Kayla Mueller, an American aid worker who was kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2013, was recently confirmed to have died while being held hostage by the militant group. A letter Mueller sent to her family in Arizona, which they released on Tuesday, revealed that during the year and a half of her captivity Mueller frequently turned to God and relied on her faith to give her strength.
“I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God,” Mueller wrote.
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In the year leading up to her kidnapping, Mueller traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border to work with the Danish Refugee Council and Support to Life, a human rights group that works with Syrian refugees. In her letter from captivity, Mueller urged her family to remain strong, saying, “The hope of our reunion is the source of my strength.”
“Please be patient, give your pain to God,” she wrote. “I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I + by God’s will we will be together soon.”
