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Two US Missionaries Beaten to Death in Jamaica

CBN

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The family and friends of slain U.S. missionaries Randy Hentzel and Harold Nichols are remembering their love for the Lord and devotion to sharing the Gospel.

Jamaican police are still investigating their deaths. They found the severely beaten bodies of 48-year-old Hentzel and 53-year-old Nichols in a rural area of Jamaica on Saturday.

So far, authorities have made no arrests or comments about a possible motive.

Both men lived and worked in Jamaica with their families as full-time missionaries for a Pennsylvania-based missions organization called TEAMS for Medical Missions.

Ray Shive, former director of TEAMS, said the two were aware of ongoing violence in the country but had no reason to be especially fearful for their safety.

Their deaths, he said came as "a complete and utter surprise." Shive said Nichols was highly regarded and respected by the people of Jamaica.

"Harold was perhaps the most personable individual I've met. There was no one who was ever a stranger," Shive said. "Anywhere you went on the whole island he was well-known and well-loved."

Nichols and his wife had worked with TEAMS in Jamaica for the last 12 years, overseeing a ministry to children and working with short-term missions teams to build homes for impoverished people.

Hentzel and Nichols were killed on their way to check on the foundation of a house a short-term team planned to build next week.

Hentzel began working full-time with TEAMS in Jamaica six years ago.

"His heaviest burden was a Bible training ministry," Shive said.

Hentzel created and organized a Bible institute for pastors, which graduated its third class a few months ago. Shive said pastors would walk and bicycle for hours one night a week to attend the year-long weekly class.

Pastor Todd Stiles, lead pastor at First Family Church in Ankeny, Iowa, said Hentzel helped to found the church in 2004.

"He had an infectious love for the Lord and loved to start new things for the gospel's sake," Stiles said.

First Family Church later sent Hentzel and his family to Jamaica with TEAMS. The Caribbean island has long struggled with high violent crime rates. A country of about 2.7 million people, Jamaica has long been ranked among the most violent countries in the world.

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