The Road to Iceland

 The word that came to Jeremiah from God in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him. Zedekiah had said, “Why do you prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord : I am going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; Jeremiah said, “The word of God came to me: Hanamel, son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.” Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of God, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this w...

My sorrow cannot be healed; I am sick at heart. Listen! Throughout the land I hear my people crying out, “Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is Zion's king no longer there?” My heart has been crushed because my people are crushed; I mourn; I am completely dismayed. Is there no medicine in Gilead? Are there no doctors there? Why, then, have my people not been healed? I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed. ******************************************************************** Twenty-one years ago on September 2, 1998, Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people on board. Nova Scotians near the coast felt their homes tremble as the McDonnell Douglas passenger plane smashed into the water a few kilometres off the shore of Peggy’s Cove. The flight took off from JFK airport bound for Geneva, but a little less than an hour into the fl...