MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED
By Margaret Hayes
Day One Publications. 249 pages. £7.99
ISBN 1 903087 32 5
A gripping but harrowing read, this book chronicles the experiences of Margaret Hayes, a missionary nurse caught up in the civil war in Congo shortly after independence in 1964. Headline news at the time, 40 years on these events have largely been forgotten. This book updates an earlier account and reminds us of the sufferings of both Western missionaries and African Christians in these turbulent times.
The story unfolds at a time when all semblance of social order broke down and Christian believers became a target of the rebel armies. Margaret's colleagues were massacred, and Congolese Christian friends killed, but she was taken prisoner by rebel armies. For months she was marched from one remote location to another, thinking each day could be her last. She tells of the fears and hardships she endured, the times that her faith was severely tested, but also how, as she prayed, the Lord enabled her to trust that she would one day be released.
