The mistaken killing of a missionary and her daughter in Peru underscores the serious peril that many face.
Believers say that fearlessness is the essence of their calling.
He's smuggled Bibles into China, Laos and Iran. He's been detained and interrogated by machine gun-toting soldiers of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Matt Thompson is just 23, and looks every bit the college student he is in flaps and a faded T-shirt. A year ago, an Australian missionary was burned alive with his two sons by a Hindu mob. The Southern Baptist Convention, whose 4,865 missionaries in 153 countries make up the nation's largest evangelical mission force, says it has lost 53 workers to violence since entering the field in 1845.