With children facing increasing violence at schools, in their homes and within their communities, the Christian Organisation, Feast of Esther joined with several pastors and community leaders last week Sunday to pray for more than 120 children who gathered in Trench Town at the Inner-City for Christ Ministries 85 West Road location .
The more than 120 children in attendance, stood proxy for the hundreds of thousands of children in Jamaica who are now living in fear as they listen to news of the brutal slaying, rape, and physical abuse of those their age on a weekly basis.
The statement of intention was done by president of Feast of Esther, Pastor Diane Hanson, and a prayer for the revival of Sunday Schools and a re-commitment to the great commission was offered by chairman of the National Prayer Vigil, Reverend Errol Rattray.
Co-founder of Passion and Purity, Jesus in the Schools, and Christian Teachers’ in Action, Pastor Donnette Norman, prayed especially for school principals whom she referred to as gatekeepers.
“They are the ones who do the double standard, who, to make the money, they put on the fetes and they invite the devil’s evangelists to fete our children. We need to pray for a harvest of Christian principals to stand up in Jamaica as a gatekeeper and block the devil from coming in through those gates,”said Pastor Norman who has been an educator for 36 years.
Prayers were also offered by different pastors against physical and sexual abuse, for the mental and emotional health of the nation’s children, for greater vigilance by caregivers, for wisdom, financial provision, and strength, and a commitment to raise children in the fear of the Lord. The children were given resource materials and refreshments.
Pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle, Rev. Al Miller, made an impassioned plea for God’s purpose in the children to be released. The nation has been rocked by the gruesome murder of several children in recent times. On May 7, nine-year-old Kelsey Ferrigon was brutally killed at her home in Spanish Town, St Catherine.
