An American pastor stranded in Jamaica by Hurricane Melissa is currently in the middle of a 15-day fast and is encouraging others to fast in prayer for those impacted by the storm that has left hundreds of thousands without power and dozens dead across the Caribbean.
Pastor Bill Devlin — a veteran of the Vietnam War and Purple Heart recipient who serves as the outreach pastor for Infinity Bible Church in Bronx, New York, and runs the ministries REDEEM! and Widows and Orphans — first arrived in Jamaica on Oct. 23 to deliver a speech at a pro-life Christian conference and officiated a wedding for “a brother in Jesus that has traveled the world” with him on Sunday.
After the wedding, Devlin learned that the airports were closed and flights were canceled in anticipation of Hurricane Melissa.
“I was providentially hindered here for a reason,” Devlin insisted. “I’m just waiting on God to direct my steps at this point.”
Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 storm in Jamaica on Tuesday and, as of Thursday morning, is now a Category 2 storm moving away from the Bahamas toward Bermuda. At least 30 people have been killed across Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, with about two dozen killed by an overflowing river in Haiti. The storm caused widespread power outages, road blockages and communications issues.
While Devlin “knew that the hurricane was coming,” he stressed that he did not know when or how much damage the storm would inflict on the island nation.
“When I came down here last Thursday, I started a water-only fast and prayer time,” he recalled. “So I’m going into day eight with this water-only fast, and I’ve been alerting people around the world and all my 21 nations that I go to and to pray and fast for Jamaica.”
Devlin is staying in Kingston, which did not bear the brunt of the storm. Aside from “low water pressure” and a loss of electricity, the capital of Jamaica escaped Melissa relatively unscathed. Devlin plans on heading to hard-hit western Jamaica in the near future, where he lamented that people “have lost everything.”
“The big organizations like Samaritan’s Purse and others, which are on their way here, and their volunteers and directors, they’ll be doing the heavy lift, but we’ll be here to assist in any way that we can. I’ve worked with Samaritan’s Purse in other countries, and they really do the best job, although there’s been a cavalcade of help that’s coming in as soon as the airport from the European Union, from the International Committee of the Red Cross, from the World Food Program, from World Chefs,” he stated.
Devlin vowed that Widows and Orphans as well as REDEEM! will “do what we can to help them either through a cash donation or through getting boots on the ground.”
Devlin is continuing his water-only fast for a total of 15 days, meaning that he has just over a week remaining. At the time of his interview on Wednesday, Devlin was on his seventh day of the water-only fast. He encouraged those able to do so to have one meal per day or join him in his water-only fast.
“We just need to appeal to Heaven,” he said. “God has called me to a life of fasting and prayer. … In the midst of these natural disasters, whether they’re hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, I normally call people to prayer wherever they occur.”
Devlin said he hopes the Western Church will return to “a life of fasting and prayer.”
“We know that Jesus in the Gospel said when he sent out his disciples and gave them authority to cast out demons and heal the sick, they came back and said, ‘Jesus, we failed.’ And Jesus said, in two of the four Gospels, ‘Well, these things don’t come about except by prayer and fasting., So if Jesus taught on that, I think we ought to be doing it. We ought to be replicating fasting.”
“I say prayer is knocking on the door of Heaven, but fasting is banging on the door of Heaven,” he added. “I’ve got a few colleagues that are joining with me in these long-term water-only fasts for, in this situation, for Jamaica because there’s been so much devastation. … People have lost their homes, businesses, their cars, and we in the West need to be praying for them and fasting for them.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
