Waterloo memories helped man in captivity
Joshua Boyle grew up in town of Breslau
KITCHENER — Joshua Boyle, the Breslau-raised man who spent five years as a hostage to a ruthless terrorist group on the Afghan border, says his memories of Waterloo Region helped him survive his terrible nightmare.
“My time in Breslau was the happiest period of my life, the one to which I most often returned in my dreams in prison,” he said, in an email to the Waterloo-Region Record. “I had probably 400 dreams set in Breslau during the ordeal, honestly.”
Boyle, freed along with his wife and three children last week when the car they were travelling in was ambushed by Pakistani forces, has made headlines around the world since returning to Canada.
His story has been widely reported — Boyle and his American wife Caitlan Coleman were abducted in Afghanistan on a backpacking trip in 2012, having travelled to the Taliban-held region with hopes to do some kind of unofficial humanitarian work.
While his family recovers from their ordeal with his parents in Smiths Falls, Ont. Boyle said his connection to this region maintains a strong hold on him.
Raised in a devoutly Christian family, the Rockway Mennonite Collegiate graduate says he’s considering moving back to Waterloo Region, a place where he spent his formative years and studied at the University of Waterloo.
Before they left for Central Asia, Boyle and his wife had been living in the small town of Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, where he was a municipal clerk.
“We’re definitely talking about possibly moving back out to Breslau,” he said.
Erv Wiens, Boyle’s former pastor at the Breslau Mennonite Church, said he remembers the quiet introverted boy and prayed for his safety during his time as a hostage.
The Boyle family were active in the local church, and his father Patrick Boyle, then a tax lawyer, helped design a policy so congregants could donate to students’ tuition at the privately-run Rockway Mennonite Collegiate.
“They were a quiet and reserved family, in the sense that they were introverted,” said Wiens, who now works in revenue development for the Mennonite Central Committee in Kitchener.
Boyle, who has called himself a “Mennonite hippy-child” but is no longer a practicing Mennonite, said he was called to Central Asia to help “fix things” on a mission to help people. While Boyle wasn’t in Afghanistan as part of any official humanitarian organization, Wiens said he understands how someone raised in the Mennonite faith might feel motivated to travel abroad to spread peace and help others.
“Part of me admires the dedication,” he said.
“It seems to me he took that teaching a little further than a lot of other people who grew up in that context. This guy took it seriously, although I don’t know if that was wise or not.”