It was a somber night at Nirvana Beach  last Friday, as close family and friends and members of the public gathered to hold a candlelight prayer service for missing pilot Byron Ferguson. 

Just two weeks ago his sex seater Aztec plane went down in waters off this very same beach. 

Giving words of encouragement was Bahamas Harvest Pastor Mario Moxey who said that although many times in life things happen that cause us to question God, he  encouraged the Ferguson family to stay strong.

“We hear things happening all around the world, we hear tsunamis happening in different parts of the world and earthquakes.

“When those things happen, we pray and we believe that God will show himself strong, but then when things happen to us, we begin to doubt. 

“You see, when it’s happening to others, we pray, but when it happens to us we question why  me? Or why am I having to go through this? John was no exception.

“This is just a human thing in all of us. Our world view shrinks down to the size of who we are and in moments like that, it’s kind of good to understand that God still gives us peace and gives us an anchor,” he said.  

Pastor Moxey left the Ferguson family a verse from Hebrews chapter 11:6 encouraging them to stay anchored in God.

“Blessed are those who are not offended because of me, in other words sometimes God may allow things to happen and sometimes it’s well within his power to stop things from happening, but he allows it anyway.” 

“When that happens, it causes us to question sovereignty, it causes us to question our own faith in him,  but understand that God knows this and because he knows this,  Jesus said blessed are those who don’t give up because of something that I allowed to happen; who don’t throw in the towel and walk away from the faith because of me,” he said.   

He ended by telling the family to continue trusting god and to keep their faith in God.