Mike Hutchinson, Missionary in Peril? Contributed by Gerimy West, 12/15/99 |
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FW: Prayer Request and Health Warning
MIKE HUTCHINSON AND HIS FAMILY, IMB MISSIONARIES IN GUINEA-BISSAU, WEST AFRICA, NEEDS OUR PRAYERS. HIS CAR WAS SURROUNDED BY MUSLIMS AS HE AND HIS FAMILY DROVE HOME. AFTER PATIENTLY WAITING AND ASKING THEM TO MOVE, THEY FINALLY PULLED AWAY FROM HIS CAR. AS MIKE STARTED TO DRIVE AWAY, A 16 YEAR OLD MUSLIM JUMPED (OR WAS PUSHED) IN FRONT OF MIKE'S CAR AND WAS KILLED. THE MUSLIMS ARRESTED MIKE (TOOK HIS PASSPORT) AND ARE PLACING HIM ON TRIAL FOR MURDER. IF CONVICTED, HE WILL BE HANGED IMMEDIATELY. HIS WIFE, LYNN, AND HIS CHILDREN (12,10,9) ARE STAYING WITH ANOTHER MISSIONARY FAMILY. PLEASE PRAY FOR GOD's INTERVENTION. PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR CHURCH, PRAYER CHAIN, EMAIL LIST AND ANYONE ELSE YOU KNOW WHO WILL PRAY FOR THIS MISSIONARY |
Guide's note: It's unclear exactly how or why this story spun out of control, but it illustrates poignantly how untrustworthy Internet rumors can be. At last report, missionary Mike Hutchinson is alive, well and free, having returned to the United States to take up a ministry closer to home.
According to information supplied by the International Mission Board and the First Baptist Church of Long Beach, only one element of the rumor is true – Hutchinson was involved in an auto accident on April 30, 1999 in which a teenage boy was killed – but the rest is fantasy. Hutchinson's case was treated routinely and properly by local authorities, and he was never in danger of being lynched.
Hutchinson himself issued this statement in a newsletter dated November 1999:
Many of you have
heard of my car accident in Senegal. A young Senegalese boy
was killed in this accident. Lynn and I did all we could to get him
to medical help in time, but to no avail. We reported directly to
the police and began the legal process that takes place in
Senegal whenever such things happen. The police, and since
then, the people involved in their judicial system, have treated
me fairly and shown us every consideration. My travel was
tightly controlled for months, but, Jarama Bui, that has been
lifted. I still await a possible trial if the judge feels it is
necessary. Many of you have received false information that a
mob had gathered around us or that I was being hung. Neither
could be further from the truth.
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