NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
LEFT: Natalia White, a student of Westwood High School, gave her testimony at the Students' Christian Fellowship and Scripture Union breakfast RIGHT: A happy Joyce Allen poses with the award she received at the Students' Christian Fellowship and Scripture Union (SCFSU)
breakfast at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston, St. Andrew,
yesterday. She was recognised for her many years of consistent and committed service to the SCFSU board as a director.
Andrew Wildes, Gleaner Writer
"I THOUGHT he specialised in making me angry and hurt," was what Natalia White reasoned of God as she endured the chronic suffering of her dying brother, as he struggled to fight a cancer that eventually took his life.
Her brother's illness came only three years after her father, who she confessed, she had loved dearly, had also died of a cruel cancer. Already impoverished and at times out of work, her mother fought to save her brother, while a confused Natalia drifted into deep depression from the circumstances she faced.
She was not depressed or confused or even one who would evoke pity though, when she spoke at the Students' Christian Fellowship and Scripture Union's (SCFSU) annual
fellowship breakfast yesterday. Natalia was simply one of many students from schools and
college's across Jamaica
present at the breakfast that had experienced the revolutionary impact of Jesus Christ through the SCFSU.
After recalling "Christmas without gifts and often without food," losses and struggles she couldn't bare, and falling dangerously behind in school, she confessed how she envied the incomprehensible joy she saw in the lives of other students just as misfortunate and afflicted as she was at an SCFSU camp. There, she followed the once-befuddling decision of her dying brother, and accepted Christ. "I realised his plans were to prosper me, and not to harm me," she said, as she shared her testimony with the large group. At Westwood High School where Natalia is a student, she is now the vice-president of Inter-Schools Christian Fellow-ship (ISCF), vice-president the Environmental Club, a monitor and dormitory head.
A preceeding address from Dr. the Reverend Stevenson Samuels drew on intriguing research done, which coincided greatly with Natalia's testimony and that of others who spoke. The research 'proved' that the more students are engaged in Christian activities, the more successful they are in their
academic exploits.
Today the SCFSU is the largest student-led organisation in Jamaica. Collectively, it has over 7000 members in 200
secondary level schools, and over 700 in 22 tertiary institutions across the island. Its aim is to reach all Jamaica's future leaders while they are still developing their moral characters.
The new name and corporate logo of the SCFSU was also unveiled. It will now be known as the Inter Schools Christian Fellowship. The breakfast was also graced with the launching of the Joyce Allen support fund for SCFSU staff who it was said are often heavily burdened but poorly compensated.
