Joy and gladness were some of the emotions exhibited by residents of sections of the violence-torn community of Central Village, St Catherine, during a promised outreach by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Saturday.

"The Church coming in the community is good," said Craig, a resident of Big Lane. "It uplifts the people and gives them more confidence and courage to walk because, right now, as the Church is keeping there are persons from Little Lane and Big Lane who are looking at each other and, if the Church was not here, there would be a shoot-out."

He added: "Each side, right now, has respect for the Church. It is a barrier to the violence. If the Church comes in like this, all gunmen would give it 100 per cent of cooperation over 1,000 policemen. The Church needs to come in more often like this because some of the residents believe the police are taking side. The Church's presence is good for both the bad man and the good man."

Good Samaritans

The initiative, led by president of the Adventist Church in the West Indies Union, Pastor Derek Bignall, saw the members of the Central Village Seventh-day Adventist Church and the administrator of the conference walking the streets of the community distributing more than 600 copies of Christian literature, more than 500 gospel CDs and 250 Bibles. These were given to individuals, families, shops and bars in the community. Twelve footballs were also given to representatives from each of the communities comprising Central Village.

"As Christians, we ought to be good Samaritans in the communities in which we serve as a church," said Bignall. "We need to bind up the wounds of those who are wounded by ills of the society, whether it is the economic woes or the physical hurting of those caught up in the problem of crime and violence or moral decay."

Corporal Lloyd Wellington, of the Central Village Police Station, was very grateful for the visit he and his colleagues received from the church.

"I appreciate you taking time out of your worship day to come and pray with us," he said. "We hope that you will come again soon." They were also given CDs, Bibles and Christian literature.

A sustained programme

"We intend to adopt the Central Village Police Station as one of our church outreach projects," said Kevan Barnaby, pastor of the Central Village church. We plan to have regular devotion with them, share our literature and invite them to special services of the church."

He added: "They have also asked me to share as their station pastor and I am just waiting for that to be formalised."

Pastor Everett Brown, president of the Adventist Church in central Jamaica, said the Church would come back to the community to implement other social intervention programmes.

"We want this to be a sustained programme. We are a part of this community and whatever we can do to aid the community in coming together we will do it as a church."

The community, which has been in the news over the past two weeks due to gang-related murders and other violent crimes, was one of the areas targeted by the Adventist Church in central Jamaica, as part of its annual Day of Prayer for the nation.