Title: Minka & Margaret
Author: Phyllis Thompson
Major Themes: Missionaries, Nurses, Kidnapping
Synopsis: When two women missionaries were kidnapped in a rural Thai village in 1974, the church rallied to pray for their release—but where is faith when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect Him to?
Several weeks ago, I cleaned off a shelf I almost forgot I had and discovered a few books we borrowed from friends years ago, which I wanted to read but never quite got around to reading them. I started Minka & Margaret right away, and I was so sad I waited this long to read it! What an incredible, encouraging story.
Publisher’s description:
‘Two women missionaries kidnapped by bandits!’ ‘Welsh nurse and Dutch companion abducted in South Thailand!’
The news flashed around the world on April 23rd, 1974: Margaret Morgan and Minka Hanskamp, while attending to leprosy patients in a rural clinic in Thailand, had been captured at gunpoint by guerrillas.
Relatives and friends prayed for their release. Surely, after an agony of waiting, God would answer? But in March 1975, their bodies were found in the jungle.
Phyllis Thompson traces the very different lives of the two women—Margaret’s, unimpeded by major calamities; Minka’s, tumultuous and varied—and brings vividly to life the plight of leprosy patients in Thailand, with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship’s ministry among them. In this dramatic narrative, the reader will discover both a personal involvement and a challenge.
My thoughts:
When I was younger, this kind of book always scared me—I didn’t like even thinking about dying, let alone read a book about people who died. But as I’ve grown older and, perhaps, a bit more used to the idea, I’ve grown to appreciate the testimonies of people who were willing to put their lives on the line for Jesus’ sake.
Minka & Margaret is, in some sense, a very simple story—tracing the lives of these two women from their early years, sharing how they ended up on the Thai mission field, and eventually how they became a team, working together to relieve the sufferings of leprosy patients. But what struck me so profoundly was their faith. Not only does this book detail the highs of their lives as they walked with God, but it also shows some of their lows—and how they turned to God despite the adverse circumstances they found themselves in. I especially enjoyed the poetry Margaret wrote; that was both comforting and encouraging to me, as some of the things she walked through were highly relatable.
This is a short book, but well written. Phyllis Thompson does a great job going beyond just telling facts to make this an easy, gripping read. Even though I spread out my reading over a few weeks, I had a hard time putting it down every time I did manage to pick it up. If you’re looking for a story to strengthen, encourage, and enrich your faith, I’d highly recommend you look for a copy of Minka & Margaret to read. It’s a gem!
WARNING: Chapter 2: Mention of starving young women in an internment camp who “found a way of getting what they wanted. After all, the guards were men.…” Chapter 3: Mention of a man who was shot and killed. Chapter 7: Women kidnapped, with sacks pulled over their heads. Chapter 9: Brief description of how the women were killed (there is slightly more description in chapter 10).
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Ages 12 – 15, 15 and Above, Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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