Forgiveness News

Former Miss South Carolina Forgives Her Sister’s Killer

Statesville Record and Landmark, Statesville, NC – It would be easy to understand if Dawn Smith Jordan talked about sadness, anger, even vengeance.

Instead, the former Miss South Carolina chooses to speak of serenity, faith and forgiveness.

That was tough for Dawn to do at the age of 21 when her 17-year-old sister, Shari, was kidnapped from the driveway of her Lexington, S.C., home and murdered in 1985.

During the five days between the kidnapping and when her sister’s body was found, the killer called the Smiths eight times, each time talking with Dawn. He told her he planned on doing the same thing to her that he did to Shari.

Several years later, with the killer on death row, Dawn decided she needed to forgive. “You can’t live your life to the fullest if you’re stuck in unforgiveness,” she said.

Dawn said she learned about forgiveness from her mother. “She lost her daughter in a horrific manner and she forgave. She pressed on because she had two other children that needed her,” she said.

Dawn, who shares her forgiveness philosophy as a Christian singer, songwriter, author and speaker, is also the founder of Dawn Smith Jordan Ministries, Inc. According to her website, Dawn has learned “to not only forgive her sister’s murderer, but to daily choose forgiveness as a path to healing and wholeness. The brightest future will always be based not on a forgotten past, but on a forgiven past.”

Read more about Dawn’s decision to forgive: “Message of forgiveness buoys her, decades after tragedy” 0r visit her website

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Police Officer Shot and Killed, Family Forgives

WXYZ-TV, Southfield, MI – Just before the end of his shift on Sunday, Sept. 9, Police Officer Patrick O’Rourke responded with his fellow officers to a domestic dispute case. Minutes later, he lay dead–shot and killed by Ricky Coley, a heavily-armed man who held off the other officers for nearly 24-hours before surrendering. Officer O’Rourke left behind a wife and four young children.

During a television interview this week, Amy O’Rourke said she felt strongly that her husband forgives the shooter. Asked if she is able to forgive yet, Amy responded,

“Oh yes, almost immediately really. To not forgive just hurts us, I think when you carry un-forgiveness, it just makes you sick, physically, emotionally, mentally. And that’s why God wants us to forgive people, because he knows it’s going to affect who we are and how we feel. We have to let go of that stuff, give it up to him.”

Read more and watch the television interview with Amy and her children: “The family of Patrick O’Rourke shares their heartache, hope and forgiveness.”

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Mother to Sell Heirlooms to Help Gang Members Who Killed Her Son

The Daily Mirror, London, England – A grieving mother whose son was stabbed to death by gang members has pledged to sell her family heirlooms to give his killers a better life.

Fatemah Golmakani’s son, Milad, was ambushed by four gang members last April while he was playing soccer in London, England. The 22-year-old was knifed 14 times and left to die. His four killers — three 19-year-olds and one 17-year-old — were all jailed last month and will be serving between 19 and 22 years before release.

The mother of four has vowed to open a charity in Milad’s memory to not only support other troubled teenagers and gang members, but also to help his son’s killers while they are imprisoned and when they get out. She said she plans to fund the charity by selling her diamond earrings, her grandmother’s watch and a crystal chandelier that has been in her family for more than 200 years.

“This charity will be a present to the killers,” Golmakani said. “I want to replace their knives and guns with flowers. I want to bring their humanity back even if my son is gone.”

Though Golmakani admits that she was once bitter and angry about her son’s untimely death, she says she has learned that forgiveness is the greatest remedy for grief.

Read the full story, “Mum of knife victim plans to sell off heirlooms to help son’s killers.”

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Forgiving Muammar Gaddafi for the Lockerbie Bombing

The Wall Street Journal – Lisa Gibson, whose brother died in the Lockerbie bombing, has forgiven the only man convicted in the bombing, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, as well as Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader who was considered the mastermind behind the attack.

In Dec. 1988, Lisa was an 18-year-old college freshman and her brother, Kenneth Gibson, 20 at the time, was serving in the U.S. Army, in Berlin. He was coming home for Christmas on Pan Am Flight 103 when it blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 270 people on board.

Now 42 and living in Colorado Springs, Lisa says she always knew in the back of her mind that she would have to forgive the perpetrators of the attack. “I began to realize that at the heart of terrorism is hate, and the only way I could move away from it was to have light and forgiveness,” she says.

In 2004, she sent a letter to Ali al-Megrahi. It said, simply: “Only God really knows if you are responsible for this act. But as a Christian, I need to forgive you.” He wrote back, said he wasn’t responsible for the bombing but offered his condolences and shared verses from the Koran and the Bible.

Then, in 2009, Lisa met with Gaddafi when he came to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. In the 10-minute meeting, she told him she had made a decision to forgive and he offered his condolences. “His words said “I didn’t do it,’ but his behavior said he did,” says Lisa.

Read the full story: Forgiving Muammar Gaddafi for the Lockerbie Bombing.

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Boy, 14, Kills Mother, Family Offers Forgiveness

Detroit Free Press – As a 14-year-old boy was given 25-50 years for shooting his mother in the night, his uncle and grandmother were offering him forgiveness. His uncle, Leshaun Roberts, hugged the boy before he was taken away and said, “I forgive you and I love you. Please get him some help.”

Smith is accused of fatally shooting his mother, Tamika Robinson of Detroit, over a fight stemming from her telling the teen not to bring girls home or hang out with boys she regarded as thugs. On Feb. 27, Smith broke into a home office, where Robinson’s fiancé kept his gun, and shot her in the middle of the night, police said. He later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Smith apologized in letters he wrote from jail, his grandmother said, claiming he was tired of seeing his mother suffer from debilitating bouts of the effects of lupus as well as kidney failure.

Read the full story: Family offers forgiveness to Detroit boy, 14, sentenced in mother’s shooting.

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