Minka Hanskamp was born on August 31, 1922 in Holland (Netherlands). Her actual name was Hendrika Hermina Hanskamp ^[1] Her father was a school teacher. When Hanskamp was a few months old, her family relocated to Java, Indonesia as her father was appointed school principal for Chinese children at the invitation of the Dutch Reformed Church. She was the oldest child with five other siblings, namely Ann, Alice, Gerald, John and Peter.

In 1934, Hanskamp went back to Holland to complete her education. She stayed with relatives in the town of Arnhem. In December 1939, with the outbreak of World War II (WWII), she returned to Bandung in West Java to be with her parents. She was much happier studying at Bandung High School. During WWII, the Hanskamp family were separately interned by the Japanese occupation army in various camps in Bandung, Djakarta (now Jakarta) and Tjideng. For the next three and half years, life was difficult with frequent punishments and food shortages.

After the war ended, Hanskamp went back to Holland in 1946 and studied nursing in Amsterdam. In 1951, she qualified as a nurse and midwife. In 1956, she relocated to New Zealand, where her sister Alice had settled after getting married. With her exceptional nursing skills and sweet disposition, the six-foot tall, grey-haired Hanskamp was well received and accepted as a nurse. However, her calling was to be a missionary with the China Inland Mission (CIM).^[2] Although age was a problem, she proceeded to attend the New Zealand Bible Training Institute in Auckland. Subsequently, her application to join CIM was approved when the principal of her bible college wrote, “We would recommend Minka without reserve to represent Christ anywhere in the world.”^[3]

On April 20, 1958, she arrived at the CIM international headquarters in Singapore to do her language studies, majoring in Malay.^[4] Her natural linguistic ability and past experience in Indonesia went a long way to make her adept in this language. She was subsequently posted to a Malay kampung (village) in Pattani province in South Thailand and was very effective among the children, who loved listening to her Bible stories and singing Christian choruses. Her fluency in Malay was a big asset in her work. When the Saiburi Christian Hospital was ready in 1960, Hanskamp was posted there as a midwife. During the week, she would also work as a leprosy nurse in the surrounding areas, where the need was great. In 1967, she went on her second furlough.^[5]On her return, she was posted to the leprosy clinic in Pujud. Her labour of love brought relief and hope to many of the leprosy patients, who were social outcasts.

Gradually, her patience paid off when eight patients requested for baptism. It was a breakthrough wrought more through persistent kind works than the spoken word. The task was arduous but acts such as the frequent washing of a patient’s ulcerous feet, which were sometimes placed on the nurse’s lap, had melted hardened souls and made a lasting impact. 

In 1973, she and Margaret Morgan, a nurse from Wales, moved into a little house in Pattani which was conveniently located between their two clinics at Pujud and Palas. Sometimes, their work would also require them to travel deep into rural places to isolated villages. This was risky business as kidnappings and killings had occurred frequently around this troubled area. Moreover, conflict and fighting between the police and separatists had intensified.

On April 23, 1974, when Hanskamp and Morgan had just arrived at the Pujud clinic in the morning, three men bundled them into a dark green Mazda taxi at gunpoint on the pretext of taking them to see some patients. The initial impression was that the nurses had been taken only temporarily into the jungle to attend to some wounded separatists and would soon be released. It was Hanskamp’s 16th anniversary at OMF.

After a week, two letters were received from the kidnappers. One was from the nurses telling OMF that they had both been taken by the “jungle people” and were safe. The second letter demanded a ransom of 10 million baht (around £200,000 then) and an official letter from OMF protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinian rights. Neither demand could be met. Paying a ransom would have been equivalent to putting a price on the head of every missionary, thus jeopardising the entire Fellowship. Making a stand on international politics was also outside the realm of OMF’s work. Nonetheless, the kidnapping of these two missionaries garnered much local and international news and attention. Christians around the world held prayer vigils. 

On May 1, letters from the two missionaries to their mothers, dated April 27, 1974, were received. Both informed their parents about the kidnapping and their captors’ demand for their respective governments to take immediate and appropriate action. 

On May 24, another letter from Hanskamp and Morgan dated May 18 was received by OMF requesting for a quick decision on the demands of their captors in order to secure their release. Their captors were identified as guerillas from Pattani. Four days later, a meeting in the jungle was arranged by a Thai official between OMF representative Ian Murray and the guerilla chief. During the unsuccessful negotiations, it transpired that the real mastermind was a very wealthy and inaccessible man living in exile.^[6]

As the demands for ransom and political involvement could not be met by OMF, the situation deteriorated as the months passed. The last letter written by the kidnapped missionaries was dated August 14, stating that their situation remained the same except for the frequent changes in their jungle location. It also contained messages to their families and friends. They requested for books and magazines as they had nothing to do all day. Then came silence as communication stopped.

On March 20, 1975, OMF received news that two skeletons had been discovered in the hills five miles south of Yala town, which is at the border of Yala province and Pattani. Forensic experts confirmed that the skeletons were those of Hanskamp and Morgan from evidence like clothing, hair and dentures. Both had been shot in the back of their heads five or six months earlier.^[7]

Early in the same month, a man belonging to one of the separatist bands who had surrendered to the police in December 1974 admitted that it was his friend who had shot both the missionaries under the order of his leader. This incident happened in September 1974. Both missionaries were calm before being killed, saying, “All right! Will you let us have a little time to read and pray?”^[8]

On May 15, 1975, a funeral service attended by hundreds of people – not just Christians but also Buddhists and Muslims – was held in Pattani. A Thai by the name of Pok Su gave a moving testimony about Hanskamp: “It was when I saw my filthy, ulcerated foot held gently in her loving hands that I began to understand something of the love of God in sending Jesus Christ to die for me.”^[9]