Regional Snapshot

From Charles and Carmen Fleming, Caribbean

As the Holy Spirit Leads ...

By Patrick Fearon

"As the Spirit leads ..." is a good way of describing the new way of doing church in more and more of our congregations in the Caribbean.

Development is seen in areas recognized as vital aspects of healthy churches—worship, fellowship, discipleship, evangelism and ministry and outreach services. Members are experiencing the joy that is present when the Holy Spirit leads.

Praise and worship is a significant part of many congregations, and many view the worship service, with its accompanying joy, as a highlight of the week.

The Freeport, Bahamas, church is a joyous house of worship. The small church, functioning as a family unit, brings its worship gifts each week and presents them before God. The atmosphere is marked by adoration and thanksgiving as members participate in prayer, interactive Bible reading, testimony and sharing, and as children and adults make joyful music to the Lord.

Praise is offered through interpretive dancing by groups of young people—New Covenant Dancers in Hamilton, Bermuda, and Heavenly Gems in Nassau, Bahamas.

Senior Pulley from Bermuda reports that children meet to sing songs of praise to God each week before the service begins.

In Arima, Trinidad, 120 worshipers from the New Testament Church of God participated in a joint service Dec. 31 with the WCG congregation, shared dinner, then attended a gospel ball. In that same spirit of cooperation, 30 WCG members in Trinidad are enrolled in The School of Ministry, an institution run by another denomination, but which conducts classes at the WCG’s hall.

In Bermuda, Pastor Cecil Pulley is a member of the Warwick Ministerial Alliance. For six weeks before Easter, alliance ministers and their churches met for combined Tuesday night services, rotating the location each week. The first week, Pastor Pulley gave the sermon and the WCG’s gospel ensemble provided music.

Such cooperation is the practice in Freeport, Bahamas. Pastor Patrick Fearon has presented the word of God to different denominations on several occasions.

Interdenominational fellowship has also come about through women’s ministry. At the annual women’s retreat for the southern Caribbean conducted in Trinidad in June, Pastor Mavis Durant of the Barbados New Testament Church of God presented a message on love.

In Bermuda, Women’s Day, May 12, featured Pastor Deborah Dean of Rehoboth Church of God.

In August, the WCG and the Oceanside Emmaus community of South Florida sponsored two Walks to Emmaus. The Walk to Emmaus exercise (based on Luke 24:13-35) is a three-day experience designed for Christian leaders, to strengthen and renew their faith.

"We hope to start Emmaus communities in all the WCG congregations in the Caribbean that would like to have one," said Charles Fleming, regional director.

During the past year, leadership retreats have been conducted in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Dominica and Jamaica. The pastoral team in St. Lucia has shown considerable growth from leadership retreats.

Steps have been taken to carefully disciple children. Robert McKinney, pastor of the Nassau, Bahamas, church, says that their Bringing Children to Christ program is a highly developed and successful program for leading young people to Jesus.

In July four people were baptized in St. Lucia, and another four in Grenada.

This year our churches in Trinidad were hosts for three Evangelism Explosion (EE) clinics at their facilities in Arima. The first was a clinic for our members. They led about 70 people to accept Jesus Christ during the 16 week semester.

The second was a one-week, adult clinic put on by the EE National Association (EENA) of Trinidad. Our church allows EENA to use our building once a year for the clinic.

Ralph Ramlochan, EE director in Trinidad, said the third clinic was taught by 19 youth leaders from Wisconsin and Illinois. Many of them are Baptists. The trainees were mainly WCG youths from the Caribbean. Mr. Ramlochan and the national leadership are mostly Pentecostal.

In Dominica, members led two people to Christ. Fruit is being borne through our members as they reach out to others with the gospel.

The Nassau, Bahamas, church started a weekly soup kitchen more than a year ago, said Mr. McKinney. About 120 needy people receive a hot meal each Wednesday. The food is prepared and served with love by several women from the congregation.

The soup kitchen has opened the door for the congregation to bond with many in the community, thus providing more opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Several people have attended the biweekly Bible study and weekend worship services because of the soup kitchen. Many from the community have brought their children to the church to have them blessed.

The Freeport, Bahamas, congregation delivers a hot meal to about 50 people on the third Sunday of each month. They have also distributed toys and children’s books, as well as clothing for adults and children in the community of Jones Town. The church combines this ministry with preaching the gospel in outdoor Bible studies in Jones Town. Some have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

In Jamaica, the Kingston church built a hall on a five-acre plot of land leased from the government. The surrounding communities include a poor area with some people occupying government land without permission. Some of them send their children to services every week even though they do not attend.

Members of the Jamaica Youth Fellowship each adopt a child for the duration of the service. Jamaican members also constructed a small house for an elderly, disabled person.

In May, women from the Bahamas, Bermuda and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, met at Breezes Super Club in Nassau for their annual retreat. It was a weekend of joyous worship and fellowship, according to Maxcine Nesbitt, a deaconess from Freeport.

In the southern Caribbean, 124 women from Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago met for their annual retreat in June.

In these and other ways God is glorified as members fulfill the work of the church as the Holy Spirit leads them with joy in the will of God.

FREEPORT, BAHAMAS—Worship ensemble.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS—Heavenly Gems perform interpretive dance.

TRINIDAD—Worship leaders at Evangelism Explosion clinic.

TRINIDAD—Evangelism Explosion.

TRINIDAD—Evangelism Explosion clinic.

TRINIDAD—Evangelism Explosion.

TRINIDAD—Worship at Evangelism
Explosion clinic. [Photos by Ralph Ramlochan]

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2001