June 29, 2022
United Nations Ceremony
The police led our car caravan to a special parking place along the street at Dag Hammerschel plaza. We gathered at the Isaiah Wall across the street from the United Nations on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets. It is called the Isaiah Wall because of Isaiah the prophet “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Officially the name is Dr. Ralph Bunch. Dr. Ralph Bunch was an African American who gained fame in resolving the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land. We heard the prayers of every minister, then we had a photo session up the steps, along the wall, where the quote is written. Thus ended the first day of our 3-day commemoration of the 40th anniversary of June 12. We sought to have a meeting with the President of the General Assembly, Abdullah Sahid but because of emergencies, he was called away. We continued to look for an agreeable date and the names of the delegation, in the process of submitting the names of persons who will be in the delegation.
Prayer to the Creator and Appeal to the Leaders of the World
Friday, June 3, 2022
We, the peace-loving peoples of the world, fervently desire peace and goodwill in and among the nations of the world.
We are profoundly concerned regarding the war in Ukraine and plead for a speedy, mutually beneficial agreement.
We tremble with fear, lest the war's continuation may result in a widening that would include other nations and the introduction of nuclear weapons.
We pray and plead that all nations, where there is the potential of conflict or war, for dialogue and successful negotiations; that the United Nations be utilized more fully to accomplish its primary purpose, for which it was established, a place where the nations of the world would gather in peaceful respectful interactions wherever there was danger of conflict or war. Moreover, not only when there was danger of war, but that the nations would learn to live together as one human family.
In some cities across the world, seemingly they have been infected with the war virus. In the USA massacres are happening daily, hatred, violence, killings are the order of the day.
Concomitantly, hunger and homelessness, nakedness, disease, physical challenges of every description, desperately inadequate, understaffed dilapidated hospitals are pervasive across the globe. Our own mother nature seems to be angry with us as though we have done something wrong to her.
It is a melancholy consideration that the land, resources, energy, creativity, and human toil that we put into the world’s militaries could heal and fix most, if not all, the aforementioned problems.
Just last Thursday, June 1st, 2022 the Congress of the United States approved 40 billion dollars which total of 54 billion dollars that have been spent in Ukraine since March 2022. In approximately four months, America alone will have spent and will spend up to 54 billion dollars. Now, add what the other nations have spent including Russia, and then it becomes reasonable that as stated, the ills of the world could be eradicated.
This is a great big beautiful world that the Creator has made for us, ALL OF US, to live in peace and happiness with one another. Let us hasten the day, (let us start today) fulfilling the words of the Prophet Isaiah written on the stone walls across the street. “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Micah 4:3 Surely the peace-loving people of the world will shout out with one voice, “A consummation devoutly to be wished.”
We have no choice, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who issued an Armageddon threat, “we must learn to live as brothers or die as fools”.