A campaign encouraging Jamaicans to pray for at least one minute daily has gone viral and its conceptualizer, a police constable, attached to the Matilda’s Corner Police Station in St Andrew, is confident that prayer can help to stem the rising tide of crime in Jamaica.
The policeman, Constable Keron Francis, made an emotional plea for persons to pray daily for Jamaica in a video that was shot as he sat atop his motor bike clad in his Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) uniform. The video was posted June 19 and has been viewed more than 350,000 times on Facebook.
“I know you have been observing what has been happening in our nation, in our country, the violence, the crime, the bloodshed that has been stemming from Westmoreland to St Thomas and every man wants to point their finger on another man, but we all have a responsibility,” he said.
“I want to invite every person from every area, every nook, ever cranny, every lane, every avenue, every valley, every close, where ever you are, just to represent for your community by just stopping when you see this video and just lifting up a one minute prayer to God and just ask God to step into your community, to have dominion in your community because there are some devils and some demons that have been unleashed on Jamaica, and the intention is for bloodshed, the intention is for death and for destruction, but if we would just take our place and we begin to pray and just ask God to step in to intervene, I guarantee that we will see massive reduction of some of these situations that have been happening across our island,” said Constable Francis who resides in Portmore.
The father of two said we should endeavor to have God as the head of our households. Not only is he still praying for Jamaica; the police constable has launched into offering inspirational messages on his social media platforms and has been invited to preach at churches both locally and internationally.
The JCF has since commended Constable Francis for “spreading positive messages through his Christian faith and impacting the online community by sharing and merging his love for God and his love for policing.”
“In the age of social media, when some individuals are using the platforms to share negativity, one of our officers is going viral for all the right reasons,” the JCF posted on its Facebook page with a video documenting the constable’s journey in the force.
Constable Francis says he has been a member of the JCF for more than 12 years. He was attached to the motorized patrol division from 2010 up to 2019, prior to it being changed to the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch. He has been at the Matilda’s Corner Police Station for the last three years.
The policeman grew up in a single-parent household with a mother who instilled Godly principles and he got baptized in 2010.
Constable Francis said he made the first video when he went on assignment at the Northside Plaza in St. Andrew in 2020. He said when he got to the assignment; he realized it was a false alarm.
“Whilst I was there, there was just something in my spirit just prompting me to do a video. I’ve never done a video on social media before and so I heeded that voice and I listened to that voice and I sat down on the motorcycle and I did that video and that video went viral,” he recounted.
He did a second video before launching into doing live videos. He now posts videos regularly on his social media pages. The videos, he said are having a global impact.
“The more positivity that we will have in our society, it is the better society that we will have to live in,” said Constable Francis.