A Gainesville woman and her family, now living in Barcelona, Spain, are safe after this past Thursday's deadly terrorist attack in a popular market in the city.
Allison McGill Ripoll and her husband Pablo are missionaries in Barcelona, and while they live about 30 miles from Las Ramblas, they have visited the market a number of times. They were not in the city on Thursday.
"We were actually there a couple of weeks ago," Ripoll told AccessWDUN. "It's beautiful...packed with tourists, especially this time of year."
Ripoll said August is typically a busy month for tourism in Barcelona, so it was no surprise that the market was crowded the day a van plowed into the area, leaving 14 people dead and more than 100 injured.
Ripoll said the family was at home when the incident occurred, and in fact, she didn't know anything about it until family and friends began trying to contact her.
"We had some friends over and we were eating here [at home]...we didn't have the news on," Ripoll said. "I picked up my phone and had 20 or so messages from friends or family in the states asking if we were okay. Then we turned on the news and saw what had happened."
Ripoll said she and her husband were stunned at what they saw.
"Honestly it was so shocking for us," she said. "We feel extremely safe and comfortable here. We've actually made comments about how safe it feels and how we never feel threatened and how we wouldnever expect anything like that to happen."
Ripoll said with three small children, she and her husband are conscious of safety, but she said she doesn't expect to stay inside and hide. She said she's sure visits to Las Ramblas are in their future.
The Ripoll family has been in Barcelona for about eight months, serving as missionaries for Word of Life Fellowship, which is based in New York. Ripoll said while the attack was horrifying, she hopes the incident will open up opportunities for deeper discussions with the people in Barcelona.
"We serve here reaching youth with the Gospel of Christ - that's what we're here for," Ripoll said. "It's a horrible act of terrorism, but at the same time it may provide an opportunity for us to share the Gospel with the people here."
Allison McGill Ripoll was a guest on the Friday, August 18 edition of The Afternoon News Wrap on WDUN. You can listen to the full interview in the sound file to the left of this article.
