From Mike Melton —
During a recent Christian Education meeting I offered to put in a recommendation for a good book someone might want to check out in our church library. I was perusing the shelves when I saw it; Hostage Bound Hostage Free by Ben & Carol Weir. I remember when I got my copy of this concise book back in the early nineties because I purchased it at a Presbytery meeting where the Weirs were speaking.
If you’re not familiar with their story, Ben had been a Presbyterian pastor in Beirut, Lebanon for over thirty years but was kidnapped off the streets by Shiite extremists in front of his wife Carol on May 8th, 1984. Ben was a captive for over a year and the book’s chapters alternate between Ben’s horrifying ordeal with his faith sustaining him and Carol’s increasingly more public campaign seeking government action for his release. Just a modest couple in a whirlwind of madness. Now I see all the news of Hamas and Israel. I hear the shock and despair in the victim’s voices. We see people kidnapped and the tears of their families. As Christians, we pray for all these suffering today knowing their stories are yet to be told, but we can read the Weir’s story now. I recommend you read it and pray that God gives us the heart to grow ever more compassionate.
