Branch Davidians

Yesterday, my wife and I drove by Mt. Carmel here in Waco, the site where the Branch Davidians lived. There is a memorial just inside the gate with marker stones for all that died there, 18 of which were under 10 years old. The markers encircled a tree. Then there was a larger stone declaring "He is our Resurrection".
I did not begin this thread to thrash David Koresh, nor approve of his activities. I just wanted to share with you, the compassion and sorrow that flooded my soul when we drove around that tree looking at real names of real people. Even as I type this, my soul "swells", and I know it is the Spirit of the Lord.
I felt the same way only at one other place, the "Vietnam Memorial" in Washington, D.C.. Grief with silent tears streaming down the cheeks.
As we continued on down the road, there was a lady walking down the road reading a book. We stopped and asked her for directions on to where we were going next. I asked her is she was part of the group there now, and she said, "yes".
She was a very peaceful spirit. We shared briefly about what happened then, and what is there now. She invited us to come back when we get time and tour the grounds, visit the church and so forth. We plan on doing that soon, since we only live about two miles from the site.
Please don't debate the Davidians here, for that is not my intent. But let us pray for the families who lost precious lives on that terrible day. For the holocaust came for them that day as they had predicted. Judgement for some of them? Perhaps. But a tragedy non-the less.
I'm glad I went to the site. I know I will go back, perhaps even attend a church service there some time. Though not SDA myself, I am Sabbath sympathetic. If I do visit again, I'll post a note about it here.
Thank you for letting me share this with you in love.....His love....for His children....all of them. For not only did the fire take the lives of approximately 80 people. It took the lives of all their future decendants as well. How many is that? Sigh. God bless you real good today.

Yours in Christ Jesus,

"O"

Please don't debate the Davidians here

Amen, though what is there to debate? I think you'll find most everyone here unanimously aligned in their convictions of who David Koresh was not. There's a joke here in Texas that the name Waco (or Whacko) is actually an acronym for "We Ain't Comin' Out."

Interestingly enough, my wife is a native Texan, and at the time of the incident, she was living near Waco. She remembers it being a very calm, still day - until the fire started. You ask people around Waco at the time and they'll tell you of a big, mysterious wind that suddenly picked up as the fire began. The news reporters even commented on it. It seemed to come out of nowhere and didn't die out till after it was all over.

Brother Paul

The wind blows here 24/7. It is rare that it does not blow.

"O"

The wind blows here 24/7.

The wind blows in most places (to a degree) on earth 24/7. For the last 44 years, the average wind speed for Waco in April has been 12.8 mph. That fateful day it rose to above 30. Now, I well understand that it could have just been a fluke, a coincidence. But the fact is that the wind rose to an abnormally strong speed that day (over double the average), and the abnormality of this occurence was even noted in the [i]local[/i] news at the time.

Pretty interesting, I think.

Brother Paul

[url=http://www.met.utah.edu/jhorel/html/wx/climate/windavg.html]National averages[/url]

[url=http://www.time.com/time/daily/newsfiles/waco/050393.html]Eye-witness accounts[/url]

Reply to Onesimus4God

Thank you for your post. I still grieve for those children and cannot come to terms with their deaths. I pray your visit is healing, please let us know the details.

Eddie

Thank you, let us grieve together. God bless you real good today.

In Him,

Lahry

Paul wrote:

Now, I well understand that it could have just been a fluke, a coincidence. But the fact is that the wind rose to an abnormally strong speed that day (over double the average),

As a person whose has lived close to the earth, the soil and whose livelihood has depended on the weather, we notice weather patterns and do take seriously the changes and the vagaries we see.

Locally, something strange is happening. In all the years we have lived here, one could depend on a six week drought in the middle of the summer. This affected the soybean crop considerably. Farmers have moved away from soybeans to growing corn as their main grain crop. This means the crop would have been made by the time the drought [could] set in. What is happening? It is now shifting to earlier in the summer/spring.

Is God in control? Or is it like the environmentalists will say ‘global warming’? As I read the OT prophets and the book of Revelation, we are convinced it is not a matter of human mismanagement of resources, but that God is indeed speaking to us and using the weather to get our attention. And he is succeeding.

Interesting observation, Paul.

ginnyrose