Two Southern Baptist volunteers have been released from custody after being detained in the United Arab Emirates for distributing Christian materials.
Vivian Gilmer of Myrtle Beach S.C., and Marie Bush of Waxahachie, Texas, were nearing the end of a four-week mission trip with Tom Cox World Ministries when they were charged with illegal activity Feb. 19. The women were held in a Dubai police station for several hours and detained in the country until March 2.
Gilmer, a 72-year-old grandmother and member of First Baptist Church in Myrtle Beach, said she had distributed Christian materials as gifts to shopkeepers and fellow shoppers in the Arab nation's capital, Dubai.
“As we shopped, we made friends with shopkeepers and other shoppers, [and] we simply offered them a gift, which most accepted,” Gilmer said in a statement. “Later we were approached and questioned as to our activity. We were detained until the officials reviewed the situation and eventually cleared us to leave.”
Gilmer expressed thankfulness to everyone who prayed for her during her detention. She also commended the United Arab Emirates' government for its fairness and respect.
Gilmer and Bush, along with 11 of their fellow travelers, had completed a mission trip to India and decided to spend a week of vacation in Dubai, according to the statement from the Cox ministry. During an evening of shopping at the Dubai Shopping Festival, the women gave Bibles and CDs to people with whom they had interacted during the week.
Distributing Bibles “in itself, was not illegal,” said Kay Cox, one of the organizers of the trip. But authorities thought the distribution of CDs “violated their law of not distributing Bibles with other materials.”
Gilmer and Bush were released from police custody after several hours, but their passports were confiscated and they were instructed not to leave the country.
Based upon the counsel of officials at the U.S. embassy in Dubai, the rest of the group returned to the United States immediately. Gilmer and Bush stayed with a local pastor during the 12 days they were detained.
During their detention the women “were free to do anything in the country they wanted,” Cox told Baptist Press in an interview.
Baptist Press