Missionaries Safe After Bombings

Tim and Angela Sliedrecht were watching the World Cup championship game in a restaurant in Kampala, Uganda, this week when they had to be evacuated because three bombs had just gone off a few kilometers away.

Reportedly coordinated by a Somali militant group, the bombings in Uganda’s capital killed 64 people watching the World Cup in a restaurant and at a rugby club in an area frequented by tourists.

"Apparently, the attack was coordinated by suicide bombers … who are upset with Uganda for sending more peace-keeping troops into Somalia" said Angela Sliedrecht.

"The seriousness and danger really didn't hit me until the next morning when I joined some reporter friends and went to the sites. We praise God that the restaurant we were at was not bombed; however, we ask that you pray for the many injured and the friends and family of those who were killed.”

The Sliedrechts are missionaries serving under International Teams, in partnership with Christian Reformed World Missions. They had been in Kampala to have their car repaired, to get papers needed to finalize the adoption of their son, and to purchase two vehicles for fellow workers.

Since they were in Kampala, the Sliedrechts "thought it would be fun to watch the final World Cup match with a few hundred Dutch (along with many other foreigners and Ugandans) at Iguana, a local restaurant. All in all, it was a good time."

That is, until the bombs went off "at a couple other local restaurants where many foreigners and Ugandans were also watching the game," says Angela Sliedrect on the couple's Facebook page.

In their work, the Sliedrechts and others are mobilizing people to do counseling with children abducted and forced to be soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army; to care for orphans and children made especially vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and to educate local pastors and ministry workers, all in an attempt to "penetrate as many avenues as possible with the biblical worldview."

According to news accounts, a California-based aid group said one of its American workers was among the dead. Police said Ethiopian, Indian and Congolese nationals were also among those killed and wounded.

Several Americans from a Pennsylvania church group were wounded in the restaurant attack including Kris Sledge, 18, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. He said from a hospital bed afterward that he was "just glad to be alive."

Ugandan media reported that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni toured the blast sites Monday and said that the terrorists behind the bombings should fight soldiers, not "people who are just enjoying themselves."

Uganda's government spokesman said the first blast occurred at the Ethiopian Village restaurant at 10:55 p.m. Two more blasts happened at the rugby field 20 minutes later, he said.