Updated: Sat Jul. 12 2008 16:57:05

CTV.ca News Staff

A missionary working for a Canadian organization had only one thing on her mind when thugs armed with machetes and clubs broke into her home in Kenya: She had to find a way to save her husband.

John and Eloise Bergen, of Vernon, B.C., had been living in Kitale, Kenya and working with the Kelowna, B.C.-based group Hope for the Nations when they were viciously attacked.

Both are suffering from broken jaws and wounds to the head and neck. John, 70, is also suffering from multiple fractures of the skull, arms, leg and knee.

Eloise, 65, required 35 stitches to the face.

She told CTV Newsnet she was taking a bath when she looked up and saw five men armed with machetes and clubs standing over her.

The home invaders bound Eloise and held a machete to her throat, while John was attacked outside the house.

"When I was going through the ordeal I had all my wits about me. My mind was very clear, I was very calm, it was just like Jesus Christ was right beside me," she told CTV Newsnet on Friday.

"I wasn't conscious of overwhelming fear I was just conscious that I must do what they told me to do and I must remain calm and have my mind about me so I would know how to cut myself free and so that I could figure out how to save my husband."

Despite being raped, tied up and beaten, she was eventually able to free herself, and begin searching for her husband who had been virtually left for dead by the attackers.

She found him in nearby bushes. Eloise then managed to get him into their car and drive him to the Hope for the Nations compound.

Both were then taken to a hospital and later airlifted to Nairobi.

In total, seven people broke into the house -- five men and two women, Eloise said. Two of the men in the group were guards hired to protect the walled home.

"They were very nervous and jumpy and afraid someone might come and find them doing this so they had the machete at my throat almost all the time making sure that I wouldn't raise my voice and they were all whispering."

All of the suspects have now been arrested, she said. The Bergens say they forgive their attackers and plan to stay in Kenya.

The Bergens have children and grandchildren, and their two of their son, along with one of their grandchildren, will be flying to Nairobi to convince them to come back to Canada.

Lance Bergen spoke to CTV News and said he expected his parents would forgive their attackers.

"It wouldn't surprise me at all if he got out of the hospital went to the prison where the people are being held and gave each one of them a hug and said he loved them," he said of his father. "If I was ever half the man my father is I'd have something to actually tell somebody."

On the mend

Following the attack, both were in critical condition. Ralph Bromley, president of Hope for the Nations, said Friday that the couple's condition has improved and they are now in stable condition.

"They are in the Nairobi hospital and they're in the care of very good doctors," he told CTV's Canada AM on Friday. "They're coming to grips with what happened... the difference one day will make is amazing."

He said the couple had been in Kenya for several months to work with children in the aftermath of widespread political violence earlier in the year.

Shortly after arriving they set up a school in a massive refugee camp of 45,000. Since then the camp has been dismantled, but the couple has continued to work with kids and to help with community development projects.

It's still unclear what the couple, who had planned to remain in Kenya over a long-term period, will do now.

"At this point they're not saying but they are the kind of people that I believe will just dig in and stay, they love those people," Bromley said.

He said Hope for the Nations works in 20 different countries, but the recent attack marks the first violence targeting foreign workers with the organization.

The Bergens have children and grandchildren, and their son Josh, along with one of their grandchildren, will be flying to Nairobi to help care for the couple.