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Memoir and biography · book
In the Presence of My Enemies
- Publisher
- Tyndale House Publishers
- Year
- 2003
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 307
- ISBN
- 9780842381383
- Availability
- In print
Still in print: the link goes to a shop that sells it.
About the book
A year as a hostage of the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Basilan, by the American missionary whose husband was killed in the rescue that freed her.
Gracia Burnham and her husband Martin, a missionary pilot, worked in the Philippines with New Tribes Mission. In this memoir, written with Dean Merrill, she tells of the year and 11 days they were held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippine jungle, together with other captives. The book also covers their courtship, marriage and mission work before the kidnapping.
It ends with a failed rescue attempt in which army fire killed Martin and Ediborah Yap, a nurse who was the other remaining hostage. Gracia was shot in the leg and survived. Publishers Weekly called the memoir honest and unaffected. It said she describes the captors' beheadings of hostages and forced "marriages" without dramatising them, writes frankly about her own faith at its highs and lows, and shows respect for people of other faiths. She wrote the book in part to keep her husband's legacy of faith alive. A later paperback edition adds a chapter on what came after.
Memoir and biographyWar and conflict
Cover from Open Library, shown to identify the book; its rights stay with the publisher.
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