A handwritten letter from Karen Watson to her pastors is proof the Southern
Baptist missions worker was resolved to obey God as he called her to follow
him past the comforts of home and into a faraway land where millions need to
know him.
A handwritten letter from Karen Watson to her pastors is proof the Southern
Baptist missions worker was resolved to obey God as he called her to follow
him past the comforts of home and into a faraway land where millions need to
know him.
The commitment eventually cost Watson, 38, her life. She was one of four humanitarian
aid workers who died in Iraq after their vehicle was ambushed March 15.
Larry and Jean Elliott of Cary, N.C., and David McDonnall of Rowlett, Texas,
also perished. McDonnalls wife, Carrie, was severely injured in the attack
and remains in stable condition at a hospital in Dallas.
“When God calls there are no regrets,” Watson wrote in a letter to
Phil Neighbors and Roger Spradlin, co-pastors of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield,
Calif., where she was a member since 1997.
The letter is dated March 7, 2003. It was written just before Watson left for
the Middle East and was meant to be opened only upon her death.
“I wasnt called to a place. I was called to him,” she wrote.
“To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, his glory my reward,
his glory my reward.”
Anticipating that her death could cause some to question whether humanitarian
efforts in Iraq should continue, Watson clearly said one of the most important
things is to “preserve the work.”
“Keep sending missionaries out,” she wrote in the letter.
“Keep raising up fine young pastors.”
In making a few requests for a funeral service, Watson said to keep it simple
and preach the gospel.
“Be bold and preach the life-saving, life-changing, forever-eternal GOSPEL,”
she wrote. “Give glory and honor to our Father.”
In the letter, Watson quoted “The Missionary Heart,” which says,
in part, “Risk more than some think is safe.”
She listed some of her favorite passages of Scripture, including 2 Corinthians
15:5, which says, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer
live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
Another was Romans 15:20, which says, “It has always been my ambition
to preach the gospel where Christ was not known.”
In closing, Watson wrote, “There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and
serving him.” (BP)