January 13, 2003
MEMBERS of Cross Timber Baptist Church in Burleson pray for the family of William Koehn at a memorial service celebrating his life as a hospital administrator in Yemen. (Bill Bangham/IMB/BP Photo)
FAMILY and friends offer final farewells during graveside services for Kathleen Gariety in Milwaukee, Wis. The International Mission Board worker and two of her colleagues lost their lives in an attack by a lone Yemeni gunman at Jibla Baptist Hospital. (Erin Webster/Alabama Baptist/BP Photo)
Three slain mission workers praised
___The three Southern Baptist medical mission workers killed in Yemen were remembered in memorial services as compassionate followers of Christ who not only gave their lives in death but gave freely of themselves while living.
___At the Jibla Baptist Hospital, where the three were killed by a lone gunman, Yemeni nationals and other hospital workers mourned at the funeral of William Koehn and Martha Myers Dec. 31.
___Yemeni hospital staff and friends built caskets for Koehn and Myers, dug their graves and lowered the bodies into the ground themselves.
___"This is my father," one of the Yemeni hospital workers said of Koehn. "I have to do this."
___The residents of Jibla have been devastated by the deaths as much as the Americans at the hospital, said Al Lindholm, another Southern Baptist worker in Yemen.
___One man said Koehn's death hurt him worse than the death of his own father.
___During the funeral, several hundred Yemenis gathered at the hospital to pay their respects. Others lined the street for a half mile outside the hospital gates. Mourners sang "He is Lord" in Arabic and recited the Lord's Prayer.
___"Something is happening in my heart," said one Yemeni national.
___Koehn, who had extensive ties to Texas, also was remembered in a Jan. 2 memorial service at Cross Timber Baptist Church in Burleson.
RICK Evans, pastor of Dalraida Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., speaks about Martha Myers' victorious Christian life at a memorial service. (Mo Sadjadpour/BP Photo)
___More than 200 people attending the service heard stories of Koehn's love for the hospital and love for children, for whom he spent hours crafting toys from scraps of wood.
___Koehn, who served in Yemen 28 years, believed sharing the gospel began with "lifestyle and keeping your word," mourners were reminded.
___IMB President Jerry Rankin said the gunman, reported to have ties to al-Qaida, did not accomplish what he intended. "The gunman did not take their lives," Rankin said, "for they had already given them to the people of Yemen years ago."
___Bill Hart, who served as pastor or "counselor" of the Jibla International Fellowship from 1994 until he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and cancer in 1999, said Koehn was "constantly looking for available money to assist widows, orphans and prisoners. He helped thousands."
___If not today, then in time, the people of Yemen will understand they had a prophet of God among them, said Scott Whitson, pastor of Cross Timber Baptist Church and a childhood friend to Koehn's daughters.
___"Bill was not in Yemen because an agency sent him, not because a convention encouraged him to go, not because of the Cooperative Program and not because his family encouraged him to go," Whitson explained. "He was there because a sovereign God looked across the sea and had compassion on the people of Yemen. God chose someone to stand in the gap. He chose a former grocery worker from Kansas."
___In a video shown during the service, Koehn expressed the same in his own words. "I came to Yemen because of the call of God," he said.
___Koehn's wife, Marty, was in Yemen at the time of the shootings, but she was not at the hospital. The Koehns have two daughters and five grandchildren. Koehn planned to retire in October 2003 and move with his wife to North Texas to be with their relatives.
___Meanwhile, in Montgomery, Ala., more than 1,200 people celebrated the life of physician Martha Myers at a Jan. 4 memorial service at Dalraida Baptist Church.
___"Martha was a victorious Christian and was obedient until death," said Rick Evans, pastor of Myers' home church. "She had no life of her own; it was of the Lord Jesus Christ."
___Myers, a 57-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist, served in Yemen 24 years.
___"Only those who saw her take a sick Arab child in her arms could understand what a servant is," Rankin said at the service. "Each day she lived there, ... she died to self."
MISSION worker William Koehn, seen here in his office at Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen, was remembered inYemen and in Texas as a person who gave his life for the people of Yemen even before he became a martyr at the hands of a Muslim extremist. (BP Photo)
___Evans read a poem written by a schoolmate of Myers. Playing off the words from the song "We've a Story to Tell the Nations," the friend wrote, "We sang, she went. We sang, she told."
___Her brother, Grady Myers, recounted to the Montgomery Advertiser that the mission worker gave most of her money away to help those in need. Recently, she gave her savings account to help pay the cost of a kidney transplant for one of the hospital patients.
___"Martha was unusual," he said. "She didn't care about money. It was all about who she could help."
___Myers also was remembered during a Jan. 2 memorial service at Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala. There, church member Lynette Granade said of Myers: "She was our Baptist version of Mother Teresa. That says it all."
___The third murdered mission work, Kathleen Gariety, was remembered in a Jan. 6 memorial service at Layton Avenue Baptist Church in Greenfield, Wis.
___Gariety was the only one of the three to be buried in the United States. Her body was laid to rest in Milwaukee at the snow-covered Holy Cross Cemetery.
___"She had conviction, she had commitment, she had the fruits of the Spirit in her life," said Keith Chase, Gariety's close friend and pastor for 15 years. "Kathy knew that faith in God meant trusting in God no matter what, no matter when, no matter where. Her faith was strong as anyone I'd ever known."
___Chase recalled a trip he took with his wife to Yemen, where Gariety served 10 years as the hospital's purchasing manager. He remembers her popularity with the people there--particularly the children.
___"As soon as we got past the gate, children swarmed around Kathy," he said. "It took 20 minutes to take a five-minute walk."
___Doris Moorman, who sang Gariety's favorite song, "To the Ends of the Earth," during the memorial service, said the slain worker had touched their lives when she led the youth group.
___The day before the news of the tragedy in Yemen broke, one of Moorman's sons was flipping through a Bible Gariety had given him as a gift. On one page, she had written: "May God's word have the final say in every decision you make."
___"She certainly pointed people to Jesus and radiated his love," Moorman said. "She did what she talked about and risked her life. She trusted the Lord and put her life in his hands. I'm looking forward to the day when we will see her again."
___Don Caswell, the mission worker who was shot but survived, is resting with his family and expected to recover fully from his injuries, reported Judy Williams, his attending physician.
___Caswell's injuries could have been much more severe, but the bullets did not enter his abdominal cavity, said Williams, another IMB representative who has worked in Yemen since 1999.
___The Caswell family is staying in an undisclosed location until he has recuperated from his injuries.
___Compiled by Managing Editor Mark Wingfield, based on reporting distributed through Baptist Press
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