'Thank you Lisa!‘

Bringing Love to the People of Benghazi, Libya

By Lisa Gibson
Special to ASSIST News Service++

BENGHAZI, LIBYA (ANS) -- It was around 9 in the morning when we approached the Libyan border. We had left at 2 am driving all night through the Egyptian desert. It would still be another six hours of driving before we would reach our final destination in the rebel controlled capital of Benghazi.

Lisa with the youngest cheerleader in Freedom Square

We had driven all night through the desert, because it was a 24-hour drive from Cairo and it is still unsafe to be driving through the Libyan Desert at night. As we approached the border my heart began to leap inside. I had been here once before, taking this long drive from Cairo to the border city of Saloum. At that time, there were many Libyans who lived in Saloum. But at the time of this visit there were close to 5,000 Libyans living in refugee camps near the border crossing.

As we met with individuals at the border I could immediately sense something had changed in this land. There was a new freedom, joy and openness among the people that I had not seen on my other three trips to Libya. They were friendly, cordial and welcoming. They so appreciated our group of humanitarian workers and the others that had come before us, coming to their aid and standing with them in their time of need.

In many ways, Benghazi was just as I had remembered it from my first trip in January 2005. Most of the buildings were still standing and there was little sign of the battle that had been fought here months before. It was not until later that I saw that the majority of damage was done to Gaddafi's palace and military installation.

The huge crowd listening to Lisa speaking at in rally Freedom Square in Benghazi

After years of isolation, and neglect by the Gaddafi regime, this city had few Gaddafi loyalists and fell quickly into the hands of the oppositional leaders. These leaders are now known as the National Transitional Council and last week were officially recognized by the world community as the legitimate leaders of Libya. But I also learned quickly many refugees had come to Benghazi from other cities like Misrata where the fighting is still intense. The schools are being used to shelter refugees so the children have not attended school since the uprising began in February.

The purpose our trip was to bring medical relief supplies and do an assessment of future development opportunities. Many doors were opened to us in our time there and we learned the need is great. While the battle continues, disaster relief assistance is still needed. 

But the leaders are also beginning to look ahead to development, restructuring and building a democracy. One leader told us they have to start at the ground level and begin to rebuild. After 40 years of tyranny and corruption, the people need to learn a new way of doing things. That is going to take time and they will need the international communities help.

Lisa meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the Libyan mission in New York City

The individual connections with people are always the most sweet and life giving. But in my journey with this country I have had several amazing God moments. Those moments where you are able to glimpse into your destiny and actually realize in that given moment, you are completing part of what God put you on this earth for. The only way I can describe it is as surreal and sublime at the same time. 


I have been blessed to have two such profound experiences in my life. One was the day I met with Muammar Gaddafi. 


The other was delivering my story and a word of hope and encouragement to close to 100,000 people in Freedom Square in Benghazi the day the International Court issued its arrest warrant for Gaddafi and his son Seif el Islam. There truly were people on all sides as far as the eye could see.

Two days before this our group sat in a meeting of the February 17th Coalition, an ad hoc leadership body of attorneys, judges and religious leaders who were the first leaders of the revolution, before the National Transitional Council took control. This group decided they were our host and took us around the rest of our time to all the other key leaders that we needed to meet with. I was very blessed when the High Court Judge said that there was a unity among our group that they had not seen from others who have come into the country.

Kenneth Gibson, Lisa's brother who was killed in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland

We sat around this large table in the former courtroom and did introductions and shared about our organizations and mission. I began to mention the mission of my organization, the Peace and Prosperity Alliance, and how my brother, Kenneth Gibson, had been killed on the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie. As I began to speak I got choked up, but not because of my loss. In fact, many times before in meetings with Libyan leaders I had not been moved to that deep of emotion. I was moved because of what I had been hearing about what they had and were suffering.

I had seen the pictures and heard the stories of countless Libyans who had been killed or just disappeared at the hands of Muammar Gaddafi. I even heard about how Gaddafi had shot down a Libyan airline flying from Tripoli to Benghazi on the anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing in 1992 with the same flight number at Lockerbie, 103. He tried to blame it on a U.S. Naval ship that was at sea in the Mediterranean.

Like abused children, for so many years they have suffered senseless oppression and injustice and have had no voice. So, I believe it was God's heart welling up in me for the people and the leaders in the room must have seen it. They were touched by it and many shared as such with me. So, when they asked me to speak to that crowd in Freedom Square, I could not resist. There was no written speech, instead simply a word in season that I believe Father knew the people needed to hear.

The confirmation came as the people interrupted my talk several times as they cheered "Thank You Lisa!" All I could think of as we walked through the crowd with our armed bodyguards after the speech was "What a privilege to be God's voice to these people." I will forever remember the faces, the smiles, and the handshakes as I walked by and the simple words "thank you Lisa." Yet in my heart what I was saying was "thank you God."

Tax-deductible donations are being accepted for the Libya Relief Fund at www.peaceandprosperityalliance.org or can be mailed to the Peace and Prosperity Alliance at PO Box 63103 Colorado Springs, CO 80962, USA.

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Lisa Gibson is the Founder and Director of the Peace and Prosperity Alliance (www.peaceandprosperityalliance.org). She is an ambassador of forgiveness and reconciliation, also an attorney, mediator, public speaker and author of the Award Winning book "Life in Death: A Journey From Terrorism To Triumph." Lisa has a unique voice on global terrorism having lost her brother on the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. As a result of this tragedy she is overcoming evil with good by serving the people of Libya, the country found responsible for her brother's death. Her story of forgiveness made the headlines when she met with and forgave Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, the world's most notorious terrorist and the man responsible for her brother's death. She can be contacted by e-mail at:Lisa@peaceandprosperityalliance.org