Prayer for Israel and the Middle East
God of all comfort and hope, who in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, proclaimed good news to the poor, bound up the broken-hearted, and set the captives free: We remember before You this day all who are affected by the violence of October 7, and we ask You to heal the wounded, comfort those who mourn, and bring justice and peace to the land of Israel. Look with mercy upon the peoples of the Middle East, that, in Your great compassion, the light of Christ may shine in the darkness and bring hope to every nation. As Simeon rejoiced to see Your salvation, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel, so we pray that Jesus, the Messiah, would be known as the true hope for all the earth. May Your Kingdom come, and may Your peace reign in every heart, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Experience in a hurricane
In October of 1961 I was in Belize, and there around the 29th or 30th of the month there was a hurricane that was moving up through the Gulf of Mexico and about halfway up the Gulf of Mexico it hit a cold front, coming down from Texas and ricocheted down Southwest straight towards Belize. Very soon, the government radio station, British Honduras Broadcasting Services started warning people to get to shelter and one of the things they were to do was to knock coconuts out of any coconut trees in their yard, because a coconut that takes off at a 150 miles an hour in a hurricane is like a cannonball when it hits a house. So anyway, this family I live with, the woman and her children we went to a large Roman Catholic school and went up on the 2nd floor and spent the night there.
The hurricane hit with the eye of the hurricane going right over Belize city. It was circling and pushing all the water out of the bay out into the Caribbean. And then when the eye passed over us all of a sudden, what that wind was now pushing all the water back and a 10 foot title surge came through the city and the highest point of land in the city is only about a foot and a 1/2 above sea level.
One of the kids in the family was in the government hospital, which was right on the bayfront. He had just had an appendectomy. Nurse Noguera, who was a friend of the family was working at the hospital, and the wind was blowing right through the room. And Nurse Noguera got on top of Timmy and was holding him down. She had her feet hooked into the metal frame at the foot of the bed and was holding on at the top and was just lying on top of him. All night long to keep him from being blown into the ocean. The next morning when we were finally able to open the door we looked out and there was so much mist in the air it looked like we were seeing a long way off, but in fact, we're only seeing a short distance, There were no buildings in sight. And I'll never forget hearing woman, say, “Belize is gone”. For about an hour we thought the whole city of 35,000 people was gone and that we were the sole survivors. We could only see our building and nothing beyond it, but it looked like we were seeing a long way And then gradually, mist started falling out of the air and buildings began to appear in sight. Finally, the water level which was already was up all the way up to the 2nd floor where we were so our floor was level with the water gradually went down during the day. And finally, we were able to get out and we worked our way over to the hospital to find out what happened to Timmy, and then we went to their house to see what was going on and her house had survived, but about a third of the houses in the city had been destroyed and they were starting to burn bodies on the street. I think about 600 people were killed altogether.
The storm was so powerful it went clear across Central America and it was a tropical storm in the Pacificand then it went back across Mexico into the Caribbean again and again registered as a full-scale tropical storm, It was Hurricane Hattie and was an incredibly powerful storm. I stayed until about November 9th or 10th and it was clear to me by staying that was a burden on the family because. There was a shortage of food and drinking water.
I was baptized and confirmed in the Anglican church on November 5th, Guy Faulkes Day.
About 5 days after the hurricane. I was walking through the city and met a ship captain who had come into the port to give aid and I asked if I could send a message to my family. He said it had to be short and so I just gave him my Parents address and phone number and then the message was ”Torre okay”, Unfortunately, I should have ordered it the other way around. “Okay Torre” It sounded like somebody else had sent the message and so my parents were wondering was I wounded and he's still okay of it or what's happened with him. If I said “Okay Torre” they would have known that it was from me and I was okay, but anyway, that was part of the adventure.
Albany Intercessor
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