I like the elements of nature.
Listen to the sounds of streaming water.
Beauty is everywhere.
The Earth is my home.

In the sky I hear thunder.
In the sky I see the lightning.
I know how it feels to be accompanied by the thunder.

I like to walk around in nature,
watching the trees giving me shelter.
Flowers grow everywhere.
This world is my home.

In your heart I hear thunder.
In your soul I see the lightning.
I know how it feels to be accompanied by the thunder.

Song written by Ryan Maurice Roemer.
Audio recording on 10 August 2023.

I started writing this song in January/February 1998 when I was 19 years old. I guess I felt the need to romanticize the forces of nature. I wondered how it would feel to be close to forces such as lightning which I considered a manifestation of divinity and the incredible creative power of the Universal Spirit which some people call ‘God’. Well, you’d better be careful what you wish for, because exactly 10 years later on Sunday the 20th of July 2008 I was struck by lightning during my vacation in Suriname. I was 29 when this happened, the most dramatic and wonderful event of my life. Me, my mother, stepfather and half sister went on vacation to Suriname to visit our family there. I had not been to Suriname for almost a decade. The last time was in July 1999. So it felt good to be back in Suriname with my family and on the 20th of July 2008 we decided to visit Colakreek, a blackwater creek in Para (= district of Suriname), which is a very popular recreation park for people in Suriname. My maternal grandmother, uncle, his wife (= my godmother) and two cousins came with us to visit Colakreek. It was a warm sunny day with a clear blue sky. We drove from Paramaribo (= the capital of Suriname) to Colakreek in Para District. When we arrived at Colakreek, we were welcomed by a Native American family who are friends with my uncle and his wife. This family owned a nice bungalow there with two beautiful gazebos in the garden. Me and some relatives decided to sit down under a gazebo right next to the small river. On the land on the other side of the water I saw several groups of people sitting under gazebos. There was a large crowd in the park that day. I guess over 150 people spent the afternoon there and many of them played in the water. Everybody seemed to feel happy and enjoy nature there. It was a hot day, because the sun was shining so brightly, but the tropical trees and gazebos provided some cover. I didn’t want to swim in the water because of the mosquitoes, so I stayed under the gazebo with my mother and grandmother.

After some hours the weather changed suddenly. First it started to drizzle, but then suddenly it started to rain very hard. It was a typical tropical downpour. The hard rain came so unexpected that many people had to quickly seek shelter. I stood under the gazebo near the water, watching some people still in the water. Then suddenly out of nowhere lightning struck the water just a few feet away from me. So I could see the lightning bolt right in front of me and that was an incredible view! It’s the loudest and most intimidating sound that I have ever heard. Of course, everyone knows the sound of lightning, but to hear and see it from so close is very different. I’ll never forget that view and that sound. First I heard the electrical sound from lightning and then I heard the explosive sound from the thunder. I guess it must be similar to a bomb explosion. Everything happened so fast. I let out a cry of terror (that actually sounded kind of funny), because suddenly my arms went up from the electricity. My arms and legs became completely stiff and this lasted for a few seconds. It took a while before I could move my arms and legs normally again. I realized that I had been hit by a spark from that lightning bolt and that I must have had a serious electric shock. I was surprised that the electric shock didn’t hurt at all. I never felt any physical pain. I only felt a soft tingling in the skin around my right chest and shoulder. I told my mother that I had been struck, but she could not believe me. She remained in denial for a long time, so I guess the shock and the idea that her son had been struck by lightning was too much for her at that moment. Then I unbuttoned my shirt so I could get a better look at my right shoulder. I didn’t have any injuries. My skin looked normal, but after a few minutes the red veins under the skin started to become more and more visible. Eventually the veins started to look like a landscape map that stretched from the right chest and shoulder to the top of my back. Now my mother, grandmother, godmother, sister and niece could clearly see that I had been struck by lightning. Everybody was in a state of shock. My mother later admitted that she had seen a flash of lightning right next to me, but at first she thought it had missed me. My godmother started to cry and my grandmother asked us to pray together which I normally never or rarely do, but this time I agreed, because my mom and godmother looked so scared. So we said the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Our Father in Heaven’. My grandmother was a Christian and believed this was a sign from God. We all lay down on the floor, because my family was afraid that lightning would strike one of us again. Only my grandmother stayed in her chair. We could not leave our gazebo, because it kept storming.

My uncle, nephew and uncle’s friends were forced to stay under the other gazebo in the garden at a distance of about 30 meters from us. They wanted to come to our gazebo, but they could not leave because of the dangerous storm. There was thunder and lightning everywhere. My stepdad, who was still standing in an unprotected spot in the garden, had to run quickly to the car parked next to the house so that he could take shelter inside. That’s what he later told us after all the drama was over. He had to hide in the car for a long time, because the storm continued to rage for quite a long time. But after a while, the storm slowly began to subside. When I looked at the water again, I noticed that some unknown people were still in it. Two of them had passed out in the water, for they were closest to the lightning strike on the water. I assume they must have had an electric shock. Their families or friends came to rescue them and pulled them out of the river and carried them to a gazebo on the opposite river side. When the storm finally passed, my stepfather, uncle and nephew were able to come to our gazebo. They were shocked when they saw what had happened to me. My uncle’s friends told us they had never experienced anything like this at Colakreek before. The electricity was also out everywhere in the park. No one dared to go into the water anymore. After a while an ambulance arrived at one of the gazebos on the other side of the river. The ambulance took one of the fainted victims to the hospital. I felt so sad for this young man and hoped he would recover soon. Luckily I had no serious injuries, so me and my family decided to drive back to Paramaribo. My mother told me she believed that Mother Nature wanted to touch me. Those words stayed with me. Maybe she was right. I guess this was her attempt to turn something negative into something positive. While I was in the car I looked out of the window and felt very good like I was reborn. Then I noticed that the red veins under the skin around my right chest and shoulder were already starting to fade. When we finally got back to the city after a long drive, the visible veins on my chest, shoulder and back had completely disappeared. This little miracle happened within two to three hours. I felt so relieved! In Paramaribo we drove past a doctor and she took a look at my skin and asked me a few checking questions and then said I’m okay. She told me I was lucky and that my injury cleared up so quickly because it is in the mildest category. So that was the end of my adventure on that special day.

Exactly one week later, a sunny afternoon on Sunday the 27th of July 2008, I happened to meet my biological father in a supermarket parking lot in Paramaribo. I had not seen him for 11 years. The last time I saw him was in October 1997 when I had just turned 19 years old. So my father and I were right next to the supermarket and talked for a few minutes while my stepdad, uncle and niece were waiting in the car. My dad hugged me and said I’m always welcome. That was the last time I had seen him alive. Exactly 10 years later, on Saturday the 6th of January 2018, my father passed away unexpectedly due to diabetes. Nurses at the hospital were not able to save his life, because they didn’t have enough insulin for him. Healthcare is very bad in Suriname. I didn’t attend my father’s funeral in Paramaribo because I did not have a close relationship with him.

I felt so lucky and blessed after surviving the lightning strike. I knew the Christ had protected me that day (20 July), because I didn’t feel any pain when I was struck by lightning. Yeshua started appearing in my dreams when I was about 6 years old (in late 1984) and he kept appearing in dreams when I was a teenager and an adult. Just a few days before flying to Suriname in July 2008 I looked at a special photo that I had found on the internet. It was a photo of ‘Cristo Redentor’ (= Christ the Redeemer), a statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Of course, I know that the historical Yeshua actually looked completely different from the representation of the statue, but I still found the picture of the statue interesting, because it shows how the statue’s head was struck by lightning on Sunday the 10th of February 2008. The statue looks so indestructible at that moment. I saved that photo on a USB stick before flying to Suriname. So when the same thing happened to my shoulder only two weeks after looking at that photo, I knew this was no coincidence. Being struck by lightning was the most dramatic, the most terrifying, the most beautiful and the most revealing event of my life. It showed me that Christ is real and much more than just a man who appeared in my dreams. Thank you for touching me, Mother Nature. I feel stronger now! Your lightning is part of my DNA now. And thank you for keeping me safe, Yeshua. On so many occasions you showed me that, even though I’m an androgynous gay man who faces a lot of discrimination in this mortal world, I will never walk alone in the universe. You have always been by my side and accepted me as I am, because you love all children of God.

Ryan Maurice Roemer
28 August 2023