Dead in Afghanistan: Rev. Bae Hyung-kyu (1965-2007)

Korean and other news sources are reporting that the Korean volunteer worker killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday was Bae Hyung-kyu, a pastor and co-founder of Saemmul Presbyterian Church. Rev. Bae was killed on his forty-second birthday.

A friend, Pastor Park Won-hi, recalled, "I still vividly remember Hyung-kyu saving a life by dissuading a young man from attempting suicide while he was doing volunteer work at a library.... As part of his nature, he liked helping others...and he just could not pass by without helping others in need."

Rev. Bae had been the leader of the group of 23 Koreans who traveled to Afghanistan to provide free medical care and were taken hostage by Taliban rebels. He left behind a wife and a nine-year-old daughter, as well as many grieving parishioners.

"When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. " -Revelation 6:9-11