Prisoners of Hope: The Story of Our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan is the 2003 memoir of American missionaries and aid workers Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer. This book details their early life, their humanitarian work in Afghanistan, and their three months in prison by the Taliban in 2001.
Born to middle-class American families, Curry and Mercer met at Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas. They volunteered to work as aid workers with Shelter Now International (SNI) in Afghanistan in 2001, motivated by a desire to serve the "poorest of the poor". While there, they provide humanitarian aid to hospitals, street children, and poor communities in Kabul. Curry and Mercer were captured by the Taliban on August 3 for evangelization to local families and imprisoned for more than 100 days along with several other foreign volunteers. During their detention they were threatened with execution and a number of inmates developed physical illness, including head lice, asthma, and intestinal worms. Although the experience was "exhausting", they wrote songs of praise and tried to encourage other prisoners. All SNI members were finally released by US forces during an operation in Kabul after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Curry and Mercer jointly wrote their memoirs in the year after their rescue. It was released in the summer of 2002 and received good reviews from critics.
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Dayna Curry grew up in Forest Hill, a suburb outside Nashville, Tennessee with a population of about 23,000. His parents divorced when he was young. He has troubled youths after divorce including drugs, underage sex, shoplifting, and abortion at the age of 17, all of which are deeply regretted. After becoming a Christian, he can "start from scratch and have a new life". He graduated from Brentwood High School in 1989 and then studied at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. His father later stated, "I always watch him... want to help people, and he tends to do this through Christian-based organizations." Heather Mercer grew up in a middle-class family in Vienna, Virginia. Like Curry, his parents also divorced and he studied at Baylor University after graduating from Madison High School in 1995. He moved to Christianity after attending a church concert.
Curry, then 29, and Mercer, then 24, met through their joint involvement at the Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, where they received an opportunity to serve in Kabul, Afghanistan as aid workers with Shelter Now International (SNI). Mercer's parents strongly opposed the decision, especially after his younger sister, Hannah, died of a drug overdose prescribed accidentally just before her departure at the age of 21. Though placed in the upscale Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, Curry and Mercer deliberately asked for "The smallest, most dilapidated house on the street", explaining that they came to serve the poor and did not want to be treated as rich strangers.
While in Kabul, they work with a large number of street children. Curry makes points to dedicate at least two days a week to help someone named Omar, whose father has just died and whose family is struggling financially. Mercer regularly buys shoes and shoe shine for children, who, according to Curry, start calling him "a compassionate one." When an interviewer then asked about other forms of work they did, they replied, "The next time we give bread, fruit, or juice to the beggars we meet, the small shop and the production kiosk are located at the end of our street, and when beggars approached us, we would ask them to follow us into the store and pick out the items they need. "Katrin Jelinek, one of their German counterparts, organized a program for boys to receive warm meals and job training classes.
Toward the end of the summer, an Afghan family they had invited began asking questions about their faith and expressed interest in seeing a movie about Jesus. Curry and Mercer agreed to personally show the film at the family home on August 3, 2001.
Furthermore, the Taliban arrested Curry, Mercer, six other foreign aid workers, and 16 SNI members of Afghanistan on charges of da'wah and converted to other religions. Other prisoners include Germany's Georg Taubmann, Margrit Stebnar, Katrin Jelinek, and Silke Duerrkopf, and Australian Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch. Curry and Mercer, along with other aid workers, were detained in a number of female prisons. They recounted that Afghan prisoners at the Ministry for the Reproduction of Virtues and Prevention of Vice Representatives were regularly and severely beaten for minor offenses. "The scream was horrendous," Curry said. "I've never heard of anything like that." Although Western women are not beaten, they suffer from a number of physical discomforts; some prisoners suffer from head lice, including Mercer, and flies are puckering so badly that Curry and Mercer each kill about 150 people every day. The bathroom was not clean with a shared toilet by more than 40 individuals and a cold shower. A 10-by-10-foot prison cell (3.0 m * 3.5 m) leaves a crowded inmate. All women have intestinal worms, and Curry struggles with asthma. Still, detainees are allowed to often communicate with their families in the United States, and they can interact more directly with Afghan women than before, as the Taliban are less concerned with organizing their communications. "We have to hear their stories and sing their songs and dance with them and play with them and wash clothes together," Mercer said.
The Taliban accused Curry and Mercer with Muslim evangelism and often interrogated them. Both were told they were potentially executed if the case was heard. Both claim that they rely on their beliefs as punishment from their emotional suffering throughout the ordeal and write some praise songs. Curry marked his 30th birthday in prison on November 4 and was allowed to send letters to Antioch Community Church, published in the US. In it, he said, in part, "It's good to hear a lot of people praying, I hope they pray for this country with us."
All 24 SNI members were released by the Northern Alliance and US forces on Nov. 15 during the anti-Taliban insurgency. The night before their rescue, they were forced to sleep in steel containers when transferred to another prison, and, according to Georg Taubmann, a German prisoner, it was "very cold.... We did not have blankets, we froze the whole night." According to Mercer , "The people who came and saved us did a wonderful job - I do not think Hollywood can do it better." Curry and Mercer spent a total of 105 days in the Taliban prison.
A year after their rescue, Heather Mercer stated, "I will do it again because I know the wonderful goodness that has come out of the situation not just for us but for many Afghans." He added, "The Afghans are amazing, I wish every American can know an Afghan in their lives.They are the most friendly, resourceful, and kind people I have ever met.For all they suffer, they are the ones I think are some of the greatest lessons I have ever learned, even in the short time I am in Afghanistan, coming from poor Afghan people you have nothing, but giving everything, they find a way to overcome even the obstacles that most incredible. "Dayna Curry also expressed hope to return to Afghanistan to continue serving the Afghan people.
Maps Prisoners of Hope
White House Visit
Shortly after their rescue, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer were invited to the White House at that time by President George W. Bush. From that experience, they declared, "It is truly a privilege and honor to see the president, to be able to visit the Oval Office, and then be able to stand with him in the rose garden." Bush acknowledged to the public that he had spent much time worrying about the safety of aid workers, especially for Curry and Mercer. At a Rose Garden press conference honoring both, she stated:
Heather Mercer and Dana Curry decide to go help someone in need of help. Their faith brought them to Afghanistan. A woman who knows them best this way: They have a call to serve the poorest of the poor, and Afghanistan is where the callings take them. And Heather and Dana's faith in God supported them throughout their ordeal. It is a wonderful story about prayer, about faith that can support people in good times and in bad times. Their faith is a source of hope that keeps them from being discouraged. I spoke with them right after their release, their freedom, and I did not feel bitterness in their voices, no fatigue, just joy. It was an exhilarating experience for me to speak to this brave soul.
Next event
Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer made a number of national performances on television programs such as Larry King Live and Today Show encouraging others to become active in missions and foreign work aids. Mercer's mother, Deb Oddy, who opposed her daughter's decision to go to Afghanistan early on, began publicly to denounce the mission in the days after the release of prisoners. An interview by Oddy on NBC's Dateline caused a widespread misunderstanding that Curry and Mercer went to Kabul only to evangelize. They responded that it was not the case and then revealed that one of their main reasons for writing Prisoners of Hope was to allow the American public to have an accurate report on what had happened. In addition, all the profits from the sale of the book are aimed at helping the people of Afghanistan.
Heather Mercer founded Global Hope in 2008, a non-profit organization serving in Iraq. While working in Iraq, he married Mohanad, a Kurdish Christian from the region. Ten years after the release of Curry and Mercer, the last one was interviewed by Timothy C. Morgan from Christianity Today . During the interview, he reiterated that he did not regret his decision to go to Afghanistan and stated that everyone involved in the hostage crisis continued their work in humanitarian aid.
Response
Reviews
Reviews Publishers Weekly states that the divided perspective of books between Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry makes it difficult to follow but the story remains interesting. It concludes, "Particularly heartbreaking is the stories of all Afghan families that depend on women to support a life of salvation and that are suddenly cut off at the time of their arrest.Maybe the most powerful is the honesty with which Mercer discusses his spirituality. not a story of a hero greater than a life whose faith has never been lost in the face of persecution, the reader is left to glimpse into Mercer's real despair and the rift that it creates in the prisoner group, the real life of ordinary Americans and believers to make the pages change. "The reviews from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library are equally lucrative, calling the Prisoners of Hope" intriguing and intense "and the writers" brave ".
Documentary
A 2009 documentary entitled Kabul 24 detailing the imprisonment of aid workers, raids of SNI offices, the grim conditions of the detainees, the torture of 16 Afghan prisoners, and the ultimate rescue of hostages. This opening is narrated by Jim Caviezel, who portrays Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. In it, he said, "It is a rare person who is willing to make unqualified sacrifices that change the world... Eight anonymous people are suddenly pushed onto the world stage, players are reluctant in the struggle of life and death between good and evil."
References
Bibliography
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Dayna Curry; Heather Mercer; Stacy Mattingly (2003). Hope inmates . New York: WaterBrook Press. ISBN: 1578566460.
External links
- Prisoners of Hope website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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