Trecia Boothe has been cleaning the church she attends for years, and the motivation for her is service rather than the pay she eventually started receiving.
During an interview on Sheena Power Talk, Boothe, who is also a football coach, explained that she started cleaning the Lighthouse Church in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, after repeatedly sitting in the church and noticing items on the floor.
“I like when places are clean, you know, and nice, you know, because I believe that God is no ‘fool fool’ God. God is a nice, clean, big God,” she shared.
She said she heard a discussion one day regarding who could come and help clean the church, and although she lived all the way in Bog Walk, which would mean her taking three vehicles to reach, she said it didn’t matter; she availed herself of the voluntary task, leading the bishop to officially offer her the job.
Her service doesn’t stop at the church, as Boothe serves in her community as well.
Boothe, who recommitted her life to the Lord in 2013, experienced salvation at the age of 12. Sharing on her ‘backsliding years’, she told Sheena that before salvation, she was still serving and reaching out to people.
“I was somebody who loved to do community duties, you know, whenever called upon, and I was also into this type of living where I ministered to people. You know, I was around a lot of lesbians and homosexuals. Overall, you know. I was a part of a movement where they were concerned.”
Boothe said that even out in the world, her prayer was always to God, and she didn’t have any control over her life.
“Because my prayer was always to God, You are in control; use me; those were my prayers. You never know the meaning of these things. Eventually, I discovered that when God chooses and calls you for a purpose, there is no escape; you cannot run. That was the force that pulled me. I had an encounter with him when I was living in Kingston,” she related.
Describing the experience, she said people everywhere she went would stop her, giving her a prophecy that God needed her or that she had a calling on her life. She often contemplated it, although she admits to stubbornly rejecting the call. This all changed one night when she was at home in Kingston, where she used to live, and heard a knock at the door.
She was lying on the bed when she heard the knock. It came at a time when she was also going through a rough period and found that “certain things were just chopping off, cutting down; places she used to go, those things were just cutting down. Friends she used to have were going, and according to her, “things just turn upside down.” She notes, however, that, in hindsight, it wasn’t for the bad, but for the good.
“I hear the first knock, then another knock. While I was inside the house, I engaged in a conversation with a spirit man, responding to his questions and expressing agreement. Tears began to well up as I spoke. Suddenly, there was another knock on the door, and I caught a glimpse of the person standing behind it.”
She said it was a shadow resembling what is seen in an Egyptian show and it told her she was not going to go anywhere. She said she made to pull the door, but realised it wasn’t’ a spirit she should let in. After some spiritual warfare, she said she felt the strengthening of the Lord and a voice telling her the time had come for her to surrender.
After visiting churches in Kingston, she felt the need to return to her hometown of Bog Walk and to her mother, who she said was always looking out for her. It was her mother who also introduced her to the Lighthouse Church in Linstead.
She said the Lord started ministering to her; her spiritual man was building, and God started to talk to her about her purpose. However, before she could fulfil that purpose, she said she knew there was a price to pay.
“I remember entering over the big church, and I sit in there. I went in there, and the first time I’m sitting, there is like, when I look up to the left, there is a writing that they put on the wall: “Forgiveness is the first starting point of true worship, and I was like, wow, something about that just grabbed me, and I was sitting there and the man of God was preaching. I was there. I got a pen and paper, and I started writing. I start writing down the names of persons who I not even do anything, but I just see where they are not talking to me or something; you know, I just start write down neighbours names,” she said, adding that she even wrote down the name of a ‘witch’ living in her community that the Lord showed her many things that she did. She wrote her name at the top of the list, went home, and decided she was going to make peace with them all, as she wanted the continued growth of the spiritual man.
“I went to everybody on that list, and I told them to forgive me for what I have done—even my very sisters, you know, I call them. I said forgive me, you know, and from that day until now, it’s been like, even in my heart, I can’t keep any form of unforgiveness in it,” she confessed.
Trecia, who used to play netball while attending Dinthill School, never got the chance to make it to the big leagues. The coach claimed she wasn’t mentally ready, even though she was picked for the national team. She took on a passion for sports, and after meeting up with some friends in Spanish Town, she joined the football team and even played in the Sherwin Williams Women Premier League.
She is now a professional coach, coaching children footballers ages 10 to 14. For her, it is a mission from God and she sees it as preparing them and also getting the chance to instill good values in them.
In closing, she is encouraging others to remain obedient to God and not to worry about qualification, as she quips, ‘God doesn’t call the qualified because man would have looked at you and said, “No, you’re not qualified”, but God qualifies the called.”