BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (March 22, 2016) — Four Covenanters who were at the Brussels Zaventem Airport when two bombs exploded are safe and being moved to a military base north of the city, said Meritt Lohr Sawyer, director of Paul Carlson Partnership (PCP).
Missionaries/pastors Barb and Steve Swanson also reported that they are safe, said Byron Amundsen, director of administration and finance for the ECC Serve Globally mission priority.
PCP director of development James Fischer was in the airport at the time of the blast, and three other Covenanters were on a plane that had just landed. They were Donn Engebretson, ECC director for global advancement and Covenant Kids Congo; Catherine Knarr, CKC project manager; and Greg Krieger, pastor of Rock Harbor Covenant Church in Rocklin, California.
Fischer apparently was not near the blast but reported that some people ran past him as they escaped the area.
The airplane sat on the tarmac before being guided to a hangar where the four Covenanters were able to connect with each other.
Engebretson, Knarr, and Krieger were representing Covenant Kids Congo, which was hosting a vision trip. Fisher was traveling to Karawa, where work on transmission lines from the Zulu dam to the hospital were being laid. Engineers traveling there went through the Paris airport.
According to news reports, 14 people were killed at the Brussels airport, and more than 90 wounded with the casualty toll steadily rising on Tuesday. Another explosion at the Maelbeek metro station killed at least 20 people.
All traffic in the Belgium capital has been shut down.
Amundsen asked Covenanters to pray for the Covenanters there and for the people of Belgium.
