A video making rounds on the internet show a Church located less than a kilometre away from the Beirut’s explosion whose altar survived the deadly explosion which claimed scores of lives.
The church, St. Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church is located in Achrafieh and is less than a kilometre away from where the Beirut explosion took place. This church has now turned to a beacon of hope to the devastated country as it’s Altar and everything in the sacred place were unscathed in the deadly explosion.
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Father Youil Nassif is the priest of the church and in an interview, which he granted to BBC, he claimed he had left the church along with his children, twelve minutes before the deadly explosion whose impact was felt several kilometres away.
In his words: “I left the church with my children twelve minutes before the explosion, we were heading home when it happened. So I reached home, I left my children there and went back to the church to check what happened.”
According to Father Youil, on getting to the church, he saw that the church had been destroyed by the explosion, so he went to the altar and he met the altar untouched. He also found the holy chalice still intact.
In his own words: “So when I entered the altar, I was surprised, the altar was untouched, you can see the pictures and you can see the videos. The holy chalice was intact, you can see the Holy Bible, you can see the oil lamp that didn’t move.”
He said finding the sacred altar place unaffected, as well as an oil lamp that had remained lit throughout even though the nave had been completely destroyed, gave him hope that God is actually reaching out to his people in their dark times.
https://youtu.be/5GaErcwBycA
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK