It’s been nearly three weeks since Haitian gang 400 Mawozo kidnapped 17 people in Croix-des-Bouquets. The hostages, five of them children, are missionaries with US-based Christian Aid Ministries (CAM).

CAM’s public statements, and even prayer requests from the captives’ families, have brimmed with love and forgiveness for the kidnappers. On the surface, this feels pretty shocking. The kidnappers have not released the hostages, yet those begging God to bring their loved ones home also desire to extend grace to the captors.

Donald B. Kraybill and Steven M. Nolt explain three distinct elements of CAM’s Anabaptist tradition that provide some insight: praying for the kidnappers, nonresistance in the face of adversity, and a commitment to forgive. Anabaptists take the words of Jesus seriously when he says to do good to those who hate them. And they teach this posture to their children from their earliest days, which is reflected in the prayers of a three-year-old child who, referring to the kidnappers, prayed that “the naughty people would become good.”

The volatility of our age doesn’t lend itself to loving our enemies. But by drawing on Scripture and the witness of Christian history, just like the Anabaptists do, we can orient our hearts toward enemy love that reflects Jesus’ love for a lost world. And in doing so, we can join the Holy Spirit in urging our children to reject revenge and embrace the hope that God can fill the darkest of hearts with the light of his grace.