BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (March 22, 2016) — Four Covenanters traveling to DR Congo who were at the Brussels Zaventem Airport this morning when two bombs exploded are spending the night on cots at a site operated by the Red Cross.
The site is normally a music hall, which one of the travelers likened to “a really big high school gym.” They had earlier spent seven hours in an airplane hangar with more than 500 other people after the blasts.
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.
Engebretson, Knarr, and Krieger were traveling to Gemena representing Covenant Kids Congo, which was hosting a vision trip. Fischer was traveling to Karawa, where transmission lines from the Zulu dam to the hospital were being laid. Engineers traveling there went through the Paris airport.
Fischer 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 the hangar where the four Covenanters were able to connect with each other.
The airport will be closed again tomorrow, and it is unclear whether the group will be able to continue to Congo.
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.
Amundsen asked Covenanters to pray for the Covenanters there and for the people of Belgium.
