Friends, family and the townsfolk of Prescott in Arizona trooped to the Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza on Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil in memory of Kayla Mueller, the 26-year-old international humanitarian worker who was captured by the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) and killed in the Jordanian air strikes against the terrorist group.
The doe-eyed Kayla, described as a saint by everyone who knew her, was working with the Danish Refugee Council and Support to Life agency as an aid worker assisting Syrian refugees crossing the Turkish border. In August 2013, she traveled to Aleppo in northern Syria, where she was abducted by ISIS terrorists as she was leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital.
She had been in captivity for 18 months before she was killed, according to ISIS, in the Jordanian air strikes that followed after the burning to death of a Jordanian pilot. Kayla's death was confirmed by United States intelligence agencies.
"May God keep you from any more harm, any more hurt," said Eric Mueller, Kayla's first friend, best friend, and brother. "You are in his hands now. You do not have to suffer anymore. Only now will you be able to see how much you really did and truly did for this world by looking down on it from above."
Wearing pink ribbons, the crowd wrote messages in little cards to be collected in a scrapbook for the Mueller family, while a live band sang "He Who Began A Good Work In You," a song that Kayla's mother, Marsha, often sang to her when she was young. One of those cards said Kayla was an angel and that she represented the best of humanity.
Kayla's friends set up tables to accept canned goods and donations to be given to Kayla's Hands, a memorial foundation set up in honor of Kayla. Rebecca Dunn, one of Kayla's friends and schoolmates in high school, said Kayla was a saint and she was hoping someone would continue Kayla's legacy of helping other people.
Kayla helped raise awareness about AIDS and HIV and volunteered as a night shift worker at a women's shelter. She also taught anger management skills at the women's county jail. While attending college at Northern Arizona University, she protested against genocide before traveling to the Middle East to work as a humanitarian worker in Palestine, Israel, India and France.
Rev. Kathleen Day of the United Christian Ministry of Northern Arizona University asked the crowd to pray for other hostages held by ISIS. She also said that, although little is known about Kayla's time at the hands of the group, the best move to take is to move forward.
"It's really about what's next and what's before us," she said. "I'm sure our government will be trying to come to those conclusions. It's all going to be speculation. There's probably no way for us to ever have fully the truth."
Earlier this month, the Mueller family released a letter from Kayla, which she wrote in the spring of 2014. Kayla told her family that she was in a safe location, completely unharmed, and healthy. She had, in fact, gained weight, and was treated with the utmost respect and kindness. She said if she had suffered at all throughout her experience, it was because of the suffering she had caused those who loved her, and the thought of reuniting with them is what kept her strong.
"I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator because literally there was no [one] else... By God and by your prayers, I have felt tenderly cradled in free fall," Kayla said. "I have been shown in darkness, light, and have learned that even in prison, one can be free."
