Kansas City, Mo. ? A year after a Kansas missionary couple was taken hostage in the Philippines, about 300 people gathered at a Kansas City church to pray for them.

Gracia and Martin Burnham of Rose Hill, Kan., were taken hostage last May 27 by a Muslim extremist group. The Burnhams, who met at Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary at a Philippine resort when the Abu Sayyaf snatched 21 people. The Burnhams and a Filipino nurse are the only ones still held captive.

“I don’t know about what’s going on in the Philippines,” said Kathy Ryff of Prairie Village, Kan., a close friend of Gracia Burnham who organized the prayer rally Monday at Red Bridge Baptist Church.

“I do know what’s going on tonight is the power behind any action, the Lord. He’s sustained them through fires and torrential rain. We feel He’ll intervene and bring them home or change their captors’ hearts.”

Those attending listened to a song inspired by the captives, “Free Them,” sung by the Rev. Alberto Bent. They also gathered in prayer groups led by more than a dozen ministers.

Ryff said she had met Gracia Burnham in 1977 at Calvary Bible College. Gracia Burnham was her maid of honor when she married in 1982. Gracia met Martin at Calvary Bible, and the two were married May 27, 1983.

Two years later, the couple left Rose Hill and went to the Philippines as missionaries.

“They’re very likable people,” Ryff said. “They can walk into a room and know who to talk to, who needs consoling.”

The Burnhams are believed to be in the vast jungles of the rebels’ hideout on Basilan island.

American soldiers have joined the Philippine military in the search for the hostages. The last outside contact was with a Filipino journalist who interviewed the couple in November.

Ryff, a member of Red Bridge Baptist Church, said the congregation had been supportive throughout her friends’ ordeal.

“In our society, American Christians have become complacent,” she said. “We don’t suffer personally for our beliefs. It’s easy to forget two little missionaries. But that’s not evident tonight.