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Mission to Pakistan is cut short
By DAVID KARP, Times Staff Writer In the basement of the Protestant International Church in Islamabad, 4-year-old Luke Womble and his 9-year-old sister Emily heard the walls rumble.
Maybe it was an earthquake, the children thought. But when they went upstairs to explore, Luke walked into an unimaginable scene: A body was lying on the floor. "Sissy and I have been crying a lot," the preschooler told his grandmother over the phone Monday. At a quiet home on a pond in Brandon, the children's grandparents heard on the phone Monday a graphic account of a terrorist attack Sunday in Pakistan that injured three family members and killed five other people. Charles Rees and Frankie Nickerson spoke to their daughter, Cindy, 37, now recuperating in a hospital in Islamabad from a grenade blast to her side. Doctors there were considering whether to insert a rod or plates in her left thigh, where a bone was crushed. Shrapnel struck their grandson Samuel in the back of his head, and doctors in Pakistan were not sure whether to remove the pieces, they said. Jeff Womble has shrapnel in his side, which doctors were not planning to remove. He also had perforated eardrums and scratches to his face. During the service Sunday, Womble saw a man enter the church and begin to heave grenades. Womble threw his wife to the ground and jumped on her to cover her body. The congregation had just finished singing This Is Holy Ground. The force of the blast propelled Samuel about three rows. The couple couldn't find him at first. When Jeff Womble saw his son, blood was gushing from his head. He told his in-laws Monday that he wasn't sure whether Samuel would live. As bad as it was, though, it could have been worse. A grenade lay next to Cindy's head. For some reason, it had not exploded. On the phone Monday, the Wombles urged their parents to stay put, the city wasn't safe. "Don't come, Mom and Dad," Cindy Womble said. The U.S. Embassy plans to evacuate the Wombles as soon as their conditions improve. The couple, who moved to Islamabad in February to work for a humanitarian aid agency, wants to return to the United States to get better medical care. "They want very much to be out of there right now," said Cindy's father, Charles Rees Nickerson. Only a month ago, the family of five were looking forward to returning to Pakistan. They had lived there for three years, and it was the country their younger children knew best. Cindy, a nurse who once worked at Tampa General, worked in clinics for an aid agency that her family declined to identify. Jeff planned to teach English as a second language. They weren't afraid of moving back to Pakistan, even after the war in Afghanistan began. They didn't seem shaken by the kidnapping of American missionaries in Kabul or the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. "I think their biggest concern was how that might influence or affect their ability to continue to serve in different areas," said Rusty Baumgardner, who attended Bible study with the Wombles. They were going to live in a compound near the U.S. Embassy, where their parents said they felt safe. "I almost had the feeling that they were kind of anxious to go home," said John Russell, pastor at Bell Shoals Baptist Church, where the couple worshiped. "They had the perfect peace." Cindy Womble was raised in a home in Brandon, where a cross hangs on the front door. The doormat says, "As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord." Inside, biblical messages hang from little frames. A Bible lay open on the living room coffee table. On Monday, Cindy Womble's parents spoke at length about their faith. "It gives you hope," Charles Rees Nickerson said of the Bible. "It gives you hope to know there is life after earth." Their daughter asked to be baptized when she was about 7. She graduated in 1983 from Altamont Christian School near Orlando and earned a nursing degree in 1987 from Union University in Jackson, Tenn. She met her husband, Jeff, who came from a military family in Alabama, at Bell Shoals Baptist Church. They married in 1988. About four years ago, the couple told their pastor they wanted to go overseas to work and spread the word of the Lord. "They wanted to go to that country to dispel myths about Americans, about Christians and about Baptists," Russell said. "They were so excited about it." "We talk about extreme Christians -- that is Jeff," Russell added. "He loves taking things to the edge." The couple's family said they considered the work in Pakistan to be deeply meaningful. "They felt fulfilled," Mrs. Nickerson said. The only frustration was the language, Urdu, which Jeff was having trouble learning. Last year, the couple returned to Brandon to take a rest after living overseas. The kids got to taste American life, playing T-ball, attending church with thousands of Christians and collecting baseball cards. When terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, they decided to teach a Bible study class on the Muslim world at their church. "(Jeff) became like an advocate for them in a sense," Russell said. "He didn't want them to be misrepresented." -- Times researcher John Martin, staff writer Wes Allison and Times wires contributed to this report. David Karp can be reached at 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com.
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