After the deafening force and noise of the winds and the crashing of the sea. In the silence that will come back in the days ahead, the reality of what has happened to the beautiful islands in the Caribbean over the past few days will hit so hard. 

When the waves just lap gently on the sea shore once again and the sun is shining who could have imagined the devastation that Mother Nature could have inflicted upon the lives of these people? 

Many are lost, and others walk about almost without a cause in their lives, almost in disbelief looking for that which was once their home. A home that was so precious not because it was worth thousands of pounds, but because in that place people felt so safe.

That was until nature came along and life became so different for these people. 

We look at our television screens and say, "that's so awful I really feel for those people!" But friends we really have no idea do we? Not even a glimmer of how these folks feel. We try to understand but we are not walking in their shoes. Lives and homes and belongings all gone.

In those hours, in the aftermath life was broken for those people, many souls. Their lives were taken unsparingly, and life will never be the same for those left behind. Yet through their strength to survive they will in time rebuild and look to a future once more.

Our prayers and our thoughts reach out to these people, and I know that so many of us have sent out love and healing to them already probably every day in fact. How fortunate we are, and yes - how we should count our blessings. 

Many thoughts will go out in the coming days for the rest of those countries that will be in exactly the same situation as the Bahamas as the storm carries on in its relentless path until finally it blows itself out.

Minister Marian Bishop