Update #1 by David at 5:39 pm on Tue 10/28/2025 Well, the storm passed, and it was no way near as severe as 145mph winds that hit Kapaa, Hawaii in 1992 and destroyed 90% of the houses, tore through hotels gutting them, left the region (USA) without power for months and had other hard data to prove its real severity. Thank God this data was "puffed" for whatever reason. I've seen damage from 150+ mph winds in Philippines -- palm trees stripped bare, cemeteries flooded floating caskets down the street, you can search the actual pictures -- no way was this nearly as bad as those storms. I'm glad, btw, but the data for whatever reason is puffed. I think power will be restored within 1-2 weeks. Course we know in part, but based on what they were saying and the actual pictures, the "real damage" shows a lot less than projected, experientially speaking. I won't put the links here but search, Hurricane Inikki, 1992, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Inikidamage pictures, just for starters. Also Haiyan (Called Yolanda, 6352 dead, 1071 Missing). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Haiyan -- they were both 145 max sustained winds... For some reason they're puffing this...
Original Prayer Request
So we worship God as He is not an image or idol we imagine in our minds. Isa 43:13, "Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
We prayed and asked for it to be calm, lest we be guilty of the indictment, we have not because we haven’t asked, James 4:2, but God has deeper purposes than earthly minds can comprehend, Is 55:8-9, Job 11:7, Isa 40:28, Ecc 3:11, Ps 145:3, Rom 11:33. The potential DANGER was clearly revealed, Amos 3:7, but it is a mystery none-the-less, Deut 29:29. I could pray and warn people to pray, and I've seen storms go backwards and move 2X in 2023, and saw rain come in 1989, even seen storms obey this past hurricane season -- but this storm was for whatever reason God's will, Amos 3:6.
Ex 4:11, "But the LORD said to him, “Who has made the human mouth? Or who makes anyone unable to speak or deaf, or able to see or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?" I would venture an educated guess that nearly everyone on the island the tempest is currently assailing has heard the gospel. The Lord didn’t loose any friends, but many were in perplexity without despairing before they met him, 2 Cor 4:8.
Envisioned is this (in many ways) jewel of an island stripped bare with the "sticks" of once beautiful palms and a luxurious bay as empty with the little and medium boasts destroyed and strewn about with the tin metal roofs and once wooden structures poured out as a jigsaw puzzle from a box and likened to the city to which the writing-prophet warned from his youth until he was an old man. Only "Lamentations 1" can come to one's mind...
1 "How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
She has become like a widow
Who was once great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
Has become a forced laborer!
2 She weeps bitterly in the night
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has none to comfort her
Among all her lovers..."
And pragmatism shifts to the request that God may call Christian mercy groups with true gospel officers and send them forth to make sense of havoc and frightened lives, that a praying church arises and that true praise would be heard through pain and comfort some, until evening...
"As the last lights off the black west (go) / Morning in the brown brink eastward springs,
Because The Holy Ghost o'er the (woe) world broods / With warm breast and with 'ah,' bright wings" (Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur," Late 19th Century, Published Posthumously, Public Domain).
But we thank The Father for the hope of restoration and redemption especially in the face of apparent tragedy,,, Raise up laborers for the harvest, Luke 10:2, and comfort those who mourn, giving them a garment of praise instead of ashes, Isaiah 61:3, help the search and rescue efforts and provide relief from The nuclear aircraft carrier that will need to be deployed or another way to restore power over the next 3 weeks to month, and help us continue prayer, in Jesus' Name.
"And we see Jesus, for His suffering crowned with glory and with grace /
Tasting death for all men by God's grace / Given power to put all things in place /
And we see Jesus, seated at the right hand of The Throne / Making intercession for His own /
Upholding all things by His Word alone...
And You are Glorious / Shining victorious o'er powers and principalities /
And You are Glorious Reigning victorious / Disarming all You enemies /
The rulers of this world / Beneath Your feet are hurled /
As You reign our conquering King" (David Morris & Michael Massa, "For You are Glorious," Integrety's Hosanna! Music, 1988).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGRNEMfuQJU
Deuteronomy 32:39
"See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand."
Job 9:12
"If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’
Daniel 4:35
"All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
Psalm 135:6
"The LORD does all that pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all their depths."
Psalm 115:3
"Our God is in heaven; He does as He pleases."
John 10:28-29
"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand."
Yet, according to Wikipedia, Jamaica had the highest murder rate in the world in 2022, and it is also known for drugs, weapons and other notorious vices. Yet, I still see mercy in that the storm sat almost idle for over a week, and delayed its landfall for at least a day or two. Hopefully some people were able to leave the island. I just kept hearing, “THUNDERSTORM for a day or two before it came on my radar on the 22nd. We know in part, 1 Cor 13:9, and that “part” is rarely heeded, and never fully understood — at least in my experience…
"God's Grandeur"
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings! (GMH, 1879, Published Postmoumously, 1918).
Isaiah 61:1-4
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me,
because the LORD has anointed Me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and freedom to the prisoners,
2 To proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of our God’s vengeance,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 To console the mourners in Zion—
to give them a crown of beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins;
they will restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities,
the desolations of many generations." In Jesus' Name.