Lockerbie victim’s sister meets with Gaddafi in New York

On Thursday, September 24, 2009 Dan Wooding Founder of ASSIST Ministries NEW YORK, NY (ANS) writes,
Lisa Gibson is an attorney and Executive Director of the Peace and Prosperity Alliance who lost her brother Kenneth Gibson on the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
But rather than succumbing to bitterness, she chose to take the road less traveled. She has chosen to focus her efforts on overcoming evil with good by serving the country of Libya through humanitarian and education projects. She met with the leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi on Wednesday, September 23rd at the Libya mission in New York City.
Like the other family members, she initially struggled with anger.. But her Christian faith called her to forgive and find a way to love her enemies. In 2004, she wrote a letter to Megrahi at the Scottish prison where he was serving his sentence. In her letter she said, “Only God knows if you are really responsible, but as a Christian, I need to forgive you.” Megrahi wrote her a kind letter back, expressing his sadness to hear of her loss, but maintaining his innocence.
In January of 2005, she was the first American Lockerbie family member to go to visit Libya. She was assisted by Libyan Ambassador Ali Aujali in making her visit to Libya. She participated in a tour and met with individual citizens and government officials, in each instance simply telling them her story and that as a Christian she needed to come to Libya to meet the people so she could begin to see them differently than she had seen them. As she would tell her story, the walls fell and transparency flowed between her and the Libyans. Even grown men wept when they heard her story, saying, “It is so good for you to come, I will do anything I can to help you.”

Seeing how the Libyans have also suffered she committed to overcoming evil with good. She launched out to start the Peace and Prosperity Alliance three years ago with the goal of addressing social evils such as terrorism, oppression and injustice. The PPA has officially “adopted” Libya and is working with the Libyan government and the Gaddafi Development Foundation to build bridges of people-to-people diplomacy through service, goodwill and humanitarian and education projects. They have raised money to help children in Libya with HIV/Aids and piloted their first English language training project in Libya, in December of 2008 which marked the 20th anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing. There next project is to help facilitate reconciliation between the US and Libya through an art festival in Libya, between Libyan and American artists.
Lisa says “It has been a long 20 years, we have seen justice achieved. Now it is time to focus on reconciliation between the US and Libya.”
For more information visit www.peaceandprosperityalliance.org
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