Husband Of Murdered Missionary Worker “Forgives”

he forgave those who shot and killed his wife in Lebanon a day earlier, reports said Friday, November 22.

"I forgive anyone who did that. It doesn’t take the pain. It’s a costly forgiveness … it cost my wife," said Gary Witherall (36), whose wife was killed Thursday, November 21, in a Christian maternity clinic in Sidon, 45 kilometres (apr. 28 miles) south of Beirut.

The spelling of Witherall’s name as given by her husband differs from previous spellings issued by colleagues a day earlier. Gary Witherall suggested that as a Christian he must seek forgiveness for the loss of his 31-year old wife, but stressed it was a difficult process.

"I forgive them, but there are tears in my eyes," he said about the apparent Islam militant who shot her three times in the head as she entered the clinic. "The first shot was in her mouth as if to silence her. It appears when she fell on the floor she was shot twice in the head," a source close to the investigation told the Reuters news agency.

"GOD LED US"

Gary Witherall told reporters that he and Bonnie knew the dangers when they arrived in Lebanon to what they regard as serving the Lord. "God led us to Lebanon and we knew we might die," he said.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), an evangelical denomination that runs the Sidon clinic in the mainly Muslim port town, said that the missionary worker received warnings, two weeks before her death.

A co-worker reported "Witherall mentioned that the police had stopped by just two weeks ago, telling clinic personnel to contact them if they saw anything suspicious," the C&MA said in a statement, Friday, November 22.

NO CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but a number of radical Sunni Muslim groups are active in southern Lebanon, including one on Washington’s list of terrorist organizations with suspected links to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network.

A leading Sunni cleric in south Lebanon said he did not condemn Witherall’s killing but urged Lebanese to use other methods to show their contempt for U.S. policy, the Reuters news agency reported.

"We do not condemn, but we want a different method than this one to show that our whole society is against the American policy," Sheikh Maher Hammoud was quoted as saying.

MORE ATTACKS POSSIBLE

The death of Witherall has lead to worries about more attacks against Christians and C&MA said it had withdrew its staff from Sidon amid concern about its clinic.

Since it opened three years ago the clinic reached apparently many women of Sidon’s estimated 250,000 residents. The C&MA said the clinic provided needed medical care twice a week to more than 50 pregnant women, and that numbers recently increased as news of the medical aid spread.

Witherall worked "long hours at the clinic twice a week, mainly helping pregnant Lebanese and Palestinian women from the nearby Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp," the denomination added.

C&MA said Friday, November, 22, that her body is being flown to Seattle, Washington, where her parents live, for burial.