January 6, 2003
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| William Koehn was among three mission workers killed in Yemen during a terrorist attack by a lone gunman. (BP Photo) |
Southern Baptist mission worker Martha Myers (above) frequently worked with children at Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen. (BP Photo) |
Murdered mission workers mourned
by colleagues & Yemenis they served
___By Greg Warner
___Associated Baptist Press
___JIBLA, Yemen (ABP)--Colleagues and friends of the three Baptist workers killed in a Dec. 30 terrorist attack in Yemen gathered the next morning to bury two of the victims and celebrate their lives and ministries.
___Local residents, meanwhile, gathered at the gates of the hospital to mourn the Baptist medical workers who had served them and their families.
___The bodies of physician Martha Myers, 57, and hospital administrator William Koehn, 60, were buried, as they had requested, on the grounds of the Jibla Baptist Hospital where each worked for more than 25 years. The remains of Kathleen Gariety, 53, were returned to the Un
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| Kathleen Gariety was known for her cheerful personality, enthusiasm and passion for helping the Yemeni people. (BP Photo) |
ited States.
___Koehn and Donald Caswell, a pharmacist who was shot but not killed in the attack, both hail from Texas. Koehn was a member of Fielder Road Bapt
ist Church in Arlington. Caswell has family in Levelland and is a member of First Baptist Church of Eustace.
___After the memorial service at the hospital, most the remaining 13 American mission workers and their families left for the relative safety of San'a, the Yemeni capital, for "a time of healing and grieving together," a spokeswoman said.
___Six remained behind in Jibla--including Caswell, 49, who was injured by the lone gunman and required surgery, and Koehn's wife, Marty. Both were expected to join the group in San'a later.
___How many workers will return to Jibla was not immediately known.
___Officials of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board said its work in Yemen will go on despite the tragedy, but the hospital likely will be transferred to a Muslim charity as previously planned.
___"The transfer is still in process, but with three deaths, the discussions understandably have stopped," said IMB spokeswoman Anita Bowden.
___Hours after the slaying, colleagues talked warmly of the slain workers, who were shot by a suspected Islamic fundamentalist, perhaps with ties to al-Qaida.
___"We've lost three of the dearest people," said Lee Hixon, assistant hospital administrator, in an interview. "Between the three of them, there are probably 60 years of service. They were here because they loved the people.
___Repeatedly co-workers voiced the resolve of mission workers who risk death to minister in dangerous lands like Yemen.
___"They already gave their lives. They gave their lives when they came here," Hixon said.
___Ken Clezy, an Australian surgeon who works at the hospital, remembered Koehn as "a fine administrator, fair and well-liked by the Yemenis."
___"He had a heart of gold and did a lot for orphans and prisoners, as well as the truly poor around here," Clezy said. "He had none of the foibles that one sometimes sees in long-serving missionaries. And we loved him unreservedly. He was fearless and had no thought of leaving during the civil war of '93-'94 or the Gulf War."
___In a statement, Koehn's stateside family said the Kansas native "died doing what he was called to
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| Donald Caswell was wounded in the attack. (BP Photo) |
do. Bill and Marty were in Yemen because of their love for the Lord. We're saddened by this news, but we understand that this does not reflect on the people of Yemen as a whole. We have found them to be gracious and kind."
___Randal Pearce of Mansfield, Koehn's son-in-law, told the Dallas Morning News: "He was not a pastor or a doctor. He was an administrator. His job was not to convert people, not telling them what to believe. He did maintenance work, administration, anything to keep the place running."
___Myers was an obstetrician and gynecologist from Montgomery, Ala., who worked at the Jibla hospital 25 years.
___"Martha Myers was a legend, known all over Yemen," said Clezy, her surgeon colleague. "She was generous to a fault, if there is such a thing in Christian terminology. She was a radiant, relaxed Christian."
___"I think she was prepared to stay there the rest of her life," added John Wikman, a former missionary who previously served at the hospital. "She could talk Arabic, and the Jibla version of it, as well as the local people."
___Myers, who was single, was responsible for immunizing "hundreds of thousands" of Yemeni children, Wikman said. She was the victim of a carjacking several years ago but escaped when her otherwise reliable SUV broke down. "She was kind of scary to drive with," Wikman added.
___Gariety, of Wauwatosa, Wisc., also single, managed the medical supplies for the hospital for 10 years. On her infrequent trips home to Wisconsin, she would collect donated medical supplies to fill a shipping container for the hospital. Churches in Lakeland Baptist Association, including her home congregation of Layton Baptist Church in Milwaukee, helped with the collection.
___"She was a cheerful, determined individual who was extraordinarily focused in her work," said Keith Cogburn, director of missions for the association, where Gariety was employed before becoming a missionary. "She epitomized the calling of a missionary who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he or she is called to a particular place. I can't think of a stronger challenge than where she was serving."
___"She had such a heart for the people," Wikman said. "She really felt the hospital was serving a purpose. They lost someone who really loved them. She was very concerned about the desperate needs of the people."
___The Associated Press reported that Yemenis who had been helped by the Baptist hospital and its missionaries lined the entrance to the hospital the day after the shootings.
___"Today was very sad for all of us, and what made it even more sad was that we couldn't participate in the burial," AP quoted Jibla resident Malka al-Hadhrami as saying. She worked as a clerk for Myers for 18 years.
___Samira Abdullah told AP Myers treated her during her first pregnancy, when she was confined to bed for months. "Every day she looked after me, she used to come to my house, until I was able to stand and walk without endangering my pregnancy," she explained as she cradled her 2-year-old son in her arms.
___The love between the missionaries and the Yemeni people has not been damaged by the act of the lone gunman, missionaries said.
___Regardless of what happens with the hospital, Hixon said he and his wife and two teenage children plan to remain there: "God puts a great love for a people in your heart, and we love the Yemeni people."
___The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that Caswell spoke with his parents by phone Dec. 31.
___Caswell told his parents he was shot three times in the abdomen, Mary Caswell told the newspaper. He said he was alerted by the sound of gunshots and came to the door of the pharmacy to investigate.
___Then he came face to face with the shooter.
___"He looked at me and started shooting," Caswell told his parents.
___Caswell said he was hit twice in the abdomen and started backing into the pharmacy, but the shooter came in after him, hitting him a third time.
___Caswell's mother reported the gunman pulled the trigger twice more but the gun didn't fire.
___Clezy, the Australian doctor, performed emergency surgery that may have saved Caswell's life, his mother said. Amazingly, all three bullets missed major organs.
___Meanwhile, in East Texas, members of First Baptist Church of Eustace recalled the commitment Caswell and his family had shown in going to the short-term assignment in Yemen.
___"God is still in control. ... He's still on his throne," Pastor Paul McKinney told about 40 people who gathered at the church to pray soon after the shooting. "He's more than enough for the day."
___Caswell has been a member of the Eustace church about nine years, the pastor said. About four years ago, Caswell felt a call to long-term missions during a short mission trip to the Ivory Coast in West Africa.
___When appointed by the IMB, the Caswell family sold many of their possessions through various garage sales, he recalled. "They sold everything and just wanted to trust the Lord."
___The pastor described Caswell as "a very unassuming guy," one who was dependable and worked behind the scenes to get things done.
___Once in Yemen, Caswell "fell in love with the people of Jibla," McKinney said. Using his pharmaceutical skills to help the people of Yemen in the name of Christ "was just the joy of his life," the pastor said.
___With additional reporting by Ferrell Foster of Texas Baptist Communications and Managing Editor Mark Wingfield
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