It is Well with My Soul

On this last Israel Pilgrimage 

we were able to visit the 

Horatio Spafford House.

Above is a wall in the room 

where we gathered to hear a bit of the story.

Horatio Gates Spafford (October 20, 1828,

 Troy, New York– October 16, 1888, Jerusalem)

 was a prominent American lawyer

and Presbyterian church elder. 

He is best known for penning the Christian hymn

 It is Well with My Soul, 

following a family tragedy in which his four daughters

 died aboard the S.S. Ville du Havre

on a transatlantic voyage.

Horatio and his wife Anna 

were well known in 1860s Chicago.

He and his wife were also prominent supporters 

and close friends of evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

Spafford invested in real estate north

 of an expanding Chicago

 in the spring of 1871. 

When the Great Chicago Fire of Chicago

 reduced the city to ashes in October of that same year, 

it also destroyed most of Spafford's sizable investment.

Scarlet fever soon killed his four-year-old son. 

Two years later, in 1873, Spafford decided his family 

should take a holiday somewhere in Europe, 

and chose England knowing that his friend D.L. Moody 

would be preaching there in the fall.

 He was delayed because of business.

 So he sent his family ahead: his wife and their four children, 

daughters eleven-year-old Anna "Annie",

 nine-year-old Margaret Lee "Maggie", 

five-year-old Elizabeth "Bessie",

 and two-year-old Tanetta.

On November 22, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic 

on the steamship Ville duHavre,

their ship was struck by an iron sailing ship 

and 226 people lost their lives,

 including all four of Spafford's daughters. 

Only his wife, Anna Stafford, survived the tragedy.

 Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to Stafford

 beginning "Saved alone." 

Spafford then sailed to England, 

going over the location of his daughters' deaths. 

According to Bertha Spafford Vester, 

a daughter born after the tragedy, 

Spafford wrote 

"It Is Well With My Soul" on this journey.

Following the sinking of the Ville du Havre, 

Anna gave birth to three more children.

 On February 11, 1880, their son,
 Horatio Goertner Stafford,

 died at the age of three, of scarlet fever.

 Their daughters were 

Bertha Hedges Spafford (born March 24, 1878)

 and Grace Spafford (born January 18, 1881).

 In August 1881, 

the Spaffords set out for Jerusalem 

as a party of thirteen adults and three children 

and set up the American Colony.
The society engaged in philanthropic work among
 the people of Jerusalem 
regardless of religious affiliation,
 gaining the trust of the local Muslim, Jewish,
 and Christian communities. 
After Horatio died in 1888, 

Anna and the colony moved to a larger location

 that is now the American Colony Hotel,

 on Nablus Road.

 In 1904, Bertha Stafford 

married Frederick Vester,

 a German member of the colony.

The house that is now 

the Jerusalem Prayer Center

 was the home where they lived for 25 years,

raising their six children.  

Anna and Bertha continued

 to lead the American Colony’s 

philanthropic efforts through harsh, 

troubled times in Jerusalem.

  The hardships of war caused great suffering

 in Jerusalem and the American Colony

 fed more than 2000 people

 a day in a soup kitchen, 

and treated enemy soldiers 

side-by-side in their hospital facilities. 
(Wikipedia)

After days of walking and lots of information,

 this spot was a respite to our tired souls.

We sang together and spent some time

 in the prayer room upstairs.

Imagine my delight when I saw 

sketchbooks and colored pencils

 waiting for prayer time.

 Time for Praying in Color.

It is Well with My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

(Refrain:) It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Refrain)

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
(Refrain)

And Lord haste the day, when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
(Refrain)

Music P. Bliss