Pastor: Guard children from the Devil

Friends and relatives came out to bid a final farewell to Curtis Junior Pierre, 16, the youngster who staged a robbery at a bar in Claxton Bay but who was later cornered and beaten by bar patrons so badly that he subsequently died at hospital. The funeral was officiated by pastor Lyndon Ramnanansingh at the Compassionate Heart Ministry in St Margaret’s Village, Claxton Bay.

On April 26, Pierre of Union Village died after he was beaten by patrons whom he and another man robbed PJ’s Recreation Club along Mt Pleasant Road.

His accomplice escaped. “CJ was a young man who he did not fully understand what he was doing. Friends would take you but not bring you back,” pastor Ramnanansingh told mourners.

“He had the potential to become something great. How did the Devil snatch him? How did he let friends influence him? We as parents need to be the guard for our children,” he urged. He said parents need to take responsibility for the behaviour of their children especially in this day and age when the Devil is preying on young minds.

“God expects us to look after our children. It is a great privilege which God has given us to be parents.

“When children reach their teenage years, this is a tricky part of their life and they think they know it all. It is the age when the Devil wants to play with their minds,” he added.

The pastor called on parents to know who their children’s friends are, where they lime and what they do in their spare time.

He underscored the power of prayer.

“Teach your children to pray.

Pray with them. Teach your children discipline and punish them when they do wrong. Let them know there are consequences for wrongdoing.

Spend time with your children, train them to do the right thing,” he urged. He said that one bad choice, one bad influence could have been what cost Pierre his life.

Delivering the eulogy, Pierre’s aunt Cheronne Francis said there were many unanswered questions surrounding her nephew’s death.

“Why did it have to happen to him? It is sad to even begin to talk of comfort.

Words can’t even explain how we love and miss you,” the weeping woman said. Pierre was buried at the California Public Cemetery.