Fourteen years ago, an eastern New Orleans man answered a call to spread his Christian faith in China, a country he had never visited and knew little about.
Bruce Emerson Morrison made a home there with his wife, Valori, a woman from Iowa who also had moved to the Far East to spread her religion. They raised their six daughters in the central China town of Wuhan. Through his Protestant church and as an English teacher, Morrison spread his love for Christ among the Chinese people.
His mission came to an end Feb. 3 when one of the Chinese men he had reached out to stabbed him to death.
Morrison's family still believes he did the right thing in traveling to China and spreading the word.
"He was called," said his father, Paul Morrison of eastern New Orleans. "This is just one of those aberrations."
The killing of the 37-year-old American was remarkable in a country that has only a fraction of the murders that occur in the United States. In 1996, China had 1.4 murders per 100,000 residents. That same year the United States had seven murders for every 100,000 people.
No one knows why Gong Zhili stabbed Morrison, a gentle man who had befriended him, or what will happen to Zhili. He was an out-of-work music teacher with a history of mental problems. Some newspapers quoted police as saying Zhili was "a known schizophrenic."
Morrison's widow and daughters have come home to grieve with relatives, but plan to return to China soon. It's the only home the girls have ever known, and it's where their father is memorialized with a simple headstone with the epitaph in English and Chinese, "Your gentleness has made me great."
Family stands out
Bruce was teaching English as a second language to some of his Chinese classmates at Louisiana State University in the mid-1980s when one told him, "China needs you."
Bruce took that statement very seriously, Paul Morrison said. Although Bruce had known he wanted to do missionary work, he had been unsure about where to go.
"He said, 'Well, maybe that's the Lord telling me that's where they want me to go' and so he went," Paul Morrison said.
Armed with a forestry degree from LSU, Bruce moved overseas in 1987. He met Valori in Hong Kong two years later. She immediately liked the soft-spoken American.
"The first thing I learned was to say what needed to be said in the nicest way possible. That's what he always did," Valori said. "I want (my daughters) to know that and be like him."
The couple married in 1990 and soon settled in Wuhan, a river port city of 7 million people. Bruce taught English at Hubei Institute of Technology. Valori home-schooled the girls: Hannah, 7, Victoria, 6, Esther, 5, Loice, 3, Mary, 2, and Charity, 8 months.
In a country where blond hair is rare and few people have more than one child, the Morrisons and their Chinese-speaking brood stood out. Strangers often would stop the family to take pictures, ask questions or just stare, Valori said. Bruce called his daughters his "golden flowers."
"He had quite a bouquet," Paul Morrison said.
On Feb. 3, Bruce went alone to a youth group meeting at their church, Wuchang Protestant Church in Wuhan. According to newspaper reports, Zhili, whom Bruce had known since April 2000, walked into the foyer of the church about 1:45 p.m., shouted, "Teacher Mo!," a term of respect, and stabbed Bruce below the heart.
As Bruce was being rushed to the hospital, a friend called Valori at home and told her that Bruce had been hurt. Valori woke the napping children.
"I told them, 'Daddy needs us,' " she recalled. During the half-hour cab ride to the hospital, they prayed. But Bruce died before they arrived.
Valori went alone to say her final goodbye. She repeated to herself one of the verses she'd read that day: "All your children will be taught by the Lord and great will be the peace in your children."
The verse still comforts her, she said.
"You always know it's 'til death do us part.' You always know it's going to come to an end someday," Valori said. "Regretting it or wishing it away won't do any good."
Killer's fate
Bruce's murder made headlines around the world. The mayor of Wuhan and officials from the Hubei Institute came to pay their respects to Valori and the children. A representative from the U.S. Embassy spent two nights with the family. The police, Valori said, "were very kind and gracious." And as a tribute to their teacher, 600 of Bruce's current and former students came to his memorial service, although institute officials, always fearful of large student gatherings, had asked only three representatives to attend.
Chinese officials aren't stingy with the death penalty. The government won't reveal how many executions are carried out each year, but Amnesty International estimates that more than 1,000 people were sentenced to death in 1999 and more than 18,000 people were executed during the 1990s.
Valori said she does not want her husband's killer put to death.
"Bruce cared about that guy who hurt him, and so should I," she said.
She believes Zhili's mental problems warrant other measures, perhaps institutionalization in a mental hospital or medication. She is confident that his illness will save him from death.
"We don't want him out on the streets, killing other people," she said.
After a few more months visiting family in the United States, Valori will take her daughters back to China.
In addition to raising six children without her husband -- "Bruce helped a lot, changing diapers and cleaning," she said -- Valori will have to find ways to make ends meet while devoting herself to her evangelical work. The family also needs to find a new place to live because their apartment is owned by Hubei Institute.
"I have my work cut out for me," Valori said. "I know God will provide."