DATE=12/31/02

TYPE=INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

TITLE=JERRY RANKIN

NUMBER=3-468

BYLINE=TOM CROSBY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

/// EDITORS: THIS INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE IN DALET UNDER SOD/ENGLISH NEWS NOW INTERVIEWS IN THE FOLDER FOR TODAY OR YESTERDAY ///

HOST: As we have been reporting...three American missionaries were killed when a gunman invaded a hospital in Yemen where they were working. The victims were a doctor and two others who helped run the hospital. The gunman is in custody. Jerry Rankin is the president of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board and he says their effort to provide humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people will not be stopped because of this attack. And he told News Now's Tom Crosby support for that effort swelled rapidly following news of the deaths:

MR. RANKIN: The support and the sympathy that it has elicited from all over the world has just been so encouraging and such a blessing to us.

MR. CROSBY: What can be done at this point to protect the workers who are in such places as Yemen? Do you plan to provide extra security for them or just simply let things go as they are?

MR. RANKIN: I think it is probably an illusion to think that you can provide a fail-safe type of security system in places like Yemen and in the Middle East, and many places where our personnel serve around the world. We have 5,487 personnel in 184 countries, and certainly they go recognizing their vulnerability. They are given training in security risk and these types of things and take the necessary precautions, but there is a limit to what you can prepare against.

For example, when just a lone gunman gains access to your facilities and with evil intent such as this. And our people recognize that. In our serving the people of Yemen, the government has provided the security there, and we have been very confident in that. They have been very cooperative, and we just have to take that step of faith in trusting these things to the Lord.

MR. CROSBY: What will happen next as regards the three victims?

MR. RANKIN: Of course, we are working with the families now and seeking to minister to them. We do anticipate continuing our ministry in Yemen. As long as there are needy people, we would not want to think of ourselves and deny them the kinds of health care and ministry and service that is so desperately needed. And our people are very committed to that. So, we would anticipate our continuing to work with the government and possibilities for a continuing ministry. We would anticipate our people are very committed to that and in fact believe that this tragedy may serve to even endear us to the Yemeni people.

MR. CROSBY: You were mentioning the families of the people who were killed. Are they in Yemen or are they here in the United States?

MR. RANKIN: The administrator, his wife was there in Yemen. Their grown children were in the States. The parents and siblings and family of the others were in the States.

MR. CROSBY: What can be done to help them at this point?

MR. RANKIN: We have counselors and member care people working with them. We have been in communication with their churches and with their pastor. Our regional office that represents our work in Yemen has been in contact with them. So, we will maintain very close contact. We will work with them to repatriate the bodies, if that is their desire, and certainly ministering through memorial services.

MR. CROSBY: Such danger and such tragedies are not new to missionaries, though, are they? Because we have seen that in Colombia, Panama, and places like that as well.

MR. RANKIN: Certainly. It is nothing unique to this part of the world, though that is certainly the profile that we see in our newscasts and in our press. But our last tragedy in which a missionary was murdered occurred in Colombia. Prior to that was in the Dominican Republic. So, there is danger all over the world.

HOST: Doctor Jerry Rankin, the president of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, speaking from his office in Richmond, Virginia. American Baptist missionaries established the hospital at Jibla 35 years ago and were preparing to transfer control over it to a Yemeni charity. Doctor Rankin says after the news of the killings at the hospital broke...the mission board began receiving numbers of calls from people volunteering to take their place.

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