Pastor turns personal struggles into youth mission

WESTERN BUREAU:

For 35-year-old pastor Randell Gordon, the hardships of his childhood and a near-fatal motor vehicle accident have shaped a mission to help young people find purpose and resist the negative influences of society.

Gordon, a recent graduate and beneficiary of the East Central St James Scholarship and Welfare Fund, plans to establish a programme aimed at helping young people develop a positive outlook on life while turning away from negative worldly influences.

He graduated from the Kingston-based Deliverance Bible and Leadership Institution (DBLI) ministerial course in 2024 and was among 60 tertiary-level students who received scholarships at the 30th annual East Central St James Tertiary Awards function on August 20.

“We have a lot of youth that would attend church with their parents but, during high school and then after leaving high school, they go the opposite way with the distractions of what the world has to offer as entertainment. It is so attractive that it gets them distracted from the faith that they would have gotten when they were young,” said Gordon.

He ministers at Praise Tabernacle in Somerton, St James, under the leadership of Pastor Kerry-Ann Bryan-Campbell.

“I was one of those distracted individuals and, based on where I am now and seeing how God has stepped in and changed everything, I want to be able to have a programme where we can get those individuals who have not been introduced to Christ. I love ministry because I am a people person, and I love the Lord; and I love to get persons who have not really known Him, to get that kind of relationship with Him,” added Gordon, who resides in Granville, St James.

His planned youth outreach will draw heavily on his own experiences growing up in poverty in Dutch Hill, Trelawny, and attending Albert Town High School in the nearby Albert Town community.

TURNING POINT

“Life was not easy, and at one point I wondered why I have to go through such a hard life. I remember, growing up as a child, we used to rely on persons who would have seen our struggle and handed out access to food or clothing. And, during high school, when I was supposed to do seven subjects, it was only three of them I could get done for free, and I had to walk and beg for persons to pay for the remaining four,” he said.

But it was a serious motor vehicle accident several years later that Gordon describes as the spiritual turning point in his life.

After leaving high school, he moved to Kingston, where he was involved in an accident while riding as a pillion on a motorcycle.

“After I left high school I went to Kingston, and while there I met in an accident. I was the pillion on a motorbike, and I remember clearly that the bike crashed in a car, and I flew over the car and landed on the asphalt,” he recalled.

SPARED BY GOD

“When I went to hospital, they were saying to me that every single person that is a pillion on a bike, they normally send them to the morgue, so how come I am still standing? But, when I saw the asphalt coming at me, there was something that said to me, ‘Cover your face’, and I used my hands to cover my face, and I just landed like a breadfruit. I have to say that it was the Lord,” Gordon continued.

Since the accident, Gordon has deepened his personal relationship with God and devoted himself to ministry and outreach.

He believes spiritual development can play an important role in addressing some of the social challenges facing Jamaica, particularly among young men.

“The Lord has so much that He wants to offer to us, and there is also the psychology of how we are supposed to be as young men, to have children and raise them up. For a lot of the young men today, that is one of the main issues as to why we have so much violence in society – because of the distractions that are out there,” he explained.

“I would love, as a pastor, to have some form of institutional training that could have them grounded in faith, so we could have a better and God-driven nation.”

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com