Rally Inspired by Daily Prayers at Convalescent Home : 250 at ‘Freedom Day’ for Seven Captives

More than 250 people, representing what Westminster Mayor Joy Neugebauer called “the voice of a caring America,” gathered Friday at the Westminster Civic Center for a “Freedom Day of Prayer” for the seven Americans still held captive in Lebanon.

Inspired by patients and staff of the Hy-Lond Convalescent Hospital in Westminster, the observance brought together representatives of five of the captives’ families, along with members of numerous community organizations, including the Cub Scouts, Knights of Columbus and United Presbyterian Women of Westminster, as well as patients from the Wilshire Convalescent Home in Fullerton.

Seven Hy-Lond patients said they have “adopted” the hostages and pray for them each day at 3 p.m., together with the other 92 patients at the facility. At the appointed hour Friday, the Rev. Kenneth Harper of the First Presbyterian Church of Westminster told the gathering that it was the power of faith and prayer that freed the Apostle John from prison. “Jesus did not offer a military mission,” Harper said, “or a diplomatic deal with Herod.”

Earlier, in his invocation, Father Alban Sueper of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church of Westminster prayed that God would watch over the seven hostages and “move the hearts of their captors to release them.”

Red and white signs hung around the civic center plaza reading “Welcome Families of the 7 Not Forgotten Hostages,” and yellow ribbons were pinned to many shirts and dresses. Four Hy-Lond residents in wheelchairs with yellow umbrellas attached, dressed in pastel yellow, were flanked by hostage family members. At the close of the program a painting of the seven captives, done by Nancy Fontaine, activities director at Hy-Lond, surrounded by seven newly planted yellow rose bushes, was dedicated in the center of the plaza.

On another note, Eric Jacobsen, son of David Jacobsen, a Huntington Beach hospital administrator who was abducted in Beirut on May 28, said he was uncertain what effect, if any, the release of the remaining 150 Lebanese and Palestinian inmates held by the Israeli government would have on his father and the six other Americans.

Hijackers of TWA Flight 39 at one point demanded the release of all those held by the Israelis in Atlit Prison, a condition rejected by the United States and Israel.

“I don’t know that that alone is going to change the situation,” Jacobsen, 29, said of the scheduled release of the Arab inmates. “I’ve heard rumors that it may be involved.”