Mark Dawes, Religion Editor

Dr Donovan Thomas - Andrew Smith/Photography Editor

Dr Donovan Thomas is in a pharmacy. A woman he has never met before comes towards him to express thanks for his work with Jamaica Youth for Christ. She explained, her daughter got saved through the ministry of Jamaica Youth for Christ. Money can't buy the joy he feels.

He has been getting a lot of this kind of positive feedback as people evaluate the legacy he has left at the parachurch organisation, which he served as national director for 14 years. That is only part of the story. His service to the organisation spanned 30 years.

It all began when as a 13 year-old student attending St Mary High School, he was asked to represent his home church, at a steering committee meeting, which was seeking to establish a chapter of Jamaica Youth for Christ in Annotto Bay, St Mary.

Jamaica Youth for Christ director

When the chapter was birthed, he became its public relations officer. By the time he was 15, he was the director of the Annotto Bay chapter of Jamaica Youth for Christ (YFC). He stayed in that post for seven years (1979-1986), then he became a YFC zone director (1986-1992) with responsibility for the parachurch's outreach in St Mary, St Ann and Portland.

The Youth for Christ chapter in Annotto Bay grew to be dynamic. Many persons came to faith in Jesus through its many and varied activities and creative programming. Indeed it became one of the most vibrant chapters of Youth for Christ anywhere in Jamaica.

A crowning achievement came in 1984, which was celebrated by the global Youth for Christ community as 'The Year of the Bible'. There was a competition held in Jamaica that year in which the person, who could memorise the most scripture verses, would get a free trip to Israel and the chapter director would go as chaperone. That year, a teenager from Annotto Bay named Raphael Thomas won the islandwide contest. He was Donovan's brother. They both got to go the Holy Land.

Ministering to young men

At left Alfred McDonald, chairman of Jamaica Youth for Christ presents a citation to Dr. Donovan Thomas (second left). Sharing in the moment is (from left) Dr Thomas' wife Faith, son Daniel and Josef. Jamaica Youth for Christ last Saturday held a dinner to honour Dr Thomas for his service to Jamaica Youth for Christ in particular his 14 years as national director. Dr Thomas stepped down as national director last August. The dinner was held at the Medallion Hall Hotel in St Andrew. - Contributed

During his sojourn as leader of Annotto Bay's Youth for Christ, he did ministry to a lot of young men who constantly got into trouble with the police. He bailed some. He stood with some as they faced trial. He also managed to get a number of them involved in sports. One year, these young men emerged winner of a local football competition. It was while in Annotto Bay that he also got involved in working with young people at a juvenile correctional centre there.

When he began service as zone director, he went into full-time ministry. In 1986 he completed a diploma programme in management studies at the Jamaica Institute of Management.

He began four years of studies towards a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology from the Jamaica Theological Seminary in 1988 while continuing to serve YFC. By the time he graduated in 1992, there had been a lot of leadership shifts within the local YFC family. The organisation was without a national director and was being led by a 12-person executive council of which he was a member.

But they did not have to look far for a new national director. In 1993, then YFC chairman Karl James called him and said the board had decided to appoint him as the next national director as he was their choice. There was no interview.

No surprise

But by that time, Donovan had sensed in his spirit that he was going to be the next national director so the call from Karl James did not surprise him. In September 1993 he became the national director of Jamaica Youth for Christ. He stayed in that position until August 2007.

A few years into his term as national director, the organisation did a self-study to explore its effectiveness and to position itself to become better at ministry. Out of this study YFC resolved to place the emphasis on five areas of ministry. It resolved to focus on its counselling ministry, character clubs in schools, multimedia ministry, leadership development, and youth-to-youth evangelism.

Character clubs

Dr Donovan Thomas, then national director of Jamaica Youth for Christ, gives a presentation to youngsters on 'Boys' Day' at the August Town Primary School, in June 2004. - File

Accordingly, YFC with offices in Kingston, Ocho Rios, Mandeville and Montego Bay, adopted this five-fold vision of ministry. The existing counselling programmes at these centres were redeveloped and augmented. Character clubs are in a number of high schools and are functioning fairly well. The multimedia ministry continues but it is not yet up to standard in utilising the latest Internet technologies. The youth-to-youth evangelism continues - especially with its regular outreach, called Discover Jesus missions, which is held six times per year in various parts of the island. For leadership development, a new post has been created in the organisation to promote effective discipleship.

Fund-raising, Dr Thomas said, was always a huge challenge for this faith-based organisation. "Too much of my time was spent just trying to pay the next bill," he said.

"If I had to do it again, I would have insisted on a better salary for the national director. It meant that the people who came to join the organisation could not get any salary higher than mine … the bar was too low. So we could not attract and keep the calibre people we would have liked. And therefore our faith was not extended beyond a certain point. And we had just frustrated staff for a while. It was hard keeping morale high. It was a learning experience. It was a time of great sacrifice for my family and I. What kept me there was a sense that God had called me.

Raising funds

Youth for Christ now has a director of partnership development ,whose job is to raise funds by working with the private sector, churches and donor agencies.

Toward the end of his tenure, Fund-raising improved as he had led a repositioning of the organisation in eyes of corporate Jamaica and other donors. The nation, he said, began to look at the organisation again as a cutting edge youth ministry. The annual Genesis Festival was a big step in that direction.

In the 1980s, up to 2002, YFC at various locations islandwide convened Genesis, an all-night gospel concert on New Year's Eve into New Year's Day. But in 2003 the parachurch body decided to expand the concept and Genesis became the Genesis Festival which took on the character of a fair with a strong Christian component. Sections of corporate Jamaica, Dr. Thomas disclosed, have been consulting with YFC on ways to reach out to young people, having noticed the thousands, who have been attending the Genesis Festivals.

Significant redevelopment

On his watch, the head offices of Jamaica Youth for Christ at 2 Acacia Avenue in Kingston, have undergone significant redevelopment. The offices were formerly the remains of an old house. The new offices how have a youth centre, a multipurpose auditorium and a upper storey with 10 offices, a redeveloped counselling centre, where students pursuing graduate studies in counselling, have been their practicum. Out of the counselling programme, ministries were developed to tackle literacy and the teaching of social skills.

A ministry that pre-dated Dr Thomas' coming to the helm of YFC was Project Serve. This is an outreach where Christian young people, drawn mainly from the United States would come to Jamaica to do voluntary work. Under this programme, many schools, churches and government institutions received refurbishing and redevelopment free of cost. During his time as national director, Project Serve initially welcomed 50 persons at different intervals coming to Jamaica to do service. By the time he stepped down as YFC head, approximately 500 persons were coming to Jamaica annually under Project Serve.

Throughout his years at the helm of YFC, Thomas was careful to cultivate friendly relations with churches. He continuously stressed that YFC was not a church, but a friend of churches. YFC, he explained, sought especially "to go where the local church cannot go by virtue of being a church". YFC, he said, became a stepping stone for young people to get into church.

(More next week)

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