In her book, "In the Presence of My Enemies," Gracia reveals that Martin’s handcuffs had rusted out and actually didn’t work anymore. He could have escaped if he had wanted to, but he chose not to.
ROSE HILL, Kansas – From the very beginning, Martin and Gracia had been close. They were college sweethearts back at Bible college in Missouri. After marrying, they became missionaries and moved to the Philippines to serve with New Tribes Mission. Their family soon grew with the birth of their son Jeff. He was followed by daughter Mindy, and later, Zack.
Martin loved to fly and was the chief pilot for New Tribes. Gracia kept close tabs on Martin via radio as he flew to various mission sites. Life had been good, but after weeks of jungle captivity, dodging bullets and running for their lives, that life now seemed like a dream.
A video released in December of 2001 showed a skeletal-looking Martin and a distraught Gracia. Their captivity was clearly taking a heavy toll on their bodies and spirits.
"He would say that every once in a while," Gracia recalled. "He was the eternal optimist though, but yes, in April, there were some times like that, and he started writing stories to the children. And for him to do that was very unusual, because he was the one who always said, ‘We’re going to get out of here. I don’t know when, but I just think we’re going to get out of here.’"
Gracia said, although there were times that Martin would wonder if they would be rescued, "If you would ask him the next day, he would say, ‘I think we’re going to get out of here.’"
"Well, he couldn’t leave me, he chose to stay there for me... We would talk about, ‘Do you think we could escape? How far do you think we would get?’ And he would always say, ‘If we let this run its course and if somebody negotiates us out, we’re going to get to go home to our kids. If we bolt and run and it fails, we’re going to be dead.’"
"Martin gave the gospel at least once to everyone that spoke English, many times to the leaders, Sabaya, Silima. You know what though, those guys already knew the gospel. That wasn’t news to them. A couple of them could recite John 3:16, it wasn’t like they hadn’t heard the gospel before. They had made a choice."
"And you know, we’d been trained to hit the ground, but before I could even hit the ground I was wounded. And it was wet already because it had been raining, and I kind of slid down the hill, it was a very steep hill and I came to rest by Martin. And I looked over and he was bleeding from his chest, so I could tell he’d gotten shot in the chest. And I knew from experience that that was not good [crying]… and he just laid there, kind of like he was in a deep sleep, kind of like he was snoring, he was just kind of breathing heavy and all of a sudden he just got real heavy, and uh, I had never been around anyone that was dying, so I thought maybe he just passed out."
"I was doing my best to just look dead, because the last thing I wanted was for the Abu Sayyaf to leave Martin there and cart me off into the woods. And Martin had always taught me to keep my head in a gun battle, so I was just laying there trying to look dead, and he got just really heavy. I could feel the weight…"
Gracia was still unaware that Martin was really dead. But when the shooting stopped, Gracia could no longer hear the voices of her captors. She immediately heard members of the Philippine military speaking, and tried to get their attention.
"So I just very slowly started moving my hands around so they would know I was alive, but I wouldn’t scare them, I didn’t want to get shot. They saw me right away and they came down, and they couldn’t get a good grip on me because I was wet and it was muddy. So they started dragging me up the hill [emotional] and I looked back at Martin and he was white. That’s when I knew."
"We said that a lot. Muslims don’t show affection a whole lot, man and woman, so we just tried to be very careful about that. There were a few times that I just really felt like I needed Martin to touch me, you know to feel him touching me, so after the sun would go down, when no one could see, he would brush my hair. And I would just say every once in a while, ‘Do you think when everybody’s asleep you could brush my hair tonight?’"
When CBN News reporter Wendy Griffith commented, "I think a lot of people would be amazed to hear you say that," Gracia replied, "I’m amazed to hear myself say that."
Gracia dedicated her book to everyone who prayed. She explained, "Well, I think the prayers of God’s people got me home. I really do think that. God got me home, but I never get tired of saying ‘Thank you’ to the people that prayed for me."
"Well, the unreal thing for me was, I didn’t know any of those people, and they were doing that for me [crying]. But then to see people on both sides of the streets cheering and clapping, they didn’t know me from Adam, and I kept thinking, ‘Martin would love this. Martin would be so shocked that people care like this.’"
And people continued to care. Once back in Rose Hill, the community came together to build her and her three children a beautiful new home, complete with western-style furniture and a very special stained-glass window over the mantle — a reminder of her year without a Bible, and a God who remained faithful through it all.
"I think what Martin and I figured out was, maybe we were just there to bring some light into a dark place, or some praise into a dark place spiritually, you know, just being people that could praise the one true God in the middle of nowhere where no one else was doing it."