Waco pastor Jimmy Seibert was in the international spotlight in 2001 when two missionaries from his church were arrested and held in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

Afghanistan brought heartache again Saturday, when the Antioch Community Church leader learned a friend was among those slain by the Taliban while on a medical mission.

Ten members of the Christian medical team — six Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton — were gunned down in a gruesome slaughter that the Taliban said they carried out because the volunteers were spying and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Tom Little led a Christian medical team from International Assistance Mission, a nonprofit organization.
Tom Lapoint, Albany Times Union/AP photo

Tom Little, an optometrist from New York, led the team from International Assistance Mission, a nonprofit Christian organization.

“Tom Little was a man who gave his life to the Afghan people out of his love for God,” Seibert said. “He literally did whatever it took to serve the people of Afghanistan. He met the practical needs of people’s lives. Every one of those people who died should be honored.”

Team members — doctors, nurses and logistics personnel — were attacked as they were returning to Kabul after their two-week mission in the remote Parun valley of Nuristan province about 160 miles north of Kabul.

They decided to veer northward into Badakhshan province because they thought that would be the safest route back to Kabul, said Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, which organized the team.

Seibert met Little when Antioch first sent missionaries to Afghanistan in the early 1990s through International Assistance Mission. The doctor served in Afghanistan for 30 years, raising his family there.

“We’re sad for friends like the Littles, but we know they would want us to continue serving the country,” he said.

Antioch missionaries work with several groups, not including IAM, in Central Asia and the Middle East, he said.

“When something like this happens, it always brings a sobriety to the work our people do around the world,” said Seibert, who knows well the risk to missionaries overseas.

Taliban members arrested two members of his church on Aug. 3, 2001.

Baylor graduates Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry were detained on charges of preaching Christianity in a strict Islamic nation.

The pair, who worked for the German-based aid group Shelter Now International, were held for 104 days along with six foreign aid workers.

They were arrested before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, before the U.S. began its bombing campaign in Afghanistan. They were freed by anti-Taliban tribesmen and ferried out of the country by U.S. Special Forces.

At the time of their arrests, Mercer was 24 and Curry was 29. They released a music CD and book after their return to the United States. About 4,000 people welcomed the pair when they returned for a visit to Antioch in December 2001.

Both continue to do mission work — one in the Middle East and the other in an Arabic-speaking country, Seibert said Saturday, declining to disclose specifics.

cquackenbush@wacotrib.com

757-5745

The Associated Press contributed to this report.