“WOULD YOU PRAY FOR US, MRS. PRATT?”

For three days in October 2000, the inhabitants of San Pedro on Ambergris Cay were battered by Hurricane Keith’s 125-mile-an-hour [205 km/​hr] winds and torrential rain. Ladyville, 10 miles [16 km] north of Belize City, was flooded by some 32 inches [80 cm] of rainfall in three days. Forty-two brothers sought refuge in the Assembly Hall in Ladyville. Almost all the homes on Cay Caulker were destroyed. The 57 publishers on Ambergris Cay and Cay Caulker lost most or all of their possessions, and both cays were without electricity, water, and telephone service for several weeks. The prime minister declared the Belize, Orange Walk, and Corozal Districts as well as Ambergris Cay and Cay Caulker to be disaster areas. A mandatory curfew was enforced throughout the stricken region in an effort to stop looting.

Cecilia Pratt, a special pioneer on Cay Caulker, heard the hurricane warnings and prepared a bag in case she had to seek refuge when the hurricane struck. That day, she had just collected the field service reports from 12 sisters and had intended to take the afternoon boat to the mainland to turn them in to the branch. Cecilia carefully wrapped the group’s field service reports in plastic and put them in her emergency bag. Sure enough, during the night, Cecilia and some of the sisters had to take shelter in a concrete school building, while the rest of the group found protection in the health center.

“The wind ripped the zinc roof off the first classroom we were in,” relates Cecilia. “We all had to grab our things and dash to another room. It felt as if the whole building were shaking in the wind, even though it was made of concrete. When we peeped outside, it seemed like the sea was all around us​—there was no land. Our little group stayed together, and we prayed intensely. The 40 people in the classroom, all from different religions, were terrified. Some were saying, ‘This is God’s work.’ A Catholic lay preacher came to me and asked, ‘Would you pray for us, Mrs. Pratt?’ I answered, ‘I can’t. I’m a woman, and I don’t have a hat.’ The man replied, ‘Well, I have my cap.’ I wasn’t sure if I could pray for everyone, but I wanted to let these people know that it wasn’t Jehovah who was bringing the hurricane. So I prayed with our little group loud enough for everyone to listen. Just as I finished praying and everyone in the classroom said ‘Amen,’ the wind went quiet! At that point the eye of the hurricane was passing over us. The Catholic preacher said: ‘That was a good prayer. Your God is the true God.’ After that, they didn’t want us five Witnesses to leave the shelter, and for the next three days, they gave us food and coffee.

“I was worried, though, about the other publishers. The next morning, when the wind stopped, I left the shelter to look for them. There were fallen trees and destruction everywhere. Some houses had been moved 40 or 50 feet [10-15 m] by the wind. I looked in the community center first and found two sisters and their children. Another sister’s house was gone, but she was alive.”

In the aftermath of the hurricane, the branch had difficulty collecting field service reports from the storm-ravaged congregations. But the reports from Cay Caulker were the first to arrive. Cecilia had kept them safe in her emergency bag and had personally handed them to the brothers who came from the branch to check on their welfare.

During the following weeks, the brothers on the devastated cays received relief supplies as well as practical assistance from volunteers who helped clean and repair their homes and the Kingdom Hall on Ambergris Cay.

Merle Richert, who worked with the team in Cay Caulker, reports: “First we set up accommodations and arranged for the distribution of supplies. The next day we started repairing the houses of the publishers. On Sunday we all went out in field service in the morning. Then we prepared a place for meetings in a sister’s yard, making benches for the audience and a podium out of an old coconut stump. We adjusted the meeting schedule to allow for the 8:00 p.m. curfew and had 43 at the public talk and Watchtower Study.”

2000 Hurricane Keith batters Belize.