1989
I’m going to shift gears at this point because in 1989 the Whole Life Ministries Bible Training Centre was going really well, we were enjoying developing the material for the course, we had a good team of teachers, our work with the churches in the Black River area was challenging and satisfying, but in spite of all that, we were beginning to feel sort of restless and unsettled.
Then it was time for the Yearly Anniversary Celebration of the founding of Fellowship Tabernacle, a local church in Kingston that we had the privilege of helping launch and lead. We were part of the original group of sixteen people who met in Al and Melody Miller’s living room to discuss the establishing of a new church in Kingston, a non-denominational church that would bring together the solid foundation of teaching with the life-giving experience of the Holy Spirit’s presence in worship, celebration, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit operating freely.
Anyhow, plans were being made, invitations were going out to people who had been involved at any level in the development of the church, and Al Miller’s brother George was invited to come to Jamaica from the UK to be the featured speaker for the Celebration services.
George Miller is a Jamaican Evangelist. There was a time in the 60’s when the entire Miller Family moved to England for a season and when they moved back to Jamaica, son George decided to stay on in the UK. You see, George had found the love of his life, a young English girl named Hazel, and married her. George was becoming a well-known teacher and evangelist in the Elim Pentecostal denomination in the UK (a group that had grown to around six hundred churches across England, Scotland, and Wales) and his ministry was much in demand for events and preaching and inspiring churches to growth.
So George stayed in England, became a citizen, and he and Hazel raised their family there. And now he and Hazel were coming back to Jamaica to minister at the Fellowship Tabernacle Anniversary Celebration. Everyone was excited to have George coming for the event, but little did we know that having George come to Kingston was going to be a turning point in our lives!
While George and Hazel were in town, Jean and I invited them to come and have lunch with us at our home in West Armour Heights. It was great getting to know them and they both had great stories about their life in the UK, about what it’s like being a white English woman and a black Jamaican man raising a family in England, and about George’s travels and ministry in Guyana and other parts of the Caribbean. And we talked a lot about the Bible Training Centre.
George and Hazel had visited the school to observe the evening classes. They saw students from Fellowship Tabernacle, but also from Baptist churches, Pentecostal churches, and Anglican churches. They saw business people, salespeople, nurses, school teachers, people who worked for the government in various capacities, all drawn together by a common desire to grow in their faith and to discover their giftings and callings for service. People wanted to learn and grow and to represent Jesus and his Kingdom in their workplaces and communities. George and Hazel were really impressed by what they saw!
So while we spent the lunch hour and long into the afternoon talking together, the conversation focused more and more on the need for discipleship and discovery and development of ministry. And at one point, George said to us, “You need to come to the UK and bring us what you’re doing here! We have Universities and Bible Colleges and Seminaries everywhere, but we don’t have anything like this!”
As we interacted with George and Hazel during the remainder of their stay in Kingston, George continued to bring it up; “You need to come to the UK! We need what you’ve got! Pray about it! Consider it! We need you!” Then George got Al involved and together they suggested we make a visit to the UK, travel among the churches, see the situation, and see if it was the right thing for us. The Bible Training Centre in Kingston was doing well, and it could continue to do well with or without us. The churches in the Black River area were making progress and Al said that they could send people down to minister and to keep in touch with the churches and leaders there. And the idea was growing on us!
George would set up opportunities for us to visit and minister in churches in England, Scotland, and Wales. We could meet denominational leaders and pastors in urban and rural parts of the UK. We could visit churches that were made up of people from across Africa, from India, and from several nations in the Caribbean. We could travel, meet the people, and even see the sights as we went! It was exciting and a little scary!
So before George and Hazel left for the UK, we said yes! George would schedule a month of ministry for us, find places for us to stay in each of the communities we visited, and introduce us to key leaders as we traveled. We would see what God would do – how God would lead us – and whether that is what we should do for the next season of our lives.
The time was set for late March and early April 1990. We’d go to Atlanta where Stephanie and Melissa and our friends Phil and Pam Underwood were located. We’d get preparation made for about four weeks in the UK, and we’d go see what would happen. Then we’d come back home to Kingston and talk with Al Miller and the team and see where we go from there!
That’s it for this one! In the next post I’ll tell you about our first visit to the UK and what we saw and learned and how the process developed that would lead to the next decade of our lives and ministry.
You know, it’s so good for me – for us – to go back over the events and stories of the seasons of our lives. And it’s so much easier to see God’s leading and God’s hand at work in the rearview mirror than when you’re looking through the windshield into an unknown future!
As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.
Grace to you today, Jim Stephens