When Jim Bowers was working as a missionary in Peru, he shared his faith with the people living along the Amazon River.
Now Bowers, whose wife and daughter were killed last year when bullets pierced the small plane in which they were flying, is sharing his faith with a far larger audience.
Later this month, the 39-year-old Bowers will travel to Portugal and England and later crisscross the United States, stopping in California, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and North Carolina.
On each stop, Bowers will recount to fellow Christians how on April 20, 2001, the single-engine Cessna floatplane carrying his family was mistaken for a drug-smuggling operation and was shot down by the Peruvian air force in conjunction with the CIA surveillance aircraft.
More importantly, he will try to use his personal story to inspire others to take up the work he and his late wife, Roni, left behind — missions work.
“I do this with the intention of challenging young people to follow in Roni’s footsteps and not let danger scare you away,” Bowers said, whose steely determination masks all signs of grief.
Accepting God’s plan
These days, Bowers is also plugging a new book, “If God Should Choose: The Authorized Story of Jim and Roni Bowers,” by Kristen Stagg.
When he’s not doing radio interviews or talking to seminary graduates, he’s helping start up a congregation of Spanish speakers at his church, Bethel Baptist in Cary, N.C.
He lives with his mother Wilma and his 7-year-old son Cory, in nearby Garner, N.C.
Bowers is convinced that though the death of his wife and daughter might seem senseless, it is all part of God’s plan.
“The goal Roni and I had is to convince people of the truth,” he said.
“Because of her death, many more people have been convinced. I have a huge open door, much more than I would have had if we went on with our life. There’s so much evidence God was in this.”
In March, on the eve of his trip to Peru, President Bush pushed a bill through Congress that offers the survivors — including the family of Kevin Donaldson, the Cessna pilot who suffered serious leg wounds — $8 million in compensation.
The Bush administration also acknowledged the downing of the plane “should never have happened,” but stopped short of admitting liability.
The compensation package is much less than the $35 million attorneys for the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism had asked for on behalf of their two missionary families.
But it is not the money that Bowers wants.
Despite his belief that God was behind the events, Bowers said he would like to see someone take responsibility. After three investigations, Bowers said, no one involved in the crash has lost a job or gone to jail.
“You’d think somebody would stand up and say, ‘You can’t get off scot-free acting like that,’” Bowers said. “They continue as if nothing happened.”
But Bowers doesn’t want to dwell on the negative. He said he has forgiven everyone involved. He envisions spending the next few years in North Carolina, working at his church.
When he is at home, he and Abel Grande, a Hispanic leader at Bethel Baptist, go into the immigrant neighborhoods of Cary, knocking on doors and inviting people to church services, Bible studies or soccer and baseball games.
“He’s the kind of guy you don’t have to say is a leader,” Grande said. “People follow him. They believe in him. He has a good heart, and people know that.”
Destined for missions
In some ways, it is not too different from the life Bowers knew in Peru or the life his parents led as missionaries along the Amazon River in Brazil.
Bowers was groomed to be a missionary. Long before he and Roni had settled into their houseboat near Iquitos, Peru, the 8-year-old Jim Bowers attended a boarding school for missionary children in the same town.
After graduating from the Grand Rapids Baptist Academy in Michigan, Bowers enrolled at Piedmont Bible College (now Piedmont Baptist College) near Winston-Salem, N. C., a school that offered training in missionary aviation.
There, Bowers met Roni Luttig, who was a fellow student. Like him, Roni had wanted to be a missionary since she was a child, and the two quickly became friends. They married in 1985.
After Jim did a short stint in the Air Force, the couple made plans for their life’s calling.
Instead of setting up a house in Iquitos and traveling up and down the river to reach indigenous Indians with the Christian message, the couple hit on a novel idea. They would build a houseboat and live in it.
In 1997, their dream became a reality. Roni worked alongside Jim, teaching women’s Bible studies and children’s Sunday School. She home-schooled Cory.
Disaster Strikes
After adopting newborn Charity, the couple needed to arrange a residence visa for her. Peruvian regulations required that the girl have her visa stamped upon entry into the country, so the couple decided to fly to neighboring Colombia and secure a visa at the Peruvian embassy there.
They were on their way back to Iquitos when bullets hit their small plane. It took only one bullet to kill Roni and Charity, seated in the back of the plane. The bullet hit the back of Charity’s head and penetrated Roni’s heart.
Despite all that has happened, Bowers said his call to missionary work overseas has never wavered. He would like to return to the Amazon, though probably not to Peru.
But first, he said, he would need to remarry.“Not enough people are willing to go,” he said. “Why shouldn’t I? I’m ready and willing. It doesn’t make sense to stay here. But I can’t go back without a mother for Cory.” (RNS)
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