Physician Martha Myers' life 'exemplified' Jesus Christ

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (BP)-More than 1,200 people celebrated the life of physician Martha Myers, an Alabama Baptist who devoted her career to Southern Baptist medical work in Yemen, during a Jan. 4 memorial service at Dalraida Baptist Church in Montgomery.

Throughout the celebration, Myers' selfless ways and servant mindset surfaced again and again.

"Martha was a victorious Christian and was obedient until death," said Rick Evans, pastor of Dalraida, Myers' home church.

Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, told Florida Baptist Witness in a later interview he also remembers Myers as a "very, very," committed Christian witness."

Vines, who was pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala. in the 1970's said Myers taught Sunday School for his daughter's eighth grade class and was appointed to Yemen by the IMB when she was a member of that church.

Calling her death a "tragedy," Vines said he believes "the result in Yemen will be that many of the people there will come to know Christ as Savior, and that's why she was there."

Evans also recognized Myers' strong witness. Likening Myers' faith and service to that of the Bible's descriptions of the apostle Paul and the deacon Stephen, Evans quoted Philippians 1:21: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," and 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

"All three stayed on God's course," Evans said. "[Staying on course in God's will] is not easy because it is a life of self-denial, but they never denied his will.

"What a misguided, deprived heart meant for evil, God has meant for good," Evans said.

Myers, a 57-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist, served as a Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) medical worker in Yemen for 24 years. She was murdered Dec. 30 when a lone gunman attacked the Baptist hospital in Jibla, Yemen.

"[Martha] was always obedient to the call of God," Evans said, "even as a GA [Girls in Action member] and as a medical student."

Evans read a poem written by a schoolmate of Myers. Playing off the words from the song "We've a Story to Tell the Nations," the friend wrote, "We sang, she went. We sang, she told."

"Because of her ministry and her obedience, there was a difference made," Evans said.

Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board, told friends and family members at the memorial service that he witnessed Myers' call to God and selfless service during his visits to Yemen.

"Only those who saw her take a sick Arab child in her arms could understand what a servant is," Rankin said. "Each day she lived there, ... she died to self.

"Martha's colleagues said the gunmen did not take her life," Rankin noted. "She lost her life to Jesus Christ years ago when she trusted him.

During a Jan. 2 memorial service at Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, church member Lynette Granade said, "She was our Baptist version of Mother Teresa - that says it all."

The 250-plus people in attendance at the Mobile memorial service heard several testimonies about Myers including remarks from Jim Fisher, first vice chairman of the board of trustees for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. where Myers studied before leaving for Yemen in 1978. Fisher, pastor of Sage Avenue Baptist Church in Mobile, represented MBTS president Phil Roberts. Myers was a 1967 graduate of Samford University, majoring in biology. She earned the doctor of medicine degree from the Medical College of Alabama at the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1971.

It was while in Mobile as a medical resident that Myers first visited Yemen and fell in love with the people and the country.

"Yemen was where her heart was," said Myers' younger sister, Joanna Kingery, in an interview following the shooting. "She had become Yemeni, and they counted her as one of them. She was committed to them."

So, Kingery and the entire Myers family see it only fitting that she was buried on the hospital grounds in the country she loved so dearly.

"In Alabama, Martha's grave would just be a grave," her father, Ira Myers, said. "In Yemen, her grave is a testimony."

During the funeral 40,000 Yemeni nationals gathered at the hospital and lined the street for a half-mile outside the hospital gates to pay their respects.

And in a country where professing faith in Jesus Christ could result in death, mourners sang "He Is Lord" in Arabic and recited the Lord's Prayer.

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For related coverage, see Missionary Martyrs Archive