As the brutality of war unfolds, let us pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem | Opinion
We recently wished our Jewish friends a happy new year. But just days into the Jewish New Year, and while we were still celebrating, Israel was thrust into yet another war. So far, the new year hasn’t been very happy.
In fact, the news of this war, seemingly more brutal than ever, has made me more aware of what we have here in the United States. For while there is no Speaker of the House in Washington; and while we are still having to deal with racial issues, gun violence, road rage and hateful name-calling, we woke up this morning to the sounds of birds singing in the trees. And not to the sound of bombs bursting around us. That gives me hope.
But hope is slight for people like 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, an Israeli woman of my age, who is one of the hostages taken to Gaza by the militants during the recent Hamas terrorist attacks. A video showed her sitting on the back of a golf cart, the fear of her fate etched across her face. Without her medicines for chronic pain and heart and lung conditions, “every minute is a horror for her” her granddaughter was quoted in a Washington Post article.
Then there is the video that showed a young mother, Doron Asher Katz, 34, who is held blindfolded in the back of a pickup truck along with her mother Efrat Katz, 67, and her daughters Raz, 5, and Aviv, 3.
These are just a few of the faces of war and suffering that we now see on our daily newscasts. For me, watching the suffering of the innocent in the land of our Lord is hard to watch.
Still, there is more gruesome news coming to us from the war in Israel: Media reports say women, children, toddlers and elderly have been slain in the attack by Hamas. Such news brings to my mind scenes from the Holocaust.
This is a very sad time, not only for Israel, but for all the peace-loving people of the world. We can’t be smug and ignorant about what is happening in Israel. What happens in Israel, affects us, too. This is, as my mom would say, is “praying time.” It is a time when, those of us who are believers, must really put our trust in the Lord and continue to bless Israel.
So let us pray for the safe release of the hostages and the end to the pain and suffering being afflicted on human beings by other human beings.
And as for me and my house, we will continue to pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem.
Faith Community Baptist Church celebrates its senior pastor
While there is a war being waged in Israel, and while the people of Afghanistan dig their way out of yet another earthquake, there is still some good news to share.
On Sunday, Oct. 8, Faith Community Baptist Church at 10401 NW Eighth Ave., celebrated the “Final Pastoral Anniversary” of its senior pastor, the Rev. Richard P. Dunn, II, who had served as pastor of the church for the past 15 years. If that wasn’t occasion enough to celebrate, add to the mix that the guest speaker was the senior Dunn’s son, the Rev. Richard P. Dunn, III, associate pastor of the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington.
Still another reason to celebrate, is that the pastor elect of Faith Community is the Rev. Brandon R. Dunn, the senior Dunn’s younger son, who now serves as the assistant pastor of the church. That’s two generations of preachers — a father and his two sons — in the pulpit of that glorious day.
For many in the Black community, and beyond, the name Dunn is synonymous with the Black Baptist church in Miami Dade-County. As a teenager, I attended the Historic St. John Institutional Baptist Church in Overtown, where the senior Rev. Dunn’s grandmother, Mrs. Pauline Dunn, was the director of choirs. His grandfather the late Rev. Jarius W. Dunn, was the founding pastor of Drake Memorial Baptist Church at 5800 NW Second Ave., named for his uncle the late Rev. Jarius W. Drake, one of the former pastors of St. John. The church’s Jarius W. Drake Educational Center is named for him.
“I honor and owe a lot to my grandfather, Rev. Jarius Dunn, who ordained and licensed me 43 years ago, when I was only 18“, the senior Dunn said.
To make this more personal, the senior Dunn’s dad was one of my best friends, and who was the godfather of my first son, the late Pastor James F. (Ricky) Hines, Jr.
The senior Dunn, who was appointed twice to serve as a city of Miami Commissioner — in 1996 and again in 2010 — was elected in Nov. 2010 and served until August 2011, when Commissioner Michelle Spence Jones was reinstated to office.
Now, the senior Dunn is passing on the gavel to his younger son, so to give himself more family time, and time to mentor other young ministers. He also plans to travel and to do some writing, he said.
Meanwhile the senior Dunn serves on the governing board of the Miami Dade County Children’s Trust and works as a paraprofessional at Arcola Lake Elementary School.
He, and his wife Daphne, have been married 37 years. In addition to their sons, they are the grandparents of Londyn and Richard, IV.
He said his plans are to “Continue to serve in the ministry as the pastor emeritus at Faith Community Baptist Church… I can’t leave my son out there alone”, he said with a chuckle.
Bea Hines can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com
