where is this picture?

Bam!! There it is. Glad they listened to you.

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 ?

**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.”

**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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 ....

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.

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!

...noteworthy points!