Contributed
Dr Donovan Thomas enjoys a laugh during an appreciation dinner held in his honour in recognition of his 14 years of service as national director of Jamaica Youth for Christ. The dinner was held at the Medallion Hall hotel, Kingston, last month.

Mark Dawes, Religion Editor

When he was director of the Annotto Bay chapter of Jamaica Youth for Christ, Dr Donovan Thomas did devotions and other forms of ministry in the penal institutions within St Mary. It was while he was so engaged that he had his first serious encounter with a woman who was intent on ending her life.

He ministered to her. He spoke of God's love for her and that there was a divine plan for her life. The girl embraced life and abandoned her suicidal intentions.

Since that time, suicide prevention has been a passion of his. He did his doctoral thesis with Columbia University on suicide prevention. That thesis became the basis for his 2002 book, Confronting Suicide, Helping Teens at Risk, which he wrote for a Jamaican audience. The book is now out of print. It is in at least 25 nations and the demand for it continues. Accordingly, Thomas is updating the volume and tailoring it to a global audience.

His name is like a 119 for suicide-related cases. He is often the first person called by families, schools and institutions when suicide occurs, or when a person is known to have attempted to end his/her life. He also does a number of suicide-prevention seminars across Jamaica.

Suicide prevention

His ministry of suicide prevention has been taking him overseas. Having stepped down as national director of Jamaica Youth for Christ last August, Thomas is on a sabbatical from the parachurch organisation. He is also now employed to Youth for Christ International. The world organisation is looking to him to lead a team shortly which would visit a number of Latin American nations to spread the gospel of suicide prevention.

Thomas, a former head boy at St Mary High School, is a visiting faculty member of the Haggai Institute where influential Christians, from mostly the Third World, are trained in cutting-edge leadership skills for global transformation. The Haggai Institute has campuses in Hawaii and Singapore.

Thomas visits the Hawaii campus regularly to teach two courses. First, he teaches a course called, writing skills for evangelism.

Second, he teaches communicating the gospel to the next generation. In this course, he has built in a lecture called confronting suicide - a strategic opportunity for evangelism, where he shows how the threat and even the aftermath of a suicide can be used as a tool to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Commended worker

Thomas, 44, was, in 1988, made a commended worker from the Annotto Bay Gospel Chapel in St Mary, a member of the Christian Brethren family of churches in Jamaica. Though active in Youth for Christ since his teen years, Thomas dedicated a lot of his time to the work of Annotto Bay Gospel Chapel where he and his family worshipped. He is the second of five children born to Fay and Fredrick Thomas - both now deceased. He was also the first to get saved. His siblings, comprising three brothers and an older sister, speak of his exemplary lifestyle as being a strong influence in their own embrace of the born-again experience. A high point in his life was watching his parents come to faith. He had the privilege of baptising his father.

Family time

Apart from updating his book while on Sabbatical, Thomas has set out to spend more time with his wife, Faith, and their two sons, Daniel, 16, and Josef, 14. He is also dabbling with gardening and farming. He said with evident glee, "The first pumpkin I reaped since I have been on sabbatical weighed 20 pounds."

These days, he is basking in his sons' achievements in sports, and their own evident spiritual growth and maturity. It is becoming increasingly clear that he is not the only preacher in the family as his elder son, Daniel, is receiving regular invitations to preach.

Having left St Mary to live in the Corporate Area, the Thomases made Swallowfield Chapel their home church. There, Thomas has served for many years as the director of missions. In that role, he was able help the church secure top flight speakers from across the globe for its annual missions conference.

While on sabbatical, the family intends to take a few missions trips. They have already visited a few inner-city areas in the United States.

Thomas continues to give back to Jamaica through service on various boards. He is chairman of the board of John Mills Infant, Primary and Junior High School; a member of the board of visitors of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre; member of the leadership team of the Caribbean Youth Network.

Thomas is elated with the Jamaica Youth for Christ board's choice of a successor - in the person of the Rev Herro Blair Jr. He said, "I am extremely pleased with the appointment of the Rev Herro Blair Jr In fact, I had a hand in introducing him to the Jamaica Youth for Christ family. I was actually in Cayman looking for leadership for Cayman's Youth for Christ in the role I carried as Caribbean youth director for Youth for Christ. We invited him to a breakfast meeting and he indicated he would have been interested in helping with Cayman's Youth for Christ had it been that he was going to be in Cayman.

Introduction

"He explained God had called him to return to Jamaica. So I said, let's talk about why you are coming back to Jamaica. I realised that several of the things that God had placed on his heart were things that Jamaica Youth for Christ was already doing. I invited him to the office and I introduced him to the staff and the board. Then, he got to the point where he was ready to make the application. He made the application and I am very pleased with Herro as the next national director."

Asked what would be his advice to his successor, Thomas said, "I believe he needs to understand the times and to do what God wants him to do in the area now. I believe that he is an anointed and appointed to be national director for such a time as this ... I would encourage him to be bold."

Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.