Gracia Burnham

The author and her husband, along with a group of fellow tourists staying at a beach resort, were kidnapped by Muslim extremists active on an island in the Philippines during 2001, the year 9/11 happened. That group of Muslim extremists have very similar faith with Al Quaida and expressed admiration of bin Laden to the hostages. Most of the author's fellow hostages were released after their family paid ransom for them. The author and her husband belonged to a missionary group with a policy against paying ransom. The U.S. also had the policy not to pay ransom to terrorists for kidnapped citizens (which I personally think is the right thing to do. Paying ransom just encourages terrorists to kidnap more American citizens every time they want money. It puts more people at risk.) So the couple traveled with the terrorists in the island's woodlands hiding from military every day. They went through over a dozen gun raids by the Philippine military, until one raid finally shot the author's husband dead and the author wounded. Then they were abandoned by the terrorists and the author was rescued.

The author mostly wrote about their plight living with the terrorists, the fellow hostages she befriended, and how she and her husband encouraged one another in their Christian faith. She provided intricate details. You get to know all about what she did every week of her capture. She witnessed a lot of wrongful things, in the terrorists way of thinking and behavior, in the Philippine military and justice system, in the U.S.'s failure to help them..... She pointed them out, but was kind of resigned to them. She was also resigned to her husband's death. After her husband passed away, she didn't fall into a depressed or angry state, but focused on enjoying her children and putting the donations she received into a nonprofit that supported evangelizing Muslims and tribal people.… (meer)