wfn.org | Former Taliban prisoner thanks church for prayers

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 6, 2002 News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
10-21-71B{085}

By Kathleen LaCamera*

TIMPERLEY, England (UMNS) - For more than three months, German aid worker
Silke Durkotts endured scorpions, cramped prison cells, the possibility of
execution and even danger from American bombs during her captivity in
Afghanistan by Taliban forces.

But Durkotts, along with three fellow Germans, two Americans and two
Australians working with the Christian charity, Shelter Now International,
said, "We could sense that people all over the world were on their knees
(praying) for us."
	
In early March, she traveled to the north of England to tell her story and
to personally thank the congregation of Timperley Methodist Church for its
support and prayers during the long months of captivity. 
	
"We are thankful for all the prayers on our behalf," she told a packed room
of church members and supporters. "That's why we're alive now."
	
The eight aid workers were thrust into the international media spotlight
last August when Taliban officials from Afghanistan's Ministry of Vice and
Virtue arrested Shelter Now staff on charges of proselytising - a charge
that carried the death penalty. The two Americans, Dayna Curry and Heather
Mercer, were the first staff arrested. Durkotts, other western staff and 16
of Shelter Now's local Afghan workers were taken into custody shortly
afterward.
	
Back in England, Sandra Daubert saw the first television news stories
reporting the Taliban's arrests of eight aid workers. 

"I knew immediately it was her," said Daubert, who became friends with
Durkotts five years ago while living in Germany. She called her daughter,
still living in Germany, who confirmed her worst suspicions. "We just
started praying immediately."
	
Not only did Daubert begin praying for her friend, but she contacted
Timperley Methodist Church and its pastor, the Rev. Bruce Thompson, and
asked for their prayers. "Bruce was so enthusiastic for the church to pray
for Silke, even though they didn't know her," she recalled.
 
For the rest of August, through the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and on
through mid-November, Timperley members prayed specifically for Durkotts and
her colleagues to be released unharmed.

"Because one of our members had a personal link to this story, it was easier
for our church to focus on it," Thompson said. "It was also a way of
supporting those in our congregation who were hurting."
 
When Durkotts and the other aid workers were dramatically freed in what can
only be described as a "Hollywood-esque" helicopter rescue by U.S. commandos
on Nov. 15, the Timperley congregation was ecstatic. 

Thompson broke the news to the worshippers at a regular Thursday morning
service. "I said I had good news to share," he recalled. "'Silke and her
colleagues were released today.'

"You could visibly see the joy on the people's faces that they hadn't been
killed or taken to Kandahar to be used as human shields. ... There was great
joy!"

Only after Durkotts returned to Germany was she able to send thanks, through
her friend Sandra, to those in Timperley who had sustained her with their
prayers. Thompson then put forward the idea of inviting her to Timperley to
tell her story. Durkotts accepted, a member of the church underwrote her
trip, and the congregation was able to hear her tell a story that many
admitted overwhelmed and touched them.
    
On the evening of March 2, Durkotts repeatedly spoke about the miracles from
God that brought her safely home, including the fact that her rescuers with
the U.S. Special Forces didn't find the aid workers until literally
stumbling across them in a metal container in the town of Ghazni. "We are
incredibly grateful to the Americans who risked their lives to get us out,"
she said.

Durkotts, who asked for continuing prayers for the people of Afghanistan, is
planning to return. She said she feels she has not yet finished the work
with Shelter Now that she was called to do, even though she knows it could
still be dangerous.

She first witnessed the challenges facing the people of Pakistan and
Afghanistan in 1997. Visiting a vast refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan,
near the Afghan border, she saw people literally "sit down and watch their
children die."
	
She particularly remembered one small girl in the camp who followed her
around. She wore a small picture of the Mona Lisa around her neck. Through
an interpreter, Durkotts said she told the little girl that she had seen the
original Mona Lisa in a museum in Italy and then asked her why she was
wearing it. The little girl responded, "It is a picture of my mother. She
died when I was very young."

Before their arrest, Shelter Now staff had helped distribute food from the
United Nation's World Food Programme and built mud houses for some of the
hundreds of thousands of refugees in and around Afghanistan. One of
Durkotts' main areas of responsibility was working with poor Afghan
children.

Even though the charity's workers faced charges of proselytizing, Durkotts
told Timperley Methodist members that Shelter Now staff witnessed by
example, keeping their personal beliefs separate from their humanitarian aid
work. "Otherwise people will change their beliefs because they need
something from you," she explained.

The aid workers talked about their faith only after being asked about it by
a local Afghan family, whom they knew well. This exchange, she said, was the
basis for their arrests.  

The people of Timperley Methodist Church were moved by Durkotts and her
story, according to Thompson. "She was engaging in humanitarian relief and
paying the price for entering a hostile territory. She herself had developed
great sensitivity to people of a different perspective. She hadn't just
talked about it, but done it. She's not playing at her faith." 

While Durkotts' return to Afghanistan is risky, Daubert said she doesn't
worry about her friend. "Silke's faith is so strong. Even if she dies, I
don't worry about her. She's walking in God's will, and it's a safe place to
be."

# # #

*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England.	 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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