More than 125 people came out in the light rain and crisp breeze of Thursday evening for a prayer vigil on behalf of four men who have been missing in Ketchikan.<\/p>\n
Some of the friends, family members and acquaintances present carried signs bearing pictures of two of the missing men: Roy Victor Banhart, who was 38 years old when he went missing on Dec. 30, 2014; and Gary Hamilton, 69, who was reported missing on Nov. 26.<\/p>\n
Also remembered during the vigil were Thomas William Booth, who was last seen in Ketchikan on Jan. 2; and 22-year-old Justin Nathan, who went missing on Deer Mountain in mid-November.<\/p>\n
The setting was stark \u2014 a stretch of The Plaza mall parking lot near the bus stop on Tongass Avenue had been cordoned off, and a temporary tent structure covered chairs that soon filled with elders.<\/p>\n
The event got underway at around 7 p.m. Thursday. Following opening remarks by Richard Zellmer of The Salvation Army, an opening prayer was offered by Major Jos Govaars, also of The Salvation Army.<\/p>\n
Ed John then came forward and read the names of Banhart, Nathan, Hamilton and Booth.<\/p>\n
There was an additional request to remember to pray for Brandon Peterson, who went missing in Wrangell.<\/p>\n
A letter from Irene Anderson, a cousin of Banhart, was read by a family friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many family members hurting because he is no longer here,\u201d Anderson\u2019s letter read. \u201cWe may never know how Roy\u2019s journey of life came to an end, but we\u2019ll pray that his spirit rests in peace along with other family members in heaven. Let us remember others that are missing \u2014 Gary Hamilton, Justin Nathan and Thomas Booth \u2014 and pray they\u2019re all found and the truths will come out about each loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scripture was read from a Bible that had been given to Booth in 2003. At the conclusion of the scripture, a note that Booth had written in that same Bible was read aloud.<\/p>\n
\u201cAir to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, people to love, and God to praise,\u201d Booth had written. \u201cLife can be pretty simple if you break it down to what really is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastors Jeff White and Bill White of the Lighthouse Church of God offered prayers for the missing men, and for comfort, strength and understanding for the families. Bill White led the group in reciting Psalm 23.<\/p>\n
Winona Wallace thanked everyone for coming, and noted how praying about the situation had helped her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that this prayer tonight is what everybody needs, too,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n
She asked that any information be brought forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to shout out to God\u2019s earth, to the mountains and to the oceans, and to the air, and to individuals who may be able to hear this tonight, to be convicted whether or not they know anything or saw anything or are doing anything right now, that there would be some appearance (of) evidence that would come clearly\u201d said Wallace, soon before leading the crowd in reciting \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s sister, Bert Hamilton, addressed the crowd briefly. She described how she and Gary Hamilton were born 16 months apart, grew up in Ketchikan, and were very close. She, too, implored anyone with information to make it known.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anybody, anything you know about any of them, it would give them such peace, to put them at rest,\u201d Bert Hamilton said. \u201cThank you so much for coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to the start of the vigil, Gena Such, who was involved with organizing the event with her husband, Dennis Such, said hearing Bert Hamilton talk about the situation was what prompted them to act.<\/p>\n
\u201cI listened to Bert Hamilton and I heard, just the despair in her voice, and it just grasped my heart because there\u2019s more questions than answers for them, and each day brought more questions, and I just thought, \u2018I wish I could do something,\u2019 Gena Such said. \u201cAnd my husband and I talked, \u2018Well, why can\u2019t we hold a vigil? Why can\u2019t we pray for them, and let them know that they are not alone?\u2019 And surprisingly, that\u2019s what most of them feel, is alone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 125 people came out in the light rain and crisp breeze of Thursday evening for a prayer vigil on behalf of four men who have been missing in Ketchikan. Some of the friends, family members and acquaintances present carried signs bearing pictures of two of the missing men: Roy Victor Banhart, who was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-22391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22391"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}