A great talk at the University of Winchester last night by Terry Waite. Terry was in Winchester for a dual purpose for the day, opening a new housing project with Emmaus during the day, and giving an interesting lecture in the evening to a packed-out audience.
Highlights
I wasn’t taking notes, so this is simply a brief summary of the 4 things that really struck a chord which have remained in mind overnight:
- In hostage negotiation, Terry Waite would be looking to meet up with the captors, THEN forge a relationship.
- Waite is very much AGAINST paying money to captors, as he feels this simply encourages further hostage taking, as evidenced since the advent of ‘hostage insurance’.
- Waite maintained a mantra for his days in captivity “No regrets, no reminiscences, no self-pity”, something which we can all learn from!
- When asked if his relationship with God had changed over his time in captivity, the answer was “No, God is not an insurance policy”, and at all times Waite had gone into the hostage negotiations aware that he could be captured. (The Christian in me says “yes”, the academic in me says “Discuss” – the two are not incompatible!)
