By Dan Wooding

Founder of ASSIST Ministries

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (ANS) -- A woman killed after an explosion ripped through a bus stop in Jerusalem has been named as a Scottish evangelical Christian.

According to the Scottish Daily Record (www.dailyrecord.co.uk), she was Mary Gardner, 59, from Orkney, who was caught in the bomb blast on Wednesday, March 23, 2010

“The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Mary, who was a student at the city's Hebrew University, was killed when a bomb weighing up to 2kg exploded across the street from the Jerusalem Convention Centre near the central bus station,” said the story.

A spokesman for the ministry said: “The explosion was caused by a bomb placed at a telephone booth near the bus stop. The victims had been standing at the bus stop or nearby when the device exploded.

“(Ms. Gardner) was critically wounded as a result of the bombing, and rescue services transferred her to hospital, where doctors fought for her life for about an hour and ultimately were forced to declare her dead.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the attack, in which about 50 people were injured, a “shocking and despicable act of terrorism”.

He said everything possible was being done to assist the victim's family and her travelling companions.

He told MPs: “I know the House will join me in sending our deepest condolences to her family at this tragic time as well as our solidarity with the people of Israel in the face of such a shocking and despicable act of terrorism.

“I condemn this attack in the strongest terms and call for those responsible to be held to account.

“I am also gravely concerned about renewed rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“I urge all parties to restore calm and work to achieve the two states which are the only lasting hope for peace.”

Medics tend to the injured after the bomb blast

According to the Daily Record, the blast at the crowded bus stop blew out the windows of two buses.

Police said the device went off in a small bag placed next to a food stand called “a blast of a kiosk”. The owner said he named the kiosk in remembrance of an earlier attack at the same site in 1993.

“Before the blast, kiosk worker David Amoyal warned the authorities flames were blazing from a nearby phone booth. He was among those wounded in the explosion,” said the story.

“The bombing, blamed on Palestinian militants, was the first fatal attack in Jerusalem since 2004 and stoked fears of a fresh round of hostilities.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned militants not to test Israel's “iron will” and vowed a tough response. But he also expressed hope that calm would be restored.

Today Israeli aircraft struck Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket and mortar attacks.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said there were gag orders preventing discussion of the investigation into the bus stop bombing and Jerusalem police remained on a heightened state of alert.

“Ms. Gardner was an evangelical Christian who spent much of her life living in Togo, where she worked for Wycliffe Bible Translators,” said the Daily Record. “She leaves behind her parents, who live in Orkney, Scotland, but was not married and did not have children.”

Executive director Eddie Arthur described her as a “lovely lady who was very popular”.

He told the Daily Record that Mary worked with Wycliffe in Togo since 1989 where she was part of a team translating the New Testament into a language called Ife.

“The New Testament was finished in 2009 and Mary had then gone on to work helping other people,” said Mr. Arthur. “She was in Israel for six months studying Hebrew in order to go back to Togo to translate the Old Testament.

“Mary was an extremely popular and competent colleague and we valued her very highly. She will be sorely missed by her ex-pat colleagues and colleagues from Togo.

“She was a lovely lady who was very popular.”

Mr. Arthur continued: “She was someone who had shown a huge dedication to the people she worked with. She spent years of her life living in a remote area of Togo, dedicated to the Ife people.”

Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 47 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries. You can follow Dan on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link.

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