Missionary reflects on her experience as captive of terror group in Philippines

Gracia Burnham, author of "In the Presence of My Enemies," was kidnapped, along with her husband Martin, by a jihadist group in the Philippines 15 years ago. She now travels regularly to share what she has learned while she under the captivity of the terror group, the Abu Sayyaf.

Gracia and Martin were kept hostage for a year and the rescue attempt conducted by the Philippine army led to Martin's death. Gracia said that The Voice of the Martyrs, USA, was one of the first to reach out to her after the event so she now follows many of the organization's conventions across the nation.

In an interview with Mission Network News, she revealed that she has learned more about herself during her captivity.

"In my case, what I learned was who I am. I think if you were to ask my children, they would say a different mother came out of the jungle than went in. I was always a real black-and-white person," she recalled.

"Then all of a sudden the bottom dropped out from me, and I saw myself at my lowest and I saw my sin and my hatred for those guys [our captors], and it was shocking. So when I saw myself for what I really was, then I learned God's grace in a whole new way," she recalled.

Gracia discovered that she was not the only one who learned about the grace of God. She said she has found that four of her captors, who are currently in a maximum security prison in Manila, have come to know Jesus as their Savior.

She now prays for other missionaries, who are working in more volatile mission fields, to have their basic needs met and for them to be encouraged that God is with them.

Gracia still receives news about her captors from the FBI. Sometimes, her Facebook followers share news about the terror group on her Facebook page.

Despite her experience, her son and daughter answered God's calling to be missionaries. Her son, Jeff, served as a missionary pilot in Botswana while her daughter, Mindy, spent eight months on a mission trip to Bolivia.