One year ago today teacher Ronnie Smith was shot and killed while on a morning jog in Benghazi, Libya.

We feel a deep connection with Ronnie here at Desiring God because Ronnie’s path to Libya was strongly influenced by messages from John Piper. We know this because of a survey we conducted with our readers a couple years ago. We asked you to recommend your favorite sermons and tell us how they have impacted you. Ronnie recommended “Doing Missions When Dying Is Gain,” and commented, “Through sermons like these, God called me and my family to unreached peoples.”

We remember and honor Ronnie Smith because he gave his life in the work of pursuing the unreached, because he kept the faith, because he has shown the world what the love of Jesus leads his followers to do. May thousands take his place.

In this video, John Piper talks about Ronnie’s life and death to a mass of college students at Passion 2014.

More from John Piper on Ronnie Smith

• When We Send a Person to His Death (article)

• Is There a Point to the Last Minutes of Suffering Before Death? (article)

• A Radical Revelation of the Cross: The Sovereignty of God and the Sacrifice of Jesus (message)