Prisoners of Hope
Subtitle: The Story of our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan
By: Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer with Stacy Mattingly.
Contributors: Mercer, Heather.; Mattingly, Stacy.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Doubleday; WaterBrook Press
Published: December 16, 2003
Place of publication: New York; Colorado Springs, Colo
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780385507837; 9781578566457
Subjects: Curry, Dayna.; Mercer, Heather.; Christian biography -- Afghanistan.; Political prisoners -- Afghanistan -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: When Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer arrived in Afghanistan, they had come to help bring a better life and a little hope to some of the poorest and most oppressed people in the world. Within a few months, their lives were thrown into chaos as they became pawns in historic international events. They were arrested by the ruling Taliban government for teaching about Christianity to the people with whom they worked. In the middle of their trial, the events of September 11, 2001, led to the international war on terrorism, with the Taliban a primary target. While many feared Curry and Mercer could not survive in the midst of war, Americans nonetheless prayed for their safe return, and in November their prayers were answered.

In Prisoners of Hope, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer tell the story of their work in Afghanistan, their love for the people they served, their arrest, trial, and imprisonment by the Taliban, and their rescue by U.S. Special Forces. The heart of the book will discuss how two middle-class American women decided to leave the comforts of home in exchange for the opportunity to serve the disadvantaged, and how their faith motivated them and sustained them through the events that followed. Their story is a magnificent narrative of ordinary women caught in extraordinary circumstances as a result of their commitment to serve the poorest and most oppressed women and children in the world. This book will be inspiring to those who seek a purpose greater than themselves.
Table of contents: title: Prologue; label: part one
title: Kabul Town; label: one
title: The Road to Kabul; label: two
title: Behind the Veil; label: three
title: Hard Questions; label: four
title: Kabul Life; label: five
title: People We Knew; label: six
title: Life Interrupted; label: part two
title: Reform School; label: seven
title: In Taliban Hands; label: eight
title: Arrows by Day; label: nine
title: Reform School Universe; label: ten
title: Love and War in Reform School; label: eleven
title: The World Outside; label: twelve
title: On Parade; label: thirteen
title: Terror by Night; label: part three
title: War Games; label: fourteen
title: Out of the Frying Pan; label: fifteen
title: Proceedings; label: sixteen
title: Bombs, Birds, Cats, and Mice; label: seventeen
title: Day Sweats, Night Moves; label: part four
title: Aaazaad!; label: eighteen
title: Kabul Gereft; label: nineteen
title: A World Turned Upside Down; label: twenty
title: Miles to Go Before I Sleep; label: twenty-one
title: Arise; title: A Note to the Reader; title: Acknowledgements