Security issues worried Shroyer family in Angola – Detroit Lakes Tribune

DETROIT LAKES – There are no plans yet for a local funeral or memorial service for pastor and former Detroit Lakes police officer Beau Shroyer, 44, who was killed while doing missionary work in the African country of Angola.

Shroyer served with his wife, Jackie, and their five children as missionaries in Lubango, Angola, for SIM USA, a Christian organization that does missionary work in places where it can be difficult to spread the gospel.

The Shroyer family is a longtime member of Lakes Area Vineyard Church in Detroit Lakes, where they attended just a few months ago, and Pastor Troy Easton said in a brief interview that the church has been in contact with Jackie Shroyer and her and her five children are safe and supported.

He said things are still pending and the details of the funeral service have not yet been finalized, but the church will post updates on its website.

“Yesterday, Friday, October 25th, we were informed by Mark Bosscher, SIM-USA’s Chief Personnel Officer and General Counsel, that our dear brother and friend Beau Shroyer was killed in an act of violence while offering Jesus in Angola , Africa, served. Easton told community members on Oct. 26.

“On Friday, October 25, I received a call informing me that Beau Shroyer was killed while serving Jesus in Angola and is now with his Savior,” said Randy Fairman, President of SIM USA, in a statement dated Oct. 26.

YouTube recording by Country Faith Church

“Beau and Jackie Shroyer, along with their five children, were among the first missionaries to begin serving with SIM USA after COVID lockdowns were eased. You have brought a faithful, energetic, growing and loving fragrance of Christ into our family,” Fairman said in his statement.

In a presentation of their Lubango missionary work in June at Country Faith Church in Clearbrook, Minnesota, the Shroyers spoke about the joys and difficulties of their three years in Angola, where safety was an ongoing concern.

Lubango is a city of more than 900,000 where Portuguese is the primary language, and living there meant some adjustments for the family from Detroit Lakes, especially since they were working as missionaries for the first time, Jackie Shroyer said at Country Faith Church.

“We arrived in Angola not knowing any Portuguese – our first year was focused on learning the language and the culture and trying to find our way through the first year,” she said. “We were constantly fighting malaria – it was always in our family, we were also fighting a lot of other diseases and we had a lot of safety issues,” Jackie said.

It is difficult to find trustworthy security guards, she added. “We had to sit through so many watches and there were several break-ins at our house the night we were sleeping.”

Additionally, she added, “As we tried to figure out how to live in this culture, we experienced so many changes, so many difficult experiences that caused a lot of fear and trauma.”

They were shocked and deeply saddened – “I cried myself to sleep,” she said – at the extreme hunger of children in their part of the city.

Sometimes they wondered if they should even be in Lubango and thought, ‘What are we doing, God?’ That’s crazy,” she said.

Detroit Lakes Tribune file photo

The most recent Angola travel advisory issued by the U.S. State Department in September ranks Angola at Level 2 on a four-point scale, with 4 being the most dangerous.

“In Angola, increased caution is required due to crime and health. There is an increased risk in some areas. Violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault, auto theft and murder occur frequently,” the State Department reported. “Local police lack the resources to respond effectively to serious crime.”

As life became more difficult, the Shroyer family trusted their faith more and more. “It made us hold on to Jesus like never before and he really supported us every step of the way in our journey,” Jackie said.

“It's really encouraging that we've completed the first (missionary) term now that we're here,” Jackie said in June. “We went to our organization's headquarters and did our debriefing, and all seven of us can say with certainty that we can't wait to go back and continue working – none of us seven have the slightest doubt that this is where we're meant to work We’re really excited to come back and continue our work.”

Their youth ministry is located on property – gifted to them by the Angolan government – that sits next to an orange farm that is virtually under siege by criminals, Beau Shroyer told churchgoers at Country Faith Church. This made the family's situation precarious and made it difficult to develop their parish location.

To save their oranges, the farm's owners erected a 10-foot-tall electric barbed wire fence and hired about 50 guards for 24-hour security, but it was still a constant battle, Beau Shroyer said.

“These people are here day and night protecting against thieves who want to steal the oranges and sell them,” he said during the presentation. “It's actually so bad that they shoot people, and about a week before we came (to our native Minnesota) … one of the thieves was shot in a machete fight. So it's desperation, like Jackie said. They are so hungry that they risk their lives to get a stack of oranges.”

The family wanted to raise money from churchgoers in Minnesota to build a security wall on their property next to the orange farm, hire guards, hire groundskeepers and drill a well, according to a priority list the Clearbrook family submitted to their Mbala Yompata Ministry Center.

Future goals included a sports ministry, building classrooms, providing vocational training, conducting Bible classes, building a large jongo with an outdoor kitchen, working on agricultural development, planting trees, and providing housing.

The family has made a big difference in the lives of young people in the area, many of whom are orphans or “throwaway children” who are not welcome anywhere else, Jackie said.

“The hunger in Angola, in the city, is heartbreaking,” she said during her talk. The family began feeding neighborhood children who were so hungry that they fought over a few grains of brown rice at the bottom of a bag, she said, adding, “It became very overwhelming and very heartbreaking.” We just couldn’t give something like that to everyone every minute of every day.”

So they prayed about it and decided to make soup and bread for the children and serve it to them every Tuesday evening. “It has become our greatest ministry,” she said. “We started with 25 or 30 children. We thought this would be a good way to feed them, get to know the children and practice our Portuguese. God had a bigger plan.”

“Slowly it grew and grew and grew – now there are 300 children,” said Jackie. “We think it’s crazy, but God provides it. Every week we have exactly enough soup to put in their bowls.”

Several small groups of older children and teenagers have taken up the service, helping with crowd control on soup night as well as supervising younger children in general. “They’ve really found God – they’re just hungry for it,” Jackie said.