Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jul 2001
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2001 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting)

MISSIONARY FINDS PEACE DESPITE FAMILY DEATHS

Jim Bowers' faith is helping him come to terms with losing his wife 
and daughter to gunfire from a Peruvian jet that mistook the family's 
plane for drug smugglers.

The Muskegon missionary said he and his 6-year-old son, Cory, have 
found an inexplicable peace.

"I'm trusting that God is in control. I'm leaving it in his hands," 
Bowers is quoted as saying in the Muskegon Chronicle. "The bottom 
line is, God knew what He was doing. He has been in control of this 
whole situation."

Veronica (Roni) Bowers, 35, and 7-month-old Charity were killed by 
the same bullet in the attack April 20. Jim Bowers said he believes 
they are safe in God's presence.

Since the shooting, the ranks of missionaries and other Christian 
workers have been growing, a reaction in part to the tragedy, he said.

"I have to live with the fact that I miss her," Bowers said. "But 
that doesn't compare with the positive things. I have been getting 
e-mails from a lot of people whose lives have been changed. I have 
more confirmation of the good that's been happening."

Bowers said he never has nightmares about the attack, the pontoon 
plane's crash into the Amazon River, and rescuing the bodies of his 
wife and baby. But he said he doesn't always make it through the 
night without tears.

Interviewed during a week-long visit with friends in Muskegon, Bowers 
and his son will be the guests of the Muskegon Air Fair on Saturday. 
They'll watch the Blue Angels and other aerial acrobats leave their 
trails across the sky.

The United States and Peru have suspended drug interdiction flights 
while they investigate the deaths. Peru began shooting down suspected 
drug planes in the early 1990s to stop frequent flights carrying 
cocaine.

In September, Bowers will return to Peru to meet with a family who 
may replace his family as missionaries.

Bowers doesn't plan to return permanently to the South American 
nation, although he has no regrets about serving there.

"Obviously, it hurts," he said. "But God works mysteriously to give 
me comfort so that I don't have to be sad all the time."

"I lost my very best friend and my main coworker and deck hand, a big 
part of me and who I am. Her absence touches nearly every area of my 
life," Bowers said of his wife of 15 years.

"I'm thinking much more about her now than when she was around."
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