A somber plea for missing soldier
In lively Lawrence church service, worshipers pray for a safe return
LAWRENCE -- Guillermo Bisono stood at the front of Ebenezer Christian Church and linked hands with his pastor to pray for a cousin he had not seen in 10 years.
Bisono, 35, learned Wednesday that Army Specialist Alex R. Jimenez , 25, had been abducted south of Baghdad with two other soldiers after an ambush May 12 that left four other US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter dead.
"We have faith, and we hope he's alive," Bisono said of his cousin yesterday after the service.
As his family held on to the hope that Jimenez might still be alive, Bisono prayed for his cousin's safe return with at least 100 other people during a service that was at times lively and somber. Worshi pers clapped, sang, and danced when the choir of five singers, two guitarists, and two drummers played upbeat hymns. When the music slowed down and prayer leaders began to preach, many worshipers closed their eyes and wept.
"God, we pray to you for Alex," said the Rev. Victor Jarvis, the pastor. "We pray to you for his family."
Jimenez, of Delta Company, Fourth Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, was traveling in a patrol in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Al Taqa, searching for insurgents planting roadside bombs, when his convoy was hit by automatic weapons fire and explosives. One of the kidnapped soldiers is believed to have been killed by his captors.
On Saturday, military officials told Ramon Jimenez, who lives in Lawrence, that his son might be among the two surviving soldiers.
Ramon Jimenez as well as the soldier's wife and mother remained in New York City yesterday awaiting information from military officials, said Wendy Luzon , a family friend from Lawrence.
During the two-hour service at the Pentecostal church yesterday, Jarvis called the fathers and mothers gathered inside the white building on Haverhill Street to join him at the front of the worship hall, where he stood with Bisono and Miguel Rojas , a 26-year-old Air Force staff sergeant from Bedford, Mass.
Rojas led a prayer for Jimenez and his family.
"God, we beg you that they will have the strength to know that you will return him to them," Rojas said in Spanish, as the circle of parents linked hands and bowed their heads.
Rojas, who returned from Qatar on May 2 after four months at a US base there, said he did not know Jimenez but sympathized with his family.
"My wife took it a little harder, being left alone with the children. My parents were worried that anything could happen," he said. "For me, the environment that I was in was a lot safer."
Rojas, a father of three who remains on active duty, said he could be sent to Afghanistan or Iraq the next time he is deployed.
"You want to go to the safest place," he said. "But that's only a hope."
Bisono said he had not seen Jimenez since 1997, when he traveled to New York for a family party. He had not been aware his cousin had joined the service or been deployed to Iraq and learned of his kid napping through other cousins.
"I was in total shock," he said. "I have to call his parents so I can let them know I support them."
Bisono recalled his childhood with Jimenez in the Dominican Republic, where he said both of them were born.
"He was always very happy, mischievous, like any boy," Bisono said. "We were a very close family. We loved each other. We love each other."
At the end of the service, Bisono was called again to the front of the worship hall. A prayer leader, who had been preaching loudly into a microphone, lowered the machine when Bisono knelt before him. He crouched next to Bisono, placed his hand on his head, and prayed so softly he was inaudible to everyone but Bisono.
"He gave a prayer" for Alex, Bisono said after the service.
"If everything is meant to turn out well, then it will turn out well. It will be as God wants," he said.
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. 