Jonathan Larson, who collaborated on an ABC documentary about his friend, Dan Terry, an aid worker killed in Afghanistan in 2010, will be the speaker for Bluffton University’s Spiritual Life Week forum on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Larson, who has also written an account of his childhood friend’s peacemaking work and death, is taking the place of Cyneatha Millsaps, who was scheduled to speak but is unable to come. Beginning at 11 a.m. in Founders Hall, Larson’s presentation is free and open to the public.

He grew up in northeast India and graduated from the University of Minnesota, where he studied history and languages. He and his wife, Mary Kay, served with Mennonites in Africa, first in the Congo as volunteer teachers and later in Botswana, where she worked in public health and he was a grassroots leadership trainer. The parents of three daughters, they now live in Atlanta.

In recent years, Larson has written about their experiences abroad and the spirituality of service. He has also traveled widely in North America and recently returned from travels to the Philippines, Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Argentina in pursuit of his writing interests.  Along the way, he has learned five languages and developed a love for the power of story—especially the Gospel—to transform communities.