(CP) Beau Shroyer, a pastor and former police officer from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, who began working with his wife Jackie, and five children as missionaries in Lubango, Angola, for SIM USA, was "killed while serving Jesus" last Friday, months after his family raised concern at a local church about ongoing security issues they had at the mission. He was 44.
"On Friday, October 25, I received a phone call informing me that Beau Shroyer was killed while serving Jesus in Angola and is now with his Savior," Randy Fairman, president of SIM USA, said in a statement released Saturday on the former pastor's death.
SIM USA is part of a longtime global missionary organization that focuses on doing missionary work in places where it's difficult to share the Gospel.
The organization did not immediately have any additional updates to provide about Shroyer's murder when contacted by The Christian Post on Tuesday but said in their statement on Saturday that Fairman was on his way to Lubango, which is Angola's second biggest city by population.
"Beau and Jackie Shroyer, together with their five children, were some of the first missionaries to begin service with SIM USA after the COVID lockdowns eased. They have brought a faithful, energetic, growing, loving aroma of Christ into our family," Fairman said in his statement.
He continued: "From our perspective and the perspective of Jackie and the kids, we now must trust Jesus in a season that we never imagined. We must trust Him without requiring Him to give us an understanding of why He allowed this. It is difficult and stretches our faith. I have not yet spoken to Jackie, and many details are still unknown."
Troy Easton, lead pastor of Lakes Area Vineyard Church where Beau Shroyer and his family are longtime members and had last visited only three months ago, said while the circumstances around the missionary's death remains complicated, he confirmed he was "killed in an act of violence."
"Yesterday, Friday, October 25, we were notified by Mark Bosscher, the Chief Personnel Officer & General Counsel of SIM-USA, that our dear brother and friend Beau Shroyer was killed in an act of violence while serving Jesus in Angola, Africa," he told congregants Saturday.
He said the church had been in contact with the pastor's wife and she and the children were safe and being cared for.
In a presentation on their missionary work in Lubango to Country Faith Church in June, Jackie Shroyer revealed that she and her family moved to Angola about three years ago. It was their first time as a family living overseas and their first time working as missionaries.
She explained that in their first year in the city, they focused on learning Portuguese and the culture and constantly battled malaria and security issues.
"We battled many other sicknesses. We had a lot of security issues. Mistrust with guards. We went through so many guards and we had several break-ins in our home during the night while we were at home sleeping," Jackie Shroyer said.
"On top of everything else, trying to figure out how to live in this culture, we had so many changes, so many difficult experiences that caused a lot of fear and trauma," she added.
Jackie Shroyer said at points it made them question what they were doing in Lubango, but they held on to their faith and continued to serve out their first term as missionaries.
"It's really encouraging that now that we're here, we completed that first term. We went to our organization headquarters and did our debriefing and all seven of us can say with certainty we cannot wait to go back and continue working," she said. "There's not one doubt in any seven of our minds that this is where we're supposed to be and just so excited to get back and continue our work."
Beau Shroyer would later explain during the presentation that the government of Angola had given the ministry a parcel of land next to an orange farm that was constantly under attack from criminals which affected the property they were trying to develop.
At the top of a list of needs for the property he presented to Country Faith Church, was the need to build a perimeter wall and hire more security.
The late pastor said the orange farm next to the property of the youth ministry installed an electrified, 10-foot high razor wire fence and hired about 50 guards to protect the farm day and night but they still struggled with crime in an area where hunger is considered a big problem.
"These guys are here day and night guarding against thieves who will come in to steal the oranges to sell," Beau Shroyer said. "It's so bad, actually, that they are shooting at people, and about a week before we came [to the U.S.], ... one of the thieves was shot and killed in a machete fight. So it's desperation like Jackie was saying. They're so hungry that they're risking their lives to get a stack of oranges."
The most recent travel advisory on Angola issued by the U.S. State Department in September, just a month after the Shroyer family returned to Angola, ranks the southern African nation at a Level 2.
"Violent crime, such as armed robbery, assault, carjacking, and homicide, is common," the State Department warns. "Local police lack the resources to respond effectively to serious criminal incidents."
