult, but who longed to live a life of loving abandon for Christ: all were relief workers in Iraq, hoping to bring purified water in the country—and provide Living Water as well. They knew they were in a dangerous place. After a day of surveying potential water purification projects outside of Mosul, as they neared the city, they were attacked by nameless killers who pulled alongside their truck and riddled it with gunfire. The Elliotts and Karen Watson died almost immediately. David McDonnall, wounded but still mobile, got help for his critically injured wife. He, too, later died.

As I turned the last page, I felt as if I had met each of the ordinary men and women whose lives had been introduced, yet whisked away far too soon. This was a discomfiting read because of the ease and relative safety of my life.

[Jennifer Tse · Rating 5 out of 5]

My church Gracepoint recommended our church members to read this book. None of the names are famous, but you can see how each of these 8 people acted so obedient and servantlike. They gave up their lives, not taken, in order to honor God. They understand how deeply God loves them and is willing to risk it all to reach the lost. As the authors describe each person, you can see how ordinary their backgrounds are. However, the distinguishing thing is all of them came from Christian families except Karen Watson. I clearly saw how God healed Karen's pain and ignited her faith, despite coming from a broken family and facing many deaths. Each person loved so many of God's lost children and many people attended their funerals. This reminds me of how life on earth is temporary and the urgency of witnessing. There is no fear in facing our Heavenly Father when we have a relationship with Jesus.

Favorite Quote:
"It didn't happen overnight. It would take years. There were many layers of scar tissue to peel away. But the Divine Physician was at work. 'It was not without a purpose that God was allowing this kind of suffering in her life,' says a friend. 'He was using it to bring her to Him. Total emptiness, absolute loss, and hopelessness - that in where God began to work. It allowed this hard, hard heart to be open to hearing words of love from believers.'" (Page 199)

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eight individuals who answered the call to pick up their cross daily, follow the Lord and make him known. They left lives of comfort to serve the lost and daily shared Christ's love. Filled with the spirit they died to themselves and died as martyrs. A wonderful book and I recommend it to every follower of Christ.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not well written, and the first half is quite slow. it felt more "eulogy" than "biography." However, things improved with the Iraq section and I felt like I got to know these men and women a little better.

All that to say, I stand humbled by all of them, and I fully agree with the take-aways from their stories and the editor's notes. I just wish the book was better-written.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars ⭐️!!!! My youth pastor gave this to me to read, and although I didn’t LOVE this book as much as I wanted to, most of these martyrs captured my heart (KAREN AND MARTHA ARGGRHRHRGRH ❤️)
All of these stories truly humbled me and I did get a great message from this book and more knowledge to apply to my own life.
I think the reason I didn’t love this book as much was because of the writing. Imo it just didn’t hit for me. The pacing was kinda off as well but it wasn’t so bad to the point I couldn’t bear it. For example at the start of the book, those starting stories had slow beginnings to them but in the last few stories in the book the endings of each story was the slow part. The reason I think this is because each story is basically the same thing about doing God’s work and following His calling etc. Each story was basically the same person in a different font (except for a few). I didn’t annotate Jean and Larry’s story much since there wasn’t much to annotate other than the display of a Christian relationship (loved that).

[Karli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written ok, not great writing, but I loved the stories.

[Elizabeth Sanders]

The book isn’t well written, yet the stories of these faithful men and women was inspiring to read.

[Chloe Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, so my missiology professor wants me to bawl my eyes out!!