Gregory “Steve” Bartley
Brother Steve Bartley, born April 11, 1963, grew up with his siblings and mother in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, the parish he still calls home. He recalls that when his mother was away from home for any length of time, everyone in the house knew who was in charge – Big Brother and Big Sis, and they had the authority to discipline anyone who misbehaved.
He recalls that the family didn’t start attending church until one of his sisters got saved in her mid-teens. His mother decided that it didn’t look right that she was at home while one of her children was leaving for church, so off she went to the All Saints Apostolic church on Beckford Street, with all the underage children beside her.
“I was seven years old, and Sunday School was my special place,” Brother Steve continued. “Twice I wanted to get baptised, but at age 10, my mother still wouldn’t let me, although she allowed my teenage sisters.”
What part this decision played in what transpired in his teen years he could not say, but by the time he graduated from Spanish Town Secondary to attend Kingston Technical High, he had completely lost interest in school. Often, he was out the gate before classes ended, and one day, he just didn’t return; he wasn’t going to school, and he wasn’t working.
By the time he turned 22, he suddenly found himself with a major decision to make because his girlfriend was now pregnant. “Getting a job and marriage were the next natural steps,” he reasoned, so that’s exactly what he did.
“IF MY HUSBAND IS OUT THERE…”
“Sadly, I was always misbehaving,” he admitted. “I loved to pray, but I wasn’t a committed believer. I gave my wife too much trouble, yet she was so patient with me that she loved me right into the Kingdom. I remember the Wednesday night she got saved at a crusade; she decided to baptise immediately. She thought I may have been in the crowd and prayed out loud on the mic, “Lord, if my husband is out there, let him join me up here.”
“I wasn’t there. I was out carousing at my latest hang-out. Much later, when my wife and I discussed the time she had prayed on the mic, we discovered that it was around the same moment I suddenly jumped to my feet where I was, and unexpectedly announced that I was leaving. I didn’t know the Holy Spirit had a plan,” he admitted, one which was to unfold the following Sunday when he agreed to accompany his wife to church.
The pastor led the praise and worship that morning, and when he was done, he called the visiting pastor to preach. The Holy Ghost cancelled their programme and began marching through the pews, while the two men of God moved around the sanctuary, throwing their mantle over people who also got slain in the spirit.
“There were no catchers,” Brother Steve recalled, “But no one got hurt when they fell. That’s just what happens when self takes a back seat and God is exalted. That day, I gave my life to Christ again. I was 33 years old, and at that night service, our 10-year-old son and I were baptised together as he had been crying to come along with us.”
‘LOCK AND KEY’
The father of three sons and one daughter will tell you that the way he raised his sons was far different from the way he was brought up in a family of six girls and one other boy (now deceased). He confessed that he was an aggressive father who would shout a lot and keep them ‘under lock and key’. “I didn’t want to let them out of the house because I knew how the excess freedom I had as a teen had ended up impacting me in a negative way. I now know that shouting wasn’t the best approach either, but I got a second chance with my grandchildren to make things right.”
He paused.
“I did some wrong things as a dad. When I lost my temper, my wife would so often ask me, ‘What would Jesus do?’ But God worked it out so that, to this day, my children are all very quiet and homebound. And if they don’t have to be on the road, they are at home.”
THE SHOFAR
As a result of diabetes and a stroke, Brother Steve lost his vision in 2020. “We tried everything to prevent that, but it’s just how God has written my story,” the faith-walker shared.
“Furthermore, losing my sight drew me closer to God, and the opposite could have happened, you know, and where would I be today if I had abandoned my faith in Him? I would have lost more than my sight,” he said.
The well-known evangelist in the Spanish Town area is hardly seen without his shofar, a gift he received from a friend while on a visit overseas. “She made me promise to play it in church, and that’s mostly where I use it,” he joyfully remarked, explaining that blowing the shofar is not about a talent. “It’s the anointing that the Holy Spirit imparts t
hat allows the sound to have a particular impact,” he shared, adding that at 6 a.m. every day, he thanks God for the new day by blowing the shofar in his community.
MESSAGE TO MEN
This Father’s Day in May, Brother Steve is imploring fathers to stand up for what God wants them to be as a father for their children. “One time, mothers would tell the children when they misbehave, ‘When you father come home, watch what goin’ happen!’ But now, children are not seeing their dads; fathers are M.I.A. when they need to be beside their wives, helping in the home. And instead of shouting at the children, it’s best they engage in conversation. Fathers are the ones who teach their girl children how to behave around a man, what to expect from him.”
Brother Steve then recounted a recent incident with his six-year-old granddaughter that he instantly saw as a teaching moment. “She wanted to use the bathroom where I was and insisted that she would wait until I was out. Did I remind her that I was unable to see anything she was doing? No. I told her she did the right thing and locked the door behind me when I was leaving. I was so happy for that opportunity to teach her,” he chuckled.
“After all that’s been said and done, God has sure been good to me,” he exulted. “Glory hallelujah!”