Worshipping in the shadow of death

In the vicinity of the Walkover on the Lady Young Road, Morvant, for example, the Shiloh Seventh Day Adventist Church stands just a few steps away from the area’s Roman Catholic Church and there is a Full Gospel Church just across the road in Mon Repos.

On the Eastern Main Road, Laventille, in the vicinity of Pashley Street, the Laventille Open Bible Church is located obliquely opposite the St Matthias Anglican Church, there is a Seventh Day Adventist Church just a few metres down the road and Hephzibah Ministries is just a little further down.

Also prominent among the scores of places of worship in these troubled communities is The Church of Our Lady of Fatima, this country’s National Marian Shrine, located in the Laventille Hills. This place of pilgrimage, which is also a tourist attraction, is comfortably ensconced between the humble homes in this densely populated, working class district and is one of three churches in the Laventille/Morvant Pastoral Area of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

Also well represented in these troubled communities are Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Anglicans, Methodists, Spiritual Baptists and dozens of Full Gospel churches. The predominantly African community also houses several Muslim groups, as well as shrines of the Orisha movement, which is regarded as the ancestral faith of the freed slaves who first settled in the hills of Morvant and Laventille in the post-Emancipation period of the 1840s. However, even in the shadows of these religious edifices, the crime, violence and lawlessness that plague Morvant/Laventille continue unabated. Church leaders, well aware of this fact, say they are confronting the situation head on, confident a faith-based approach is essential in addressing the monumental social and economic problems in the area.

Pastor Joseph Caines, whose ministry is based in Morvant, firmly believes the troubled communities can be saved through unity and prayer. When he spoke to Sunday Newsday, he was making final arrangements for an all-night prayer gathering.

The session, which began at 9 pm Friday and ended at 6 am yesterday, involved several Full Gospel Churches based in the area. It took place at one of the more prominent churches in Morvant, Daybreak Assembly, located in Coconut Drive.

According to Pastor Caines, the churches were being called together "for a night to declare the righteousness of God and to pray for the peace of our community".

It was just the latest in a series of initiatives spearheaded by Operation Salvation aimed at tackling the problems of Morvant/Laventille head on. The faith-based movement is harnessing the resources of Christian churches throughout the two communities for positive action.

Operation Salvation was launched two years ago as a radio programme on local gospel station 98.1 FM.

"We went on air to highlight the positives of Morvant/ Laventille," Caines explained. "Later on, we called the churches in the area together and embarked on several outreach programmes."

So far, Operation Salvation has made its presence felt in St Barbs, John John and Second Caledonia with house-to-house visits followed by massive prayer rallies.

The most memorable of these events took place in venues where violent acts, including murders had been committed.

One rally was held at the St Barbs Basketball Court in Laventille, a major liming spot in the area.

"We went to the people there with good news, we witnessed to people liming on the blocks, we went to their homes and talked to them, all in an effort to get them to turn their lives around, and we got very positive responses," he recalled.

There was a similar activity at the basketball court in John John.

Caines said the "most awesome experience" was the outreach in Second Caledonia, Morvant. At the time the community was being torn apart by gang warfare and other major problems. Operation Salvation moved in with a two-day outreach featuring former Jamaican dancehall star Lieutenant Stitchie, a born again Christian, as the main attraction.

Stitchie sang and preached, he ministered to the limers and the gangsters, some of whom walked into the prayer gathering and gave their lives to Christ.

Preparations are now underway for a "massive outreach" in the area during the month of August. A group from Jamaica will be part of that effort and Operation Salvation is trying to bring back Stitchie to be part of this programme.

Pastor Caines, who born and grew up in First Caledonia, Morvant, returned to the community a few years ago to live and minister.

"God is moving in these areas," he said, "and we are going to see a great change in Morvant/Laventille."

Joseph Ryan, another pastor born and bred in the district, told Sunday Newsday the area was once peaceful.

"When I was a child you could walk anywhere, go anywhere any house of the day or night. We used to be roaming all over the place, playing, flying kites. The only thing we had to worry about was the dogs - if a dog run away from somebody yard, that kind of thing," he recalled.

Ryan, pastor of Salvation Deliverance Tabernacle, located at the corner of Romain Lands and Mon Repos Road in Morvant, believes poverty and an "invasion of other cultures" are responsible for the social and economic problems in the area.

"A foreign culture, mostly from America, has invaded us and we haven’t taken a stand against it. With that has come a violent way of dealing with others. Its not sorry anymore, or excuse me, everything is just a violent approach because of this imitation lifestyle we have adopted. There has been a whole shift in values."

To make matters worse, Ryan explained, many residents of Morvant/Laventille have moved away from "knowing who God really is and have accepted other entities that they think is God." He said people have abandoned Christianity because they are confused over the various doctrines and beliefs that are being preached to them.

The communities served by Ryan’s church have had their share of bad experiences very recently. A kidnap victim was held in a house in Romain Lands, just up the hill from where the church is located and there have been at least two gang-related murders in Mon Repos in recent weeks.

Through it all, Ryan believes that better days are in store for the area and the church must be at the forefront to bring about the positive transformation that can take place.

He believes the biggest challenge is for churches throughout the community to "come out from behind their four walls and meet these people at the point of their needs".

Ryan added: "When we go out there, we are not going out to play and have fun. We have to let the people know that there is something better out there."

This belief is bolstered by the pastor’s experience hosting a three-day crusade in an area off Mon Repos known as "The Ice".

"There are people who won’t even venture into that area in broad daylight and we went there at night," he recalled.

"The guys in the block sat around near the crusade, they listened and after hearing the message, some of them came and said they wanted more of that kind of thing. They asked me to come back there and hold more crusades."

Ryan said the churches need to join forces to rehabilitate Morvant/Laventille on many fronts. In addition to prayer, action must be taken by the churches to address hunger and unemployment, as well as to strengthen family life and promote educational opportunities for residents of all ages.

"We have people within our churches who can assist in all these areas. We just have to get them together and get down to work. We have to form a united Christian front to tackle this crisis head on."