Beryl could not stop pastor and family from praising God
Pastor Tommy Lee was led to capture his two daughters and goddaughter singing and praising God as Hurricane Beryl ravaged his home and sections of the island on July 3. Little did he know that the video he had intended to retain as a family memorabilia was going to go viral and become a powerful testimony to inspire possibly millions of people globally to continue praising God during their personal storms.
Pastor Lee, a farmer who pastors the Beacon Pentecostal Church of God of Prophecy in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, was at home on the Wednesday with his two daughters, goddaughter, wife, mother-in-law, and a family friend, when Beryl’s wrath bore down on their two bedroom house, ripping away most of the roofing and dumping inches of rain, which saturated and destroyed the majority of their furniture.
As the storm intensified, Lee’s two daughters, eight-year-old Taija and 10-year-old Tiandra, along with his goddaughter, started praying, worshipping God, and singing. They did this while huddling under a table with a mattress on top for additional coverage as the force of the wind flung objects across the room. As he heard his children singing Tasha Cobbs’ hit song, “The Goodness of God,” the pastor took out his phone to record, while he and his mother-in-law stood in a corner of the house, monitoring Beryl’s impact.
“I said, I want to do this so after the storm pass, I can have this as a little memory to show them that together we have gone through a storm and for them to see their reaction while the storm was taking place, and that was the intended purpose,” he told Freedom Come Rain.
The day before, his elder daughter had graduated from primary school, but due to the launch of a national state of emergency, his mother-in-law was unable to go back to Kingston, and his goddaughter and her mother were prevented from going back home to Westmoreland. So they all rode out the storm together. The plan was to head to the church if the storm took the roof of the house, but as Lee rallied his family to head to the church, he realised that the church he and his wife have pastored for the last 12 years was also roofless.
More than a week after Beryl passed, his mother-in-law and his goddaughter’s mother asked him to share the video with them. He did so, not realising that it was going to be shared with persons as far as India. The video has been making the rounds, and the pastor has been inundated with calls from persons in Argentina, sections of the US, all across Jamaica, and other countries. Many have stated how much they have been blessed, while others want to know how they can help the family recover from the damages caused by the hurricane.
“To God be the glory!” he said, before adding, “If nobody gives me and my family nothing, the fact that they watched the video and their faith is being restored, their lives have been renewed and refreshed, and they have a different perspective of God, then we are good.”
The father’s faith was also lifted after witnessing the activities that preceded the making of the video.
“My two daughters don’t even know the levels that they have pushed me where my faith is concerned in the Lord. I have faith in God, but seeing that they were the ones who started praying first, started worshipping, started singing, and to call on the Lord and I just followed through with what they were doing, and the spirit of the Lord just took control, and he just did what He had to do. I just love those girls,” he beamed.
“I broke [down] at one point when my 10-year-old daughter, I was sitting beside her and comforting her, and she looked me in the eyes when everything was happening, and her question to me was, ‘Daddy, does God still love us?’ And with tears in my eyes, I put a smile on my face, and I looked her in her eyes, and I said, ‘Baby, yes, God still loves us.”
Lee, who described his wife as a “tower of strength,” said they have both raised their daughters in the church, and they have sought to live an exemplary life for them to model. The children are very involved in several ministries at church, and they are also doing well academically. His elder daughter, who celebrated her 11th birthday the day after the storm, was the head girl at her primary school and will be heading to the prestigious Hampton High School come September. She graduated as the top girl for grade six, has made the principal’s honour roll, and has consistently maintained a high average. The younger daughter says God has called her to be a pastor and, like her sister, is doing exceptionally well at school. They are both quiz champions for the Jamaica Pentecostal Church of God (Trinity) and have collected several medals and trophies over the years at school and church, which were also featured in the video.
“From they started school, their average is always up, and can I tell you, they never miss a church function. They don’t even study,” said Lee.
“As a pastor, I have watched over the years how a lot of pastors’ children end up hating church and hating ministry, and the thing that I realise was that the pastors didn’t involve their children in ministry. They did ministry all by themselves, and they separated their children from ministry,” he said.
Lee, who was in Connecticut at a convention when Freedom Come Rain spoke to him, said his family is now staying with his mother as a result of the destruction caused by the hurricane. Despite the impact on their church and home, he said his wife still hosts worship services in the roofless church with the brethren. However, they now start the services earlier to avoid the midday sun.
“I just thank God for her. I just love her,” the pastor said in reference to his wife, whom he met at Bible School.
As he reflected on the reach of the video, the pastor couldn’t help but recall how, in recent times, he has been asking God to use him more for His glory. He said that based on his own human understanding, he was asking God to bless him with a car so he can travel across Jamaica to preach the gospel, or bless him with the opportunity to travel more so he can preach God’s Word in other countries.
“Little did I know that God was going to use a hurricane to take me where aeroplane wouldn’t have allowed me to go. I would have been limited on the plane. God used the hurricane situation to bring me to the heart and the lives of people that he wanted me to touch globally,” said the pastor.