Wickedness stalks TT

A visiting Shouter Baptist leader yesterday declared Trinidad and Tobago was overtaken by wickedness.

Archbishop Myrtle Bristol, based in the United States, also lamented the high murder rate, rising poverty and what she considers to be the growing trend of motherless children.

“We must pray. We must humble ourselves and we must turn away from our wicked ways. We know that is the reason for all of the crimes. There is too much wickedness in the land,” she declared while delivering the foundation lesson at Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day observances at the Maloney Empowerment Hall, Maloney.

The event was hosted by the Spiritual Baptists Council of Elders, led by Episkopus Archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke.

Bristol alluded to the recent gruesome murders of La Brea residents, Abigail Chapman, her daughter, Olivia, landlord Michael Scott and Michaela Mason, saying she was particularly saddened by the incident.

“Everyday, women are dying, children are dying. I think when I just got here, a man killed four people - a woman, a man and two young girls. What a wasted life, they have not even begun to live. Come on, let’s be serious.”

A TT national, Bristol recalled when she was younger, “this was the land of paradise.

“But, it has become something less than anything I could have imagine. I can’t tell you when last I walked the streets of Trinidad and Tobago.”

Bristol said she was once an outgoing individual “but now I am afraid.”

Saying that God will heal the land, Bristol exhorted the congregation to also play their part in ridding the country of crime and other social ills.

“Let us not give just lip service. Let each of us try to make a difference. Our God is not slack. He is not a God who promises things and have never delivered.

“I think everyone here can testify to what the Lord has done for you. So, why won’t he heal this land of Trinidad and Tobago?”

The Baptist leader said children must be taught proper values in their homes.

She said: “Children are the next generation to run this country. Let us start with our children. I remember growing up I never went to bed without praying.

“My mother always knew where I was and my father would know if he really wanted to know. But the mother was in the house and she always knew where her children was .When night falls, we all knelt around her and each one of us would pray every night.”

Bristol said children were not being taught how to pray.

“That is what’s lacking. A lot of times, you tell a little child come and pray and they have never heard prayers before. Come on families, let’s start in the home because the prayers have been taken out of the schools so the children coming up don’t know where to go and what to do, who to turn to. And so they get into mischief.”

Bristol urged devotees to get active in their communities.

“Too many times, the people in the church come to church every Sunday and we go home and wait for the next Sunday. Let us get active in our community.

“Come on, let’s get this country healed . Let us get this country healed. Such a beautiful place, such beautiful people and such horrible, horrific crimes.”

Bristol said she would continue to pray for the country.

“I know I am praying and I would like to believe that all of us will pray. No matter what the problem is, God is able. He kept us through the night to see the next day . That is a feat in itself.”