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To Live is Christ, to Die is Gain
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:20-21).
As a pilot, Martin Burnham cheated death more than a few times. On one occasion he was flying over Mindanao, the same general area in which he eventually was killed, when the engine of his plane began to misfire. He called his wife Gracia on the radio and said, “I’m turning around and going up as high as I can.” When the engine conked out, on a wing and a prayer, he descended, eagerly looking for the airfield. “He had just enough altitude,” relates his brother Doug, “to clear the fence at the end of the runway.” He made it home safely.
And who is Martin Burnham? His name has become a household word to millions of people around the world who prayed for his release from the hands of the Abu Sayyaf guerillas who kidnapped him and his wife Gracia on May 27, 2001. For thirteen months he and Gracia, both missionaries with New Tribes Mission, were held captive. You know the rest of the story. But what many struggle with is why God chose to answer prayer by taking him home to heaven instead of allowing his release—sparing not only Gracia but both of them. That’s not how millions prayed, right?
So, did God answer prayer His way, rather than ours? Martin seemed to feel that God was calling him home through this ordeal, whether you call it a premonition or the witness of God’s Spirit, which, on occasion, helps prepare His children for what lies ahead. In the final weeks of their captivity, Martin wrote personal, intimate letters to his three children, Jeff, 15, Mindy, 12, and Zach, 11. He told Gracia to give the letters to them when she got home.
A mutual friend, also a member of the same mission, says, “They started preparing themselves for whatever God would bring their way. I would not hesitate,” he said, “to say that Martin’s death was not a surprise to Gracia. I feel that he felt that he would not return and had prepared Gracia for that scenario.”
Why God chose to allow Gracia’s release but not his nor Deborah Yap’s is something we will never know or understand. Yap, who also was killed along with Martin, was a nurse who, on at least one occasion, could have escaped her captors. But she chose to stay behind because the Burnhams needed her help,
God’s foot soldiers don’t run or quit when the going gets tough. The Burnhams lived out what Paul wrote to the Philippians when he said, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:20-21).
Martin Burnham was in the Philippines for one reason and only one. He was on a mission—to make Christ known to those who didn’t know Him. If you had asked Martin, “Why are you a missionary when with your training as a pilot would allow you to earn many times more money and live more comfortably?” he probably would have answered simply, “Because people need the Lord.”
Martin Burnham was not only a martyr, one of many who laid down their lives for the cause of Christ, but also a hero, a man who lived his convictions and made a difference in our world.
Following the death of the five who were martyred by the Aucas in 1956, the numbers applying for missionary service increased drastically. May God raise up countless numbers of people who believe in the cause of Christ so strongly that, if necessary, they, too, would die for it.
Resource reading: Daniel 6.

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