[NOTE: I’ve compiled the following from two internet news articles.]
The two elderly Canadian missionaries who were viciously attacked in Kenya returned to Canada a few weeks ago, with words of forgiveness for their attackers. Still bearing visible scars and seated in wheelchairs, John and Eloise Bergen arrived at the Calgary airport to a joyous, tearful group of fifteen family members and friends.
"I'm alive, I'm alive," called out John Bergen, looking frail and with his left arm heavily bandaged. "We're great, we're alive, we're a little bit torn at the edges, but we're great," he told reporters. Speaking as relatives caressed his head and clasped his hands, John said he bears no malice toward the thieves who left him for dead. "We hold nothing against our assassins," said John, his left arm still heavily bandaged and stitches still marking his right arm.
Asked about his wife's actions that night, John started to cry and said simply: "She's the queen."
Eloise Bergen said that she was just learning to smile again through her damaged mouth, which she said still felt frozen. But she said it was "awesome" to see her family. "I'm smiling big inside, and I'm so happy to be home. So happy. Thank you everybody for praying for us."
John Bergen told family members that angels kept the machete's blows from taking his life. "What a machete can do to a person, just one blow, is amazing. For him to have as little cuts as he has, and to not have any limbs severed, is unbelievable," said Lance Bergen, the couple's oldest son.
"They chopped my arms; my arms were only tied together with some soft tissue. And the people that saw the bones sticking out actually had to leave the hospital, go outside, and throw up."
The Bergens arrived in Kenya just four months ago, primarily to help women and children made widows and orphans by the post-election violence earlier this year. They say they still want to go back and continue their work.
"We just believe so much in what they're doing, for them to want to go back after all this happened." said Robyn McGough, who is married to Lance Bergen. She said the Bergens have been an inspiration to many. "They don't have any idea of the impact they've created," Robyn said. "There are more miracles that have happened here than I have ever seen in my life," added Lance Bergen.
"They're doing as good as can be expected but there needs to be some emotional healing," Steve Pippin of Hope for the Nations said in a telephone interview from Kenya. The couple is expected to undergo physiotherapy and trauma counseling while in Canada. The Bergens are keeping their home in Kenya and have left all their possessions there. "They're just very tired with the whole ordeal, but they definitely want to come back," said Pippin.
The trial for the six men charged in connection with the violent home invasion is expected to start on Oct. 3.
[NOTE: I’ve been emailing John Bergen the past few days. I’ve told him that many of my blog readers have committed to pray for them. The following is a quote from his emails.]
“All prayers are welcome. We have been healing and will soon be teaching about forgiveness. We are very excited. Not to forgive gives you bondage to the devil as he wants us to hate and have revenge.”
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