A United Methodist mission official caught up in the attack at Istanbul Ataturk Airport is calling for a show of solidarity in response.
Thomas Kemper, top executive, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, was in transit from Berlin on Turkish Airlines on June 28 — waiting in a lounge for a flight to Japan — when the terrorist attack began.
He thought about people who live in places where they experience such fear “every day and every night,” Kemper told United Methodist News Service in a June 29 phone interview.
“I felt very deeply there’s a joint shared humanity and the need for solidarity.”
Two of the attackers began shooting in the international terminal and then detonated their suicide vests. Kemper hid in a back room near the lounge kitchen for 30 to 40 minutes before a staff person said it was safe to come out.
