In October 2007, we awarded our trivial Messianic Peace Prize to a couple working in Mauritania. I say that our prize is trivial because there is no real prize other than acknowledgement. But our winners are not trivial. And what I'm about to share is certainly not trivial.
On Wednesday of this week, June 24, I called BJ to see if he wanted to have coffee. He shared some sad news and, because we couldn't talk long, he asked me to check my email. I found that Wesley had sent an email a couple of hours before prefaced by the following: "And Stephen said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'" And then he continued by sharing the terrible news that our friend, Chris Leggett, who was the "tentmaker" in Mauritania that we acknowledged here in 2007 had been killed on Tuesday. He attached two links.
I've held off on posting until it was confirmed that his family was safe. And, based on a follow-up email from Wesley, Chris's family is safely back in the States after leaving hastily under armed bodyguards.
Since the initial communication, more information has come to light. Chris was just feet from his computer and language school he managed in Mauritania's capital city of Nouakchott when two or three men approached him in order to kidnap him. When he resisted, the men shot him three times and escaped. According to the SITE Intelligence website, Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for the murder of Chris who they accused of engaging in evangelism activities.
I was blessed to have known Chris and to have met his family. Our last meeting was just months ago when he spoke at a gathering. Afterwards, we had lunch together. I recognized in his presentation that there was a significant threat to him and his family and asked how he could be so bold as to continue to teach. He simply replied that he was needed there, he knew the dangers and asked us to pray for the other tentmakers in Mauritania.
I hope you can respect that I am carefully guarding my wording, but there are still four or five families who are in danger in Mauritania -- brave men and women who care for the culture they are hoping to impact. Please hold them up in prayer. Satan has a stranglehold in that region and the culture is in desperate need of salvation.
And please pray for Chris's wife and four children. Pray that they will be comforted. Pray that they will not harbor hate in their hearts. Pray that they will be encouraged. Their husband and father was a hero.
Update: World Magazine's blog has picked up the story.
Update 2: "They can't take my life because I've already given it to Jesus." -Chris Leggett. In loving memory.