| Editor: David E Marlett Th.D. | |
| April 21, 2001 | Vol II, No. 24 |
By Monte Hayes
The Associated Press
IQUITOS, Peru -- A U.S. surveillance plane monitored the Peruvian air force's downing of a plane carrying American missionaries mistaken for drug smugglers, a U.S. Embassy official said today. A woman and her infant daughter from Michigan were killed in the shooting and crash.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to say whether the U.S. aircraft provided the position of the single-engine floater plane. But he said U.S. tracking planes routinely pass along information to Peruvian authorities about suspicious aircraft in the northern jungle region bordering Colombia and Brazil, a common route for cocaine trafficking.
"A U.S. government tracking aircraft was in the area in support of the Peruvian intercept mission," he said in Lima. "As part of an agreement between the United States and Peru, the United States provides tracking information on planes suspected of smuggling illegal drugs in the region to the Peruvian air force."
The statement came after one of the three survivors reportedly said that an American aircraft was flying nearby at the time the Peruvian jet shot down the missionaries' plane Friday morning over the Amazon River.
Peru's air force issued a statement early today confirming that the missionaries' plane was shot down after it was detected at 10:05 a.m. local time by "an air space surveillance and control system" run jointly by Peru and the United States.
The statement said the plane entered Peruvian air space from Brazil without filing a flight plan and that it was fired on after the pilot failed to respond to "international procedures of identification and interception."
The survivors told of how the pilot, a veteran, second-generation missionary, was shot in the leg during the flight. He then lost control of the flaming, single-engine plane before managing to guide it into the river, where the survivors floated on the craft's pontoons for a half-hour before being rescued by local villagers.
The Rev. E.C. Haskell, spokesman for the Baptist association, of New Cumberland, Pa., said the plane was en route from the Brazil-Peru border to the city of Iquitos, about 625 miles northeast of Lima, when it was attacked.
Missionary Veronica "Ronnie" Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old adopted daughter, Charity, were both killed and pilot Kevin Donaldson was wounded, he said.
Also on board and unhurt were Bowers' husband, Jim Bowers, 35, and their 6-year-old son Cory, said Haskell. The family is from Muskegon, Mich., and the Donaldsons from Morgantown, Pa., Haskell said.
The missionary group has worked in Peru since 1939, according to its Web site. It helps found Baptist churches in the Iquitos area and other parts of the upper Amazon, and sends missionaries into remote areas along the river's tributaries.
Donaldson's wife, Bobbi, said her husband guided the plane into the river, where it flipped over. Veronica Bowers was holding her daughter on her lap when a bullet struck her in the back and then hit the child, Mrs. Donaldson said in a telephone interview from her home in Iquitos.
Mrs. Donaldson said "there were two rounds of fire," and that the Peruvian jet fighter continued to fire as the plane went down.
The telephones were busy through the night Friday night at the regional command in Iquitos, and there was no answer this morning at the defense ministry.
Quoting survivors, Mrs. Donaldson said local villagers brought the three survivors and two dead bodies to shore. After her husband "filled one canoe with blood, they put him a speedboat to take him for help" to a nearby jungle clinic, she said. He remained there today.
The Bowers had been returning from Leticia, Colombia, where they had picked up a Peruvian residency visa for Charity, Mrs. Donaldson said.
She said another Peruvian air force plane -- called in by the jet fighter -- had taken Jim Bowers, his son, his dead wife and daughter back to Iquitos. Late Friday, Rev. Bill Rudd, the Bowers' minister in Fruitport, Mich., said the family planned to return to the United States today.
A U.S. official said U.S. Embassy personnel had traveled to the crash scene late Friday.
Mrs. Donaldson quoted Jim Bowers as saying that during the incident, he saw a plane flying nearby and that he believed it was an American aircraft. She also quoted him as saying that he was kept by unidentified U.S. agents for two hours in Iquitos before he was allowed to identify his wife's body.
"We don't understand. We would like some answers," she said.
U.S. officials did not immediately respond to the complaint.
Between 1994 and 1997, Peru shot down about 25 suspected drug planes on their way to Colombian cocaine refineries from coca-growing regions in Peru's Amazon.
The actions were the result of former President Alberto Fujimori's tough anti-narcotics policies in an effort to reducing trafficking in coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine.
In July, Fujimori said the country would use its fleet of 18 Russian-made Sukhoi-25 fighter jets in the anti-drug fight. The planes were originally bought after a brief border war with Ecuador in 1995.
Haskell said Kevin Donaldson grew up in Peru. Their group runs a theological seminary, schools, a camp and a center for pregnant women.
[ AP ]
An article in the Associated Baptist Press observed that "as cremation becomes more popular in the United States, fewer people are asking serious theological questions about the practice." The article quotes Baptist ministers Bob Beck and Leroy Summers of the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area, who say they hear no theological objections to cremation these days.
The article also cites Steven Davis, a professor at Claremont McKenna College in California, saying, "I don't think there's any doubt but that Christian tradition started off in favor of burial and against cremation on the grounds that resurrection would be easier for God to pull off."
This statement misses the mark of why cremation has been rejected by Christians. It was not because of the ability of God to resurrect cremated bodies, but because of the example of the Bible that God's people are to bury their dead as a testimony of their faith in the bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).
Our article "Cremation: What Does God Think" (available at the Way of Life web site and in the Fundamental Baptist CD-ROM Library) lists 10 biblical reasons to reject cremation:
[ Dr David W Cloud, Way of Life Literature ]
Though we all enjoy the brilliant array of fall colors, few of us understand the process that produces the glorious display. As the days grow shorter, trees produce less green chlorophyll and leaves reveal their natural, spectacular color.
Much like a tree, my dad's true colors were most vivid at the end of his life.
When he had just hours left to live, I saw my father at his finest. It was a day I will never forget.
Before each of my inaugurations as governor of Missouri, I requested there be a special time where friends and officials join together to ask God's guidance in the inaugural festivities and in the administration I would direct. I wanted to show my individual dependence on God and our governments corporate dependence on His mercy. In 1985 and 1989, people from every corner of the state attended these services.
The night before I was sworn in to the Senate in 1995, my father arranged a dinner for 15 to 20 close friends and family. My father eyed a piano in the corner of the room and said, "John, why don't you play the piano"? I said, "You name it, I'll play it, Dad".
"Let's sing, 'We Are Standing on Holy Ground'."
After the song, I found myself thinking out loud. "We're having a good time," I said, "but I really wish this was a dedication service".
The impending responsibilities of the Senate were weighing heavily on me. I didn't have an inflated view of my importance as a senator, but I wasn't lackadaisical about it either. The people of Missouri had chosen me to represent them, and I wanted to do so with integrity and character. My lifelong friend, Dick Foth, spoke up.
"We can do something about a dedication service, John."
At Dick's suggestion, we gathered early the next morning at a beautiful house near the Capitol maintained by friends to bring Congress members together for spiritual enrichment. We chatted informally and then sang a hymn or two. At the time I didn't realize how weak my father was, but he had been losing weight in November and December and had told an acquaintance of his, "I'm hanging on by a thread, and it's a thin thread at that, but I'm going to see John sworn into the Senate."
As we talked, the earnestness of my father's voice suddenly commanded everyone's attention. "John," Dad said, "please listen carefully." My children and I turned our full attention on Dad. The others leaned in. "The spirit of Washington is arrogance and the spirit of Christ is humility. Put on the spirit of Christ. Nothing of lasting value has ever been accomplished in arrogance." The room was absolutely still. "Someday I hope that someone will come up to you as you're fulfilling your duties as a senator, tug on your sleeve, and say, 'Senator, your spirit is showing.'"
Back when I was eight years old, my father had used a breathtaking dive in an old Piper Cub airplane to convince me that my actions had great consequences; now nearly a half century later, he wanted me to remember that how I did what I did would have eternal impact. I asked for prayer. "It's too bad we don't have any oil," I added. In the Bible, David and Saul were anointed as they each undertook their duty as king of Israel, as were some leaders in the early church. I had adopted that practice-being anointed prior to each of my terms as governor.
"Let's see if there is some in the kitchen," my father suggested.
Dick Foth disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a tiny bowl of Crisco oil. I knelt in front of the sofa where my father was seated, and everyone gathered around me. Then I noticed my father swinging his arms, trying to lift himself out of the couch. Given my father's weakness-a damaged heart operating at less than one-third capacity-getting out of that couch was a major feat. I felt terrible. Knowing that he didn't have the strength to spare, I said, "Dad, you don't have to struggle to stand and pray over me with these friends."
"John," my father answered, "I am not struggling to stand, I'm struggling to kneel."
Some statements take awhile to sink in; others hit you with the force of a nuclear explosion. I thought my father's words would vaporize me on the spot. A thousand reflections raced through my mind in the first half second. There was a measure of shame, but a good shame, the kind that arises when you realize you have vastly underestimated the character of someone or his actions. I was overwhelmed, humbled and inspired. He was not struggling to stand - he was struggling to kneel.
I was taken back to those early mornings fifty years before when I slipped underneath my father and joined him on his knees. He prayed that we would do noble things. Now, still on his knees, he was taking me there.
"Note: John Ashcroft was sworn into the Senate on January 4, 1995. His father died the next evening."
TCCN Comment: Your editor is no fan of John Ashcroft. His failure to block the illegal seizure of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple property is a serious blot on his character as well as the character of his administration.
I do think I would have liked to know his father however.
The Baptist Press reports that four lawsuits are pending against the U.S. Navy alleging systematic discrimination against evangelical chaplains ("Lawsuits allege Navy discrimination against Southern Baptist chaplains," April 3). Five of the 27 plaintiffs are current or former chaplains endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention. The chaplains testify that they were denied promotions, forced to retire early or otherwise subjected to retaliation for filing complains about bias against their beliefs.
[ Church News Notes ]
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