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Missing, Believed KilledFaithful GodMISSING, BELIEVED KILLED 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. Although primarily Margaret's personal story, other facets also catch the reader's attention, such as the risks taken by some African Christians to contact her, and the understanding that grew between Margaret and the Belgian nuns with whom she was imprisoned towards the end of her captivity. The final chapters, added in this edition, tell of Margaret's return to Congo. Following emotional reunions with her African friends she spent several exhausting but rewarding years, helping to re-equip the hospitals, clinics and other mission facilities which had been wrecked in the period of civil war, finally retiring in 1997. The focus throughout is on God's faithfulness to His people, but Margaret's living faith and devotion to serving her Lord also shine through. Miriam Sampson,
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