The loss of sight in his right eye has not prevented Bishop Kenuton Whittaker from seeing that God has granted him his desire to have a son who looks exactly like him.
That wish came true when he was 65 years old, and today Whittaker and his three-year-old son Joshua are inseparable. The senior Whittaker is often referred to as Abraham because of the advanced age at which he had his first child, but the pastor is always quick to point out that everything happens in God’s timing.
“All of us cannot have at the same time. You have some fruit trees that bear before some,” he said, before adding, “My fruit tree just started bearing and gave me the first fruit, and I gave him back to God as a first fruit.”
Bishop Whittaker got married in 2018; Joshua was born in 2020. He said he waited to have children because it was his desire to raise them with one woman. Now that he has a son, he is gearing up to have another child.
“I am thanking God because my daughter is there waiting on me to find her,” he said.
Bishop Whittaker has not allowed his age or his disability to be a factor in raising his son. He is enjoying fatherhood and hopes to make a positive impact on Joshua in the same way his father made an indelible impression on him. His father was a farmer, and with his mother, a homemaker, raised 12 children. His father, he said, taught him how to be a father, a husband, and a priest.
“I am the one who takes him (Joshua) to school [and] brings him back home. I bathe him, change his pampers, put on his clothes, and I put him to bed,” he explained.
He also washes his son’s clothes and hangs them to dry. His wife Judith does the ironing because this affects his eyes.
“If we are at home together, both of us would be in the kitchen. She would be cooking, and I would be doing the dishes. If I am not doing the dishes, I would be wiping out the house,” he told Freedom Come Rain.
“If I left everything for my wife to do, I wouldn’t be a good husband. If she is out, she must can come in and see the house tidy and see the dinner prepared and ready so that we can sit down and eat together,” said the senior pastor who especially loves preparing ackee and saltfish.
While a man doing house chores and taking care of the children is frowned upon by some, Bishop Whittaker says he shares the task of taking care of his household because he is a “real man.” He described men who shun their fatherly role colloquially as mantu, man-frame, man sample, or mamma man.
“A mamma man is one who doesn’t business with his children; never provide and he is out there and have 23 baby mothers and don’t own none,” he explained.
“The real man will carry his child to the clinic or go with the baby’s mother. The real man will be there for his child, whether it’s a girl or a boy. The real man will make sure that child has everything that’s needed,” he asserted.
Bishop Whittaker loves hearing about Joshua’s day at school, and he has taught his son to always be prayerful.
“Every day I become a prouder father, and that’s why I say to fathers, be there for your children,” said the father, who is a bishop at the Tarrant Baptist Church in Kingston.
The clergyman lost the sight in his right eye more than 30 years ago. At the time, he was working for a company that manufactured sports gear for schools. One day, as he was coming back from Mandeville following the delivery of sports gear, he noticed that everything appeared dark before him. The doctors subsequently informed him that he had glaucoma.
To those who are desirous of having children but have not been able to do so, the pastor’s advice is, Don’t rush anything.” Your father might have started having children early; that is your father; wait on God.”
Bishop Whittaker bemoaned the fact that some children are unable to spend time with their fathers because they have to work long hours. He urged these fathers to try to balance their roles as much as possible. He feels a child should be placed above a job or the acquisition of wealth. In sharing his own testimony of how God has provided for him over the years, the Bishop reminded fathers that “little is much when God is in it.”
