Since last Thursday two U.S missionaries Warren and Donna Pett, from the state of Wisconsin were killed. Their mission group Africa Inland Mission (AIM) has been experiencing a tragic time.

The two missionaries were a couple and had worked with AIM since 1997. "They had served together in Nairobi for about four years until our family came back to the States. They were very good servants of the Lord, great folks who loved the Lord and loved people," mission representative of AIM, Paul Gazan testifies.

Actually, before the Petts set off for the mission in Uganda, Warren Petts said so in the prayer letter, "Donna and I do not necessarily know the road ahead of us, but we take comfort in the one who made it and who is in control of that road."

Gazan says those who knew the couple are comforted by God's promises. "I know that the Petts are with the Lord Jesus right now, and that is a comfort to us," he says, "and we know that we have a hope in the resurrection of Christ, so we hang on to that and that helps us through. God's grace truly is sufficient."

The Petts had lived and taught at the Esther Evangelical School of Technology for the past year. They were shot to death when men in military fatigues armed with AK-47 rifles attacked the Here Is Life Mission College in Yumbe district, about 700 km (420 miles) from the capital Kampala.

Although a clear motive for the shooting has not yet been determined, the police noted that there was local opposition to Christian schools in the predominantly Muslim region.

AIM is continuously relying on prayer, God's strength, and His grace to see them through this time. The American couple's bodies have been flown back to the U.S. for burial, and a funeral service is scheduled for Saturday at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

AIM was founded in 1895, and has been dedicated in serving the people of Africa. AIM began work in Uganda in 1918.