October 16, 2008
Bad Night for the Cougs and Collinsworth Family
Written by: John
I’m too surprised and upset to write about tonight’s football game. My silence should say a lot.
In other amazing news, today the report came out that Chris Collinsworth had been jumped with his companion while on a mission in Australia. I’d always heard that Australia was a pretty rough mission for Americans that went there. However, I still can’t imagine what would bring someone to want to jump 2 missionaries. Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t imagine Chris Collinsworth doing anything to provoke someone to do something like this. On my mission in Italy a few missionaries got into a tussle with some drunk locals. It’s sad when things like this happen.
I send out my best wishes to Elder Collinsworth, Elder Ferguson and their families.
Here’s an excerpt from the story that describes the incident:
Elder Collinsworth and his companion (an Elder Ferguson from Montana) were jumped from behind by three men, believed to be in their 20s, about 8:30 p.m. as they were walking back to their apartment. When the first attacker jumped on Elder Collinsworth’s back, he flipped the assailant over his shoulder and onto the pavement.
As Elder Collinsworth was busy fighting off the first attacker, a second man then began assaulting him. When Elder Ferguson tried to pull the second attacker away, the third man stabbed and slashed both of the missionaries with a small knife. During the tussle, the attackers managed to pull Elder Collinsworth’s shirt up over his face and tackle him to the ground. While on the ground, and with his shirt over his face, Elder Collinsworth was kicked and slugged repeatedly.
“They beat him up pretty good,” said Jeff Collinsworth, father of Elder Collinsworth.Fortunately, a man passing by in a car saw the scuffle, pulled his car up and shined his headlights toward the attack — which scared the assailants away.
“That man probably saved their lives,” Jeff Collinsworth said. “At the very least, Chris probably would have lost his teeth.”
Elder Collinsworth spent Tuesday night in a Sydney hospital with a substantial stab wound to his back, but was released to the mission home Wednesday morning.
“He said he’s ready to get back to work,” Jeff Collinsworth said.
Elder Ferguson sustained substantial cuts to his legs, arms and hands and underwent surgery on Tuesday and remained hospitalized Wednesday.
G’day from Australia. The part of Sydney where Chris and his buddy were attacked is called “little Lebanon”. A huge immigrant community. Chris’ attackers were described as Middle Eastern and one report also said Lebanese Muslim (which wouldn’t be a surprise). In that part of Sydney you don’t feel safe if you are white, or Christian, or American. And if you happen to be all three, well watch your back. Most of us locals treat it as a no-go zone. Many Lebanese Muslims have had a superiority complex ever since they started coming here decades ago. It’s a turf war now and the reports said Chris did nothing to provoke it. It sounds like they just saw him as a target and tried to gut him. Many Lebanese are quite big and strong, so Chris and his friend fought well to survive. Bravo.
Thanks for the information Michelle. I’m sure that many past missionaries will be able to relate to areas like this. I know there were a couple on my mission which were pretty close to what you describe. My wife had some too. Not sure why they let women there though.
Thanks again for stopping by and providing a local perspective.