Memorial Service Held for Missionary Gunned Down at Clinic in Lebanon

Gary Witherall says he’s already forgiven the man who killed his wife at a Christian clinic in Saida, Lebanon, last month.

It’s part of his faith, he told nearly 300 people Saturday at a memorial service for Bonnie Witherall.

“If Jesus exists, he exists more in me today,” Witherall said.

Bonnie Witherall, 31, was shot three times in the head Nov. 21 as she opened the door of the Unity Center clinic. She had been working as a nurse’s assistant in the prenatal clinic and had started visiting a Palestinian refugee camp in the city.

Her killer has not been caught, and the motive for the killing is not clear.

Ministers called her a martyr Saturday, and said she died because of her beliefs, the Bellingham Herald reported.

“My prayer is that Bonnie’s death and the image of Christ’s death will lead many back to the cross and to heaven,” said Joseph Stowell, president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where Witherall studied.

Witherall grew up in Vancouver, Wash. She graduated from Fort Vancouver High School in 1990 and went on to attend Bodenseehof Bible School in Germany and the Moody Institute, where in 1996 she received a bachelor’s degree in international missions.

She married Gary Witherall in 1997 and moved to Portland, Ore., where they worked at a bank before moving to Lebanon.

She was not political, said Grant Porter, a leader with the missionary team Witherall worked with in Lebanon.

“That was Bonnie,” Porter said. “She would much rather talk about people.... But she was caught in a world that distrusts pure motives.”

A representative for the Alliance Church in Lebanon read a letter from its president, Radwan Dagher, saying the hall where Witherall was shot will be renamed in her memory.