Working with pre-teens is key

THE EDITOR: Open letter to president of the Evangelical Council of Churches, Rev Desmond Austin.

Sir, our rainbow country is becoming increasingly murderous with gunmen attempting to take over. They have already robbed us of two legal luminaries, former attorney general Selwyn Richardson and SC Dana Seetahal.

There is need to ascertain what role the church is playing in its bid to avert incidences of this nature and to break the cycle of gun violence in hot spots and other areas so as to reduce murders to a level that could be termed acceptable.

It is noteworthy that when gangsters have fallen in communities torn with conflict, pre-teens who are close relatives of the deceased are usually left more devastated and traumatised than others.

Attending to the needs of the family’s toddlers takes precedence while the pre-teens are often left alone to battle inward grief, rage and an intense hunger to personally witness the destruction of the killer or killers.

Youngsters with such injured mindsets who are deprived of any form of comforting and counselling in their moment of distress struggle greatly as they encounter crossroads along the path of their early lives.

The timely intervention of your Council of Churches would serve as a rescue mission just in time to point such children in the right direction. This intervention would be vital to all children who live in war-torn zones, assisting them to be firmly grounded and to hold steadfast to a straight and narrow course.

But the church singlehandedly may not suffice, therefore I envisage other organisations getting on board with educational programmes and various sporting disciplines designed to save children in those warring territories from life’s pitfalls, thereby starting the process of breaking the cycle of gun violence and criminality.

This is indeed an arduous journey, difficult but yet reachable. But believe in yourself, reverend and in the Chinese quotation, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

In view of the types of heinous crimes the country has been experiencing both inland and on the high seas, there have been calls from various sources for spiritual cleansing and healing of the land. I urge you as a spiritual leader to act with some degree of urgency to ward off further undesirable occurrences.

I am suggesting that you use your office to arrange for all or most of the churches in TT to set aside one hour fortnightly for prayer. I am suggesting that a specific time and date be set for the simultaneous start of countrywide prayer sessions.

Rev Austin, with over one million prayers ascending to Heaven at the same time for one common cause, the cleansing, protection and guidance we’re seeking we’ll surely receive. What say you?

We are already cognisant of the prayer hearing and prayer answering nature of our maker and king as He assures us, “to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” He also says, “if we ask for bread He would not give us a stone” (Matthew 7:8,9).

I appeal to you, reverend, to ensure that the praying people in TT are offered an opportunity to try their Saviour and Lord. He would indeed fulfil “His rich promises.” As a man of the cloth you must appreciate that there is strength and power in unity. When divided, failure, unfulfilment and turbulence would be our portion.

There cannot now be more expectation and desire for you to pay heed to this call and initiate proceedings for the “army of churches” to become fully engaged in the aforementioned projects as they do have the capacity to slowly but surely bring an end to both the disaccord among youths in trouble areas and the brutal warfare in which the country is currently engulfed.

Without your input, reverend, chaos would persist unabated and may even “escalate,” but with your involvement there is hope for a “calm after the raging tempest.”

DAVID O’NEAL

via e-mail