Missionary held hostage by Al-Qaeda for seven years says ‘God was all the time there’

A Christian missionary who was held captive by an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group has shared details of his ordeal, where he was kept in brutal conditions that saw him face extremes of warmth and cold, scorpions, and scurvy.

Incredibly, Dr Ken Elliott, who was 82 when taken hostage, can be forced to endure all this for seven years before he can be released. But, when asked how could an octogenarian possibly manage to survive all this, and for therefore long, he has an easy answer—God.

They served for a long time in medical missions within the West African country of Burkina Faso and were known for his or her dedication to making sure that each patient who got here through the door received the identical quality of treatment as everyone else, regardless of their faith or color, or what they may pay.

This earned them the respect of the Muslim majority making up their patients, and saw them accepted as belonging to their community, fairly than outsiders from the West attempting to impose their ideas. Hence, after they were kidnapped locals of each faiths were outraged. 

Jocelyn was released after a number of weeks, leaving Ken to bond together with his lone fellow hostage, Julian Ghergut, a Romanian.

“When I met him,” Ken told the news network, ABC, “he had been a captive for nine months. ‘How can anyone stand this for nine months?’ I asked myself. I ended up being there for seven years and 4 months.”

As well because the threat posed by his captors and the brutal desert conditions, Ken’s health deteriorated on account of the poor weight-reduction plan. With no source of Vitamin C, his legs began to swell, leaving him unable to walk and in constant pain.

“I’d only seen one case of [scurvy] in my medical profession and that was me,” Elliott told the UK’s Keswick Convention. 

Despite his pleas, his kidnappers said they did not have any supplements they may give him, and it was only when their leader returned to find Ken’s condition that he finally received enough tablets to revive his health.

His captors also made attempts to convert Ken to Islam over the course of his captivity, but Ken remained steadfast in his faith, and never let his long, lonely time within the desert cause him to lose hope.

“The Lord has been good to me. There’s no way I used to be going to dishonour Him by converting to Islam,” he told the ABC. “Or even pretending to convert.”

When asked by his interviewer whether he ever thought God had abandoned him, Ken’s response summed up exactly how been in a position to emerge from seven years of brutal conditions and isolation unbroken in spirit and together with his faith in God intact.

“Never. No. He was all the time there,” he said. 

There is uncertainty across the circumstances that led to his release in May 2023 and whether a deal was made, but Ken doesn’t see any mystery in any respect.

“We consider that the one reason why we were released,” he said, “was because there have been a number of tons of, if not hundreds of individuals praying for it. And we consider in prayer.”