Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis speaks at the service on Wednesday. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staff
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
NEARLY three weeks after Hurricane Dorian struck the northwestern Bahamas, hundreds gathered at Bahamas Faith Ministries last night to make sense of an unimaginable tragedy in typical Bahamian fashion: through prayer, praise and worship.
Pastors prayed for grieving families, for emotional healing and for protection. They prayed for first responders and aid workers, for children and for provisions. They also prayed for the Haitian community, for Abaco, Grand Bahama, for the prime minister and for the congregation.
Speakers gave stories of heroism during the storm and Bahamians were encouraged to triumph, not despair.
Singers and worship groups sang about trusting God. Attendees, with their hands raised, danced, cried and sang along with them.
The prayer service drew a crowd full of clergymen, government officials and grieving residents. Google marked the country’s National Day of Prayer with a black ribbon on its homepage, a reminder that few countries have so captured the attention of the world in recent weeks.
“The horror and tragedy of ‘one of the most powerful and destructive storms ever recorded in’ our region is a near unbearable wound, deep in the heart and the soul of our country,” Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said.
“But these words cannot describe the suffering, the pain, and the grief of Abaconians, Grand Bahamians and indeed Bahamians throughout our Commonwealth and those abroad. This is likely to be the greatest single loss of life ever in our history. The fresh well of tears will not go dry, nor empty, for a very long time, or even a lifetime for some.”
Thirteen hundred people remain missing, at least 51 are dead and hundreds of displaced residents are worried about their future.
“We will need as many spiritual resources, as we will need physical resources to rebuild lives and communities,” the prime minister said. “Let us pray for those who work day and night to address the needs of the victims and displaced persons. Let the common prayer throughout our land be for the gifts of the Spirit needed to heal and to restore: the gift of hope, the gift of generosity, the gift of encouragement, the gifts of courage and fortitude, and the gift of humility to work in one accord.”
Bishop Delton Fernander, head of the Bahamas Christian Council, said he hoped this would not be the last time so many congregated to pray for the country.
“We must now also appreciate that people are more important than things,” he said. “How we treat each other, how we speak to each other, speaks to who we are as a Bahamian people. Many who would’ve acquired much and accomplished much found themselves having the same challenges and those who didn’t have as much as them. Only what we do for God can last.”
He said he hoped the country would use the knowledge gained from the horrific storm to be wiser and better. He also said he envisioned a stronger Bahamas as a result of the tragedy.
During his remarks, Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis called for less talk.
“This is not time for talk, it is time for action,” Mr Davis said. “If we say that we love and do nothing, we fail to love, love is an action word. Let us get to work. Together let us help our families, friends and strangers, that is the Bahamian way.”
Towards the end of the service, religious figures surrounded the nation’s leader as Bishop Fernander placed his hand on Dr Minnis’ head and led a prayer for him.
Comments
bahamianson 5 years, 2 months ago
where is this picture?
Sickened 5 years, 2 months ago
Bam!! There it is. Glad they listened to you.
OMG 5 years, 2 months ago
Granted prayers bring folk together and help bolster moral for many but the power of so many prayers asking for protection,etc every minute of every day never seems to prevent these disasters from happening yet we ascribe a sudden illness recovery or good harvest to a higher power. How can a higher power be it God or another religion seem to be able to select when to excercise that power ?
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
Matthew 7:24-27 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
Matthew 6:5 (New King James Version) “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
Sickened 5 years, 2 months ago
Isn't that what church is, a place to gather to worship? Why gather to worship if it's not to be seen to be doing so? Is praying as a group more powerful than praying at home?
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
For too many Bahamians worship has always been more about being seen and socializing in their 'Sunday best' while trying to climb the ladder of the most favoured sheep within the flock preached to by the church's anointed shepherds who sit facing opposite them. As I suspect you know, the Bible makes it quite clear that there's no requirement to attend church here on earth in order for our soul to one day be welcomed by the Lord in the eternal place that awaits the truly Christian among us.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 2 months ago
Agree with Mudda on this one, church has become a social scene rather than worship time. Look at the ridiculous suits that the priests/bishops/pastors are now wearing. It's literally like they're in performance costume. And don't talk about what the "First Lady" wearing. That's not for God, that's for man, for them to be "seen".
I said to a relative watching the nationalservice that I really hated these things because everybody who gets the mic tries to out do out pray out sing out emotionalize the person who came before them. And the service drags on forever. And that's exactly what happened. Have a service, call the names of the persons known to have died, pray that the missing are found, pray for the persons who've lost loved ones that they'll be given the strength to get through. Preach about what a nation as a body needs to do to heal when it goes through calamity. Don't let the rulers speak it een about them. Done.
banker 5 years, 2 months ago
If you believe in God, you have to believe that he sent the hurricane. Believers say its all in god's plan. So prayers can't help, because it was planned.
joeblow 5 years, 2 months ago
Untrue statement! It is more accurate to say that God did not stop the hurricane, just like He does not stop people from lying stealing and committing adultery. Belief in Him DOES NOT mean that you must believe that He sent it!
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
As we've all heard many times before, often the Lord's will manifests itself in a mysterious way. Hubert Ingraham, Perry Christie and Hubert Minnis each had intimate knowledge of all of the following decades before Hurricane Dorian came along:
1) That the very overcrowded, unsanitary and most dangerous (disease and fire prone) shanty towns in Central & North Abaco, namely The Mudd, The Pigeon Pea and The Farm communities, were illegally built by squatters on land they did not own with no regard for building permits or compliance with infrastructural/utility approvals required from government agencies as a matter of law.
2) That these shanty town communities were in the main densely populated by Haitian nationals who had entered our country illegally, as well as their stateless offspring subsequently born in The Bahamas, all living under the most squalid conditions.
3) That many who were living in these shanty town communities had fraudulently obtained official documents like residency permits, birth certificates, citizenship papers and e-passports for themselves and many of their stateless children who are only stateless because the Haitian government refuses to recognize their true nationality as Haitian citizens born abroad.
4) That countries like the Bahamas are most vulnerable to the increasing frequency of major category 5+ hurricanes as a result of changing global climate patterns with Hurricane Ivan's devastating direct hit on the Cayman Islands in 2004 being a classic example well before Dorian.
5) That The Mudd, The Pigeon Pea and The Farm shanty town communities were all located on very low lying land areas with the greatest exposure to decimation from storm surge in the event of a direct hit by a major category 5+ hurricane.
Notwithstanding having all of this prior knowledge for decades, Ingaham, Christie and now Minnis allowed these illegal communities to continue to grow rather than be torn down with the detention and later repatriation to Haiti of most of the illegal Haitian aliens living in them.
It would therefore seem that the testing of our good Lord's patience for something to be done about these uncivilized shanty towns by our past and present political leaders, as well as successive governments of Haiti, finally came to end. Yes indeed, the will of our good Lord does seem to work at times in very mysterious ways. Hopefully both our government and the government of Haiti now finally realize that these shanty town communities in our country can no longer be allowed to exist.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 2 months ago
Actually no..the bible refers to Satan as "the Prince of the Power of the Air". God can direct things to happen but he also "allows" things to happens. Just like a parent who lets the child touch the warm stove after telling them for the 10,000th time to stay away from the stove. Bahamians have this false belief that anything that happens and every person who wins an election is of God ....no they're not. God didn't send bad times to Job, he allowed them to happen.
TalRussell 5 years, 2 months ago
Here's question on this comrade's mind. In meantime has me thinking, if before, during and after prayers, does new Town Center Post Office - still leaks, yes, no ... has asks, if it too leaky serve as post hurricane shelter ....
OMG 5 years, 2 months ago
You can quote all the biblical texts you like but at the end of the day dimissing all these disasters and personal tragedies as " its Gods plan" make absolutely no sense.
SP 5 years, 2 months ago
I cannot believe you people are arguing among yourselves about biblical interpretations and allowing Minnis to get away with directing the narrative away from successive government stupidity.
What Is Truly A "Near Unbearable Wound To The Country" is Pindling, Ingraham, Christie and now Minnis are the architects of the shanty towns illegal inhabitants and now we taxpayers have to foot the bill of $100's of millions to house, feed, and care for them! It would have made far more sense and cost the country far less to have borrowed funds to humanely round up and repatriate illegals. The Dominican Republic successfully did it, and so can we if Minnis had the fortitude!
To add insult to injury, the international press looking for sensationalism is giving Bahamians and the Bahamas two serious black eyes by focusing mainly on the shantytown pile of rubble and depicting its former inhabitants as "Bahamians" not illegal Haitian migrants.
This inaccuracy has to be clarified if tourism is to rebound sooner rather than later. The minister of tourism needs to find the fortitude to address this misconception and be man enough to declare to the international press that those photos, people and destroyed communities being flashed across the globe every 20 minutes on every TV station are NOT BAHAMIAN but "ILLEGAL HAITIAN MIGRANTS & THEIR SHANTYTOWN COMMUNITIES"!
Being politically correct is one thing, but for our government to continue being politically stupid to the detriment of the entire country is just asinine!
joeblow 5 years, 2 months ago
...noteworthy points!
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