The days and weeks following 9/11 were tenuous times

for Americans, especially for people

like Ray Norman and his family.

His work with the Christian humanitarian organization,

World Vision, had brought them to Mauritania,

an Islamic republic on the west coast of Africa.

RAY NORMAN: We were the largest humanitarian organization

working with the government to fight poverty in the country.

I knew there were some pockets of extremism

in the country that were not happy with our presence.

There was rocks thrown at our cars,

and the government assigned guards

at our home and our office, around my daughter's school.

So it was a very tense time.

After five weeks, security measures

were lightened as tensions eased.

Ray decided to take his daughter Hannah to a nearby beach.

He'd gotten out to lock the wheels

into four wheel drive when an Arab man walked up and greeted

him.

RAY NORMAN: He asked me if I was in American,

which didn't alarm me at the moment, and I said, yes, I am.

And then he said, well, thank you, and he went on his way.

He took about three paces, turned around,

and called to me.

And when I stood up, he had a 9mm pistol aimed at my chest.

And of course as a father, all of my thoughts

were about how do I protect Hannah?

I was hoping if he got me, maybe he'd leave her alone.

I started screaming, Daddy, that man has a gun.

He has a gun.

As Ray scrambled to get in the vehicle,

the man pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired.

RAY NORMAN: It went click, click, click.

And he took the gun and he tapped it twice and took aim

again.

But with Hannah screaming, he took the gun's aim off of me

and aimed at Hannah.

My dad, he threw himself up against the window

to block the man's view of me.

And as he did that, that bullet went off.

RAY NORMAN: The bullet came through my right arm.

Glass went everywhere.

It went into our eyes, under our skin.

Ray spun off as the man fired into the rear window.

They made it to safety, but something was wrong.

I felt out of breath.

I felt like something had punched me.

RAY NORMAN: The bullet that had gone through my arm

had struck her in the center of her chest.

And so my world crumbled.

And then she said to me, she said,

well, daddy, am I about to die?

RAY NORMAN: I could only respond in faith.

And something just welled up within me,

and I said, Hannah, you're not gonna die.

I need you to pray.

And says, OK, Daddy, I can do that.

I just called on the the name of Jesus

over and over and over again.

Ray sped towards the nearest clinic,

praying desperately for his daughter.

RAY NORMAN: I had an argument right there my prayers.

I said, Lord, this is not the way it was supposed to be.

Clinic staff tended to Hannah and rushed her in for x-rays.

RAY NORMAN: And it turned out that when the bullet had

hit her chest, it had bounced off her sternum,

slid across her rib cage, and exited in her armpit.

But the bullet had not penetrated

her lungs or her heart, and she was going to survive.

By then, friends had gathered at the clinic to support them.

RAY NORMAN: I remember with tears,

raising my hands in the air and saying, Lord, thank you.

Your promises are true and faithful.

I remember a Muslim friend looked at me,

says yes, your Jesus is faithful.

Both were patched up and flown to Paris for medical attention.

Hannah's mother, Helen, was finally

able to see her daughter.

My first reaction was to go straight to Hannah

and just hold her.

She, in fact, was sitting up in bed looking very chipper.

The Holy Spirit stepped in and protected both of them

from those bullets.

And I was just so convinced of that from the beginning.

As they recovered physically, the family

tried to make sense of what happened.

Why did he try to kill my father and myself?

RAY NORMAN: Someone who represented a people

that I had felt called to serve in the name of Christ

would inflict such harm.

This man had never given me the opportunity

to tell him how much I cared about him and his people.

He just walked out of the sand dunes and shot.

I felt somewhat sorry for him, like, why did he feel the need

to do what he did?

A few days after the shooting, authorities caught the gunman

Ali Ould Sidi.

Once the Normans returned to Mauritania,

a Muslim friend of Ray's explained

what would likely happen.

This This man has shamed his family, his clan.

Many, many people are very upset at what he did.

He said, you need to understand that before his case ever

comes to trial, he will probably conveniently disappear.

I was shocked, like, why would that happen?

Why does he deserve that?

I was angry.

I was upset.

And it didn't make sense to me for that to happen.

The family requested a visit with Ali in prison.

Six months later, they were finally

granted a five-minute visit.

Seeing him was just sort of a relief

because I saw that he was human, too.

And he wasn't a monster.

He was just a man.

And he looked really sad.

RAY NORMAN: He was obviously shocked to see us.

And you could tell by the look on his face

that he was expecting us to accuse him, to bring him grief.

I turned to Hannah and I said, Hannah,

do you want to say anything to the prisoner?

She addressed him directly, and she said,

Mr. Ali, I have two things I want to say.

First is, I want to know why you tried to kill my Daddy.

He paused for awhile and then said, I lost my head.

I said, Mr. Ali, I hold no bitterness in my heart

towards you, and I forgive you.

He froze, and he didn't move for a couple of seconds.

And when he looked up, we could all

see he had tears in his eyes.

I saw how fragile he was.

And even then, my heart continued to soften for him.

It wasn't easy.

I was still shaking at the time.

I was also hearing God ushering me into getting closer

to this man.

I just started explaining to him the fact that maybe God was

thinking about him when he protected

Ray and Hannah because he had designs and plans for his life.

The next day, the Normans received a handwritten letter

from Ali.

RAY NORMAN: I cannot find the words to describe our meeting

today.

Although I still feel remorse with regard to the evil I have

caused you, words cannot express the depth of my joy in seeing

you with your daughter, that little angel alive and well.

Many times I've heard of Christian charity,

of Christian kindness and love.

When you came to see me, I saw it and experienced it.

In accordance with Sharia law, the Norman family's

public forgiveness helped to commute Ali's sentence,

and he was released after one year in prison.

The Normans never got to see him again.

But for them, the experience confirmed

everything they believe about the God they serve.

He gives us this ability to forgive

and to love that is unnatural.

As natural human beings, we can't just do this.

RAY NORMAN: For God so loved the world, he gave his son.

For God so loved Muslims, he gave his son.