Lovelette Brooks, Special Projects Editor

Pastor Glen Samuels

"An encounter with death," is how Pastor Glen Samuels described his experience staring down the barrel of a semi-automatic pistol while returning home to West Gate Hills in Montego Bay about 7:30 one evening.

Samuels, president of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Churches, related at a Gleaner Editors' Forum his gut-wrenching, yet, heart-warming experience of coming face to face with a gunman, whose life he was able to transform. The forum was held in response to the upsurge in crime in the western section of the island during the latter part of last year.

Pastor Samuels's encounter happened in one of the quiet, upscale residential areas in the city. He had just got into his car, and was about to drive off, when the muzzle of a gun pressed into his neck, stopped him cold. He was ordered out of his car. Before exiting, and a quick prayer, he decided he would talk with his attacker.

"I looked him squarely in the face, saw he was a young man and noted that he was alone," Pastor Samuels recounted. "I took the chance and said to him as calmly as I could: 'why don't we sit in the car and let's talk this thing through. I am not afraid to die and if you kill me, you are still going to lose.'"

Sharing Life Stories

Intrigued by the invitation, the young man lowered his gun, but kept Pastor Samuels covered - he was taking no chances. He sat nervously in the passenger seat, and for two and a half hours, in the still darkness, both men shared life stories.

"He said to me - and he is just about 28 years old - that he was born in Westmoreland and he moved to Kingston where he grew up, trying to live a decent life. He lost his job and that was his genesis into anti-social behaviour."

"Having nowhere to go, and in an effort to link with his grandmother's heritage, the man moved to Montego Bay, 'captured' a piece of land at Rose Heights, and decided to settle here. Life was not so bad; he had skills and he could work.

"He could tie steel, he could do stuff. He showed me four homes on which he worked in West Gate Hills. he said that after the houses were finished, he went to almost every business place in Montego Bay and couldn't find a job," the pastor recounted.

Without a job, life became extremely difficult for this young man who is also a single parent. Distressed by cries of hunger from his five-year-old daughter, he made a drastic move.

"He went to Salt Spring and rented a gun and I was the first person he came in contact with," Samuels disclosed.

"We made a deal. I said: 'for as long as I live in Montego Bay, you will never go hungry on condition that you turn in the gun and make a commitment to change your life.' He said: 'Rev., I can't give it to you, it has blood on it, but I can promise you I will destroy it.' I said, 'I need evidence,' and he smashed the gun.

"I told him where I lived, I told him where I worked, I gave him my name, my number, everything. I said to him: 'If I am out of the country, come to my house, and just tell my wife I asked you to come.'"

Two years have passed since this encounter, and two years of mentoring and counselling have radically transformed this young man's life.

Transformed Life

Continued Samuels: "He goes to church without any invitation. I could write a book having encountered him and worked out this deal. I said: 'you have friends like yourself and you have discovered that you don't have to live the way you were living.' He loved sports, but did not have money to buy gear. I gave him assistance to buy jerseys and shorts and T-shirts and stuff.

"I have watched this youngster change drastically to the point where, in the middle of October, he came to me at my house and said, 'Rev., I have a friend in North America and he wants me to come, do you think I can get a visa? I said, cut your hair, shave your face, I loaned him a tie and say, let's pray about it, and you go to Kingston tomorrow morning, I'll give you the money. We prayed and he went home.

"He came back to me two days afterwards flashing a smile that is a thousand times brighter than the noonday sun, with a visa. He is presently on holiday abroad."

Through his ministry, Pastor Samuels is currently working to transform the lives of other disadvantaged young adults from Norwood, Rose Heights and Salt Spring, four of the named "hot spots" in Montego Bay where crime is rooted. He has been on the ground, and able to walk through some of the areas the police finds challenging to patrol.

Triple Murder

"After the triple murder in Salt Spring (last year), I decided to walk in there and talk to those youngsters. It took me quite a bit to get down to the bottom, where two sons were digging the grave of their daddy. I walked down and jumped into the grave with them, put my hand on their shoulders, man-to-man and talk. I knew that this can't stop them from doing wrongs, but we have got to at least try to appeal for a better judgement. I said to them, 'I know the spirit of revenge, you don't know me, but I can identify with you'."

Pastor Samuels strongly feels that social intervention through mentorship is one of the proven ways to change lives and build self-confidence. Currently, among other programmes, is a special mentorship session with young men from these tough communities in and around Montego Bay.

"We meet them on Sunday mornings, I pray with them, they go and play football, we (the church) buy football stuff, and other equipment for them. And when the game is over we pray again and talk about real life and how to change the order. We send them out and they bring the others. You come by the office any Sunday morning, and you will see a growing number of young men there.

"One by one we are trying to make a difference. We are saying to youngsters, you have dropped out of school (but) as long as you are prepared to make a sacrifice we will help you."

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