When I was in my teens, which would have been the 1980's, I knew a couple in our hall that left to do missionary work in Columbia. They were doing a more, working where the need was great, then an actually missionary appointment from Bethel. In any case, they were going to be gone three months and spoke Spanish. They were traveling with four other couples and they were planning this for nearly a year. The congregation was excited for them, we even had a small going away get together to help get their trip off to a good start. They promised to write regularly and before long they were off. The thing is, in the area of Columbia they were going too, it was a drug-lord controlled region and they did not take well to people from the outside. The couple actually knew this, but figured that since they knew people down there, it would be okay and besides they had Jehovah on their side.
A month went by and at the Service Meeting we actually had announcements that mentioned their letters and it sounded wonderful, they were conducting Bible Studies and having all sorts of whacking adventures with getting stuck in the mud on mountain roads and other things. Then about the end of their second month, they went missing. Not just them, all the couples they were their with were gone too. It was on the local news and they just mentioned they were missionaries and nothing about the Witnesses. It seemed that the place they were staying in was raided in the middle of the night and they were all taken. No news was coming out and the Colombian government was basically saying, "we are doing the best we can," following up with thoughts that stressed that these people were their willingly despite warnings to not come.
Almost two years went by and finally some news from the area. It seemed that in a government crackdown they located some information on these people. It seems they were taken because the drug-lords felt they were there as a threat and not really missionaries. There had been some example of undercover agents trying this type of method in the regions and they figured this was another example of this. The men had all been beheaded and buried with their heads in one location and their bodies in another, to make identification harder. The woman had apparently been kept alive longer and raped repeatedly at the camps. They were basically treated like prostitutes and used and then killed and burned. The news did not settle well with the congregation, and as I look back now, I think it had shaken a few people's faith.
Yet I wonder, doesn't the the warning to stay away, and you defiance to do so, imply that you know this kind of stuff could happen and you accept that? I wonder, while these men watch one another beheaded and seeing their wives taken, did they think that Jehovah was their with them? As these woman lived on beaten and raped, did they have pleasure in knowing they would die with honor in Jehovah's eyes? I can not see this, and I can not see the logic in sacrificing your life in such a manner. If a country has problems and a country has made your religion illegal to preach, then going their anyway is no different then suicide. As much as I think of these people and feel sorrow for what they went through, I also feel disgust for their lack of logic that brought them to thinking this step was "okay!" and feel sick that they actually thought "Jehovah will protect me."
What a waste of life!