National Conference: Gracia Burnham

"The hardest part of our ordeal was that I saw what I really was."

One of the great gifts of Gracia Burhnam is that she is honest. Brutally honest. Her book, In The Presence Of My Enemies, gives the unvarnished truth of her time as a hostage to radical Muslim rebels in the Philippines. She doesn't present herself as a saint who never struggled during her months of captivity. Instead, she gives the whole truth; the days she questioned God and the times when her anger and frustration came out.

But she also tells how God worked inside her as they hiked and were bored and ducked during repeated gun battles. She tells how God helped them to show love to their captors.

"Stepping out and being a preacher isn't always going to work out well," she told the VOM National Conference audience. She talked about Peter's release from prison in Acts 12; but pointed out that the story begins with the execution of James, another of the apostles and another of Jesus' inner circle.

"Jesus said that His church would be a costly bride."

"We are called to obedience, and the scars that we get along the way are a testament to His faithfulness. I challenge you to lift up your eyes to the harvest, and to be faithful in whatever He has called you to do."

"Maybe our captivity was the only way that those Muslims would hear the gospel in their own language."