- Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
Bishop Blair and his wife, Evon.
Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
THERE ARE many situations from which Ronald Blair has tried to escape in his life, but none of those have included marriage.
Included, however, was Christian ministry. Bishop Blair, current pastor of the 5,000-strong Bayside New Testament congregation in Portmore, admits that ministry was the last thing on his mind when growing up.
One of 14 children born and raised in the home of a Christian minister, Mortimer Blair, he reflects: "I saw my father giving up good jobs to go fulltime into the ministry with some really bad consequences for us. I tried to run far and fast from that."
But, in his own words, "the Lord caught me."
Today, he is now a well-known voice to Jamaicans, as he is presenter of two religious programmes on national radio Love FM: 'Forward in Faith' on weekdays and 'Moments in the Word' on Sundays.
Rescue the perishing
"He (God) said to me, your duty is to rescue the perishing and to care for the dying. I said, 'OK Lord'," the Bishop remembers.
Ronald Blair has a great sense of humour from which not only his congregations but his family has secured vast enjoyment.
The Bishop, who is this year celebrating 40 years of marriage to his wife Minister Evon Blair has, with her, spent all of that time building the church and raising four daughters.
Gary Welch, Pastor of the Jordan Road (Kingston) New Testament Church comments, "as a couple, I believe that they (the Blairs) are the model couple in ministry. Next to the call of God on one's life in ministry, the person you partner with is most important. They were just meant for one another. Their ministries compliment each other."
While his wife oversees the young in the church and a range of other groups, Bishop Ronald Blair has served as Administrative Bishop of the New Testament Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands for two four-year terms.
In 2002 when he demitted office, he "switched" places with his brother W.A Blair who had pastored the Portmore, Bayside, church for 18 years and who was appointed as the new administrator.
Currently in charge of the congregation of Bayside Portmore New Tesament Church - a complex which includes a school, HEART/NTA skills training facilities, a library, a family life complex including a medical clinic and skills training and conference facilities, the Bishop is challenged to manage his largest pastorate yet.
By his side is Evon whose supportive role, he says, he has always found invaluable in every church that they have been.
Evon Blair has worked as the National Women's Ministry President for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and coordinated the work of women in 60 districts and also prepared for national conventions.
She was the originator of the New Testamnet Church of God's National Prayer Breakfast which began in 1987 and continues until today.
Blair and his wife were both graduates of Bethel Bible college (then in Carron Hall St. Mary but currently located in Mandeville) in different years, and they first met on the campus while Evon was a student and Ronald was a pastor."
Courtship
Between Evon and himself, there was not much courtship, the pastor admits. There was only the word of the Lord. On the completion of his ministerial studies in the early '60s, he said that he told God that he was now ready to marry and God "dropped" Evon's name into his mind. So, he simply called her and told her.
Young Evon, who was then into her second year in Bible school and wanted to finish, could not believe it. As she says, she struggled mightily against it, but Ronald was persistent.
Ronald said that earlier, in Bible school, he had told God that he was there to study and nothing else. Therefore, he said, he also asked God to "put up his wife", whomever she was, until he was finished.
He believed that Evon was the one who God had preserved for him. When he first heard the name "Evon Foster," he said he had told God that he did not know her well. God's reply, he said, was that when he became a leader he would find her.
Evon had given up her job as a secretary at the Banana Growers Association to follow what she believed was God's leading to go to Bible school. She was one of the first women to do so and she was set on her path. At Ronald's approach, she sought counselling from all of her superiors and was still unwilling to marry.
On the last day of her second year in school, she spoke to a friend about the matter until 2 a.m. in the morning, again stating her desire to complete Bible College. On going to bed, however, Evon said that she dreamt that she was in a wedding dress and she was signing the marriage register.
She woke up in the morning in a completely different frame of mind. She put pen to paper and wrote Ronald right away. The couple were married the following year, on Febraury 3, 1965.
Churches
Pastor Blair's first responsibility was for two churches one in Garlands and the other in Flagstaff in rural St. James. Membership totalled 28 people. During his stay there, he also started another church in Vaughnsfield.
The family was to move several times as he pastored different churches. Transfers and promotions led them from Flagstaff and Garlands to Oracabessa in St. Mary and then to Jordan Road in Kingston. From Jordan Road, the family then moved to Mile Gully in Manchester.
In Kingston, Evon completed studies at Shortwood Teacher's College and her husband took over as caretaker of the home while she studied and also during the next 10 years when she taught full time (Bellfield Secondary and Mile Gully Primary in Manchester and then Pembroke Hall Primary in Kingston).
She smiles as she remembers that her husband was the one who would go shopping for groceries and ensure that homework was done.
Left behind
Evon admits that moving about affected the children - Nadine, Delva, Novia and Paula - somewhat, as in some cases they left friends behind. Their school work was also affected.
Bishop Blair recalls. "Nadine was brilliant, but moving out to the country (Mile Gully) slowed her so much that I felt it." However, after three years in Manchester, the family returned to Kingston where they were to remain, even though Ronald Blair changed churches within the city several times.
Evon Blair admits that as a minister's wife, she did get caught in a trap which is often waiting for women in her position.
"I always felt that as a pastor's wife, I should be available 24-7 for everything happening."
So intent was she on being involved in the life of the church that she could hardly find time to be with her children, especially the two older daughters. When they were both attending Immaculate Conception High School, Delva once suggested to her that she should buy a ticket to the school barbecue, so that she could sit and actually find the time to sit and talk with them. It was a wake up call for her.
"That changed me. That was one of the really hard things for me," the mother recalls. It is true, she said, that many parents who are also pastors do not bond enough with their children because they are giving so much attention to the church. The children, who are also pressured to be perfect because of their parentage, are therefore at a double disadvantage. But, it was an issue which Evon was quick to redress.
Today, the couple say that they share an excellent relationship with all their daughters, two of whom, Nadine and Paula, still reside at home. Delva who is married to Leon Lee Roberts and is mother of the Blair's only grandchild, Talisa Emelie, lives in Florida. Novia also lives in this American state.
Ronald Blair makes his wife laugh when he says, "I enjoy being a man in a woman's world."
He has never missed not having a son. He is grateful that he was able to spend quality time with his children in the earlier years, but says it was quite painful later when as a national leader his time spent at home became much less.
Evon says that Ronald was her tutor in marriage and he replies that they learnt from each other. She says that she is also grateful to spiritual mothers in the church, especially one in Oraccabessa, who took her under her wing and really encouraged her. Today she is returning the favour to other young wives and women.
According to Bishop Ronald Blair, his 40-year marriage had a good start because they were both from stable family backgrounds. The fact that they also both became counsellors to couples and to the young in the church also provided an indirect benefit to them.
"Marriage is fragile and it can be broken," he says is the advice which he always repeats and which he has personally taken to heart.
Connected to God
Most significant of all, he says is that they have remained vertically connected to God. "When you have a vertical connection, the horizontal works out," he quips adding, "we have never practised how to quarrel."
Nadine, anchor at Love FM radio and church liaison who attended Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee along with her sister Delva, states that if her parents ever quarrelled it must have been a very private thing, because she has never heard them do so.
"They are awesome. They are so easy with each other."
Still single, the anchorwoman states, "yes, I am looking for a husband like Dad. Someone who is saved... humble. My father let's nothing bother him. His answer to every problem is to pray. My mother, she prays about everything. As they age nothing bothers them. They are cool like that."
According to Evon Blair, a good 95 per cent of social problems begin in the home. This minister, who is also a motivational speaker and lectures both locally and internationally to women, states that the family would benefit greatly if men and women refocused on the word of God. "My heartbeat, my hope is for all believers to become mature," she told Outlook.
Mrs. Blair gave Outlook a tour of her spacious and beautiful home in Sterling Castle, ending with a peek into the upstairs gym with its en-suite bathroom and jacuzzi. She has very little time for exercise and relaxation, she admits. She still spends many hours working with women and young people.
Principal of Shortwood Teacher's college, Mrs. Cythia Thompson who is also Evons's sister told Outlook, "what I admire about Evon, most of all, is her capacity to make everyone feel special.
"Ronald, she says, "I feel is a real brother who must also be the best brother-in-law, when I think about all that he has done for our family. He was just a big son...He was there for us when our father died and then when our mother died.
"As a couple, I don't think I know another couple who are so in love. They also demonstrate that love, not brashly, but with the dignity of age. They do a great deal of work in a way that is not widely known."
The couple, she discloses, have mothered and fathered in the region of 30 individuals who have lived as a part of their home at one time or another. "They have given many good years of service to the church and to the Nation as a whole," she added.
People oriented
According to Mrs. Thompson, the couple are people oriented and love having visitors to their home. There, they are often included in games of dominoes. Bishop Blair loves the game, and is also a sports fanatic with a special love of cricket. He also plays the guitar and "plays on" the piano.
The Bishop says that now that they are 40 years along, retirement from pastorship is not out of the question. However, he said, at Bayside "there are some things which I want to accomplish."
Pastor of the Jordan Road New Testament church, Gary Welch states, "As a minister Rev. Blair is a model of dedication to the call for ministry. He is one of those persons who takes the calling personally and seriously as it should be."
For a man who tried to run away from the role of pastor, that is high praise indeed.
