Funeral for Peru Missionary Plane Victims
April 27 -- Jim Bowers, the missionary whose wife and infant daughter were killed when a Peruvian pilot shot down his small plane said that he forgives the shooter— and plans to continue his missionary work in Peru soon.
Friends and family members gathered in Fruitport, Mich., to mourn missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity, who were killed by a single bullet that passed through her body and entered the baby's skull.
"There's probably feelings of anger and why did this have to happen, not really directed at God, but certainly directed toward the flawed world in which welive," said Eric Stratten, associate pastor at Calvary Church, a Baptist church about 5 miles southeast of Muskegon, the victims' western Michigan hometown.
"They've had their time of grieving, but at the same time they're experiencing a lot of sustenance right now," he said.
Earlier today, President Bush called and offered his condolences to Bowers.. Aides said Bush did not attend the funeral because he does not want to intrude on a private event, but would send a foreign service officer to represent the federal government.
Bowers and his 6-year-old son Cory, and survived after pilot Kevin Donaldson landed their Cessna 185 on the Amazon River. Donaldson suffered serious leg wounds.
The plane they were riding in was mistaken for a plane on a drug run as it made its way from the Peru-Brazil border to the Peruvian town of Iquitos April 20. The Peruvian fighter jet that shot it was acting on information provided by a CIA-operated surveillance plane.
Conflicting Reports
A U.S. team, expected to include members of the Defense Department and the CIA, is headed for Lima this weekend amid conflicting accounts of the downing of the missionary plane.
Assistant Secretary of State Randy Beers, who heads the State Department's narcotics bureau, will lead the delegation, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said today. U.S. officials said they will meet with Peruvian officials in Lima on Monday.
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