A Bermudian aid worker brutally gunned down in front of his pregnant wife while on missionary work in Africa told his family weeks before he died there was a $25,000 bounty on his head.

Colin Lee and Paraguayan wife Hedwig Lee were ambushed and robbed by about 20 suspected rebels as they drove through Sudan to help war victims.

Mr. Lee was shot in the heart and throat but was not instantly killed. He died six agonising hours later, although his wife is believed to have survived Saturday?s nightmare ordeal by lying on the floor of the car.

Reports say Mrs. Lee, 35, heroically stayed by her wounded husband?s side and begged the rebels not to set the vehicle ablaze and burn them alive.

Relatives said the brave wife, who is four months pregnant, then virtually carried her husband for a long distance before he was able to get medical help, one hour after he was shot.

His stepmother, Sarah Lee, 84, said yesterday: ?If I had known this was going to happen I would have begged him to stay in Bermuda.?

But she added: ?He was ready to meet his Maker and that brings me peace.?

Mr. Lee?s younger sister, Gaylhia LeMay (Lee), said: ?I?ve not slept since I got the news. I keep hoping that when I go to sleep I will wake up and it will all be a dream.

?It?s like something out of a horror story.?

During a three-month trip back to Bermuda a few weeks ago her brother told her about the bounty, understood to have been placed by mercenaries deliberately targeting Christian missions.

?He told us how dangerous it was out there but we knew we could not stop him,? she said yesterday from her home in Devonshire. ?He was bold and fearless.?

His sister said that before her brother was gunned down, he dreamt he had a ?very, very heavy burden to carry?.

And she said he had been murdered by the very people he had travelled thousands of miles to help.

Mr. Lee, 57, who became a Christian more than ten years ago and had been working in Africa for the last two years as a trauma counsellor, told his family he wanted to help people in one of the poorest parts of the world.

This was vision he shared with his wife, who he met at a Bible class in London and married in Bermuda last year.

When ambushed they were on route to Uganda for a month of counselling seminars.

Asked how she felt about the men responsible for her brother?s savage death, thought to be members of the Lord?s Resistance Army (LRA), Mrs. LeMay said: ?They are the same type of people he was trying to reach out and help.

?To do something like this they must have deep-rooted confusion and pain in their own lives.

?Colin?s death is such a waste ? he had so much to offer life.

?He was a good person to talk to. If you had problems he was able to pull out exactly the right scripture and that would comfort you or put you back on track.?

Before his death, Mr. Lee and his wife has been teaching in war-torn Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda. Working for the International Aid Services (IAS) relief organisation, they had been focussing on reconciliation. His family said they had been successful in bringing peace to several areas controlled by feuding warlords.

Work on a technical college was about to start in Ethiopia, and Mr. Lee ? nicknamed Reverend ? was had arranging for used equipment and computers from Bermuda to be sent to Africa.

But his sister said her brother?s heart was not only in Africa, but was also in his homeland.

On his last visit, she said, he had helped provide trauma counselling and sessions to help troubled youths and gang members on the Island.

She said the family were due to hold talks with charity officials in a bid to set up IAS Bermuda in the wake of Mr. Lee?s death.

Mrs. LeMay said her brother?s life had not always focussed on religion. At one time he was a secular singer with a group called The Burning Ice.

?His past was quite different,? his sister told ?It was quite a contrast and that?s why he was able to counsel people. He had an understanding of what they were going through.?

Mr. Lee, whose home church was the Better Covenant Christian Fellowship, Smith?s, leaves four brothers, three sisters and a stepmother. He has two sons and a daughter.

Relatives are now making arrangements for Mr. Lee?s body to flown back to Bermuda.

They said Hedwig Lee, a member of the IAS for the last 12 years, was now resting in hospital in Uganda where she was due to have ultrasound tests. Mr. Lee?s family say she is determined to carry on in Africa, despite her husband?s death.

The Sudanese driver of the Toyota Landcruiser the couple were travelling in when ambushed, was reportedly shot in the arm but was stable.

Meanwhile, two aid agencies suspended their work in Uganda last month after the LRA killed two aid workers in similar ambushes.

The United Nations said such attacks threatened the provision of life-saving help to nearly 1.7 million people.

The cult-like LRA is made up of the remains of a north Ugandan revolt that started in 1986. They started attacking aid workers for the first time in its 19-year war against Government last month.

Its figurehead, Joseph Kony, faces 12 charges of crimes against humanity brought by the International Criminal Court.