Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
George Webster - Contributed
Jamaica bade farewell in June to a luminary in the evangelical community. His name was Henry Richard Horatio George Webster. He died on June 8 after a period of illness.
Most persons knew him simply as George Webster, a pioneer of the Jamaican Christian book industry, the local organiser of many medical mission trips to Jamaica, song leader at Mandeville and Kingston Keswick Conventions.
He was born in 1932 in Mandeville to Robert Maxwell Webster and Edith Webster. His father died when he was six years old. He grew up in the Balaclava area of St. Elizabeth, until his early teens when he moved to live in Kingston with older sister Kathleen McFarlane and her husband. While in Kingston, he attended Gaynstead High School. He left school early to seek employment - which was obtained at an Issa Store on King Street, in downtown Kingston. He worked there as an interior decorator.
There, he met two persons who were to become lifelong friends and strong influences on him - George DaCosta (now deceased), who later pioneered and managed the bookstore, Christian Literature Crusade; and Audley McLean, formerly of Galilee Gospel Hall (now living in the United States), who led him into the born-again Christian experience.
As a young adult, George Webster had a defining moment in his life when he attended a Youth For Christ convention held in Mandeville. He sensed the voice of God calling him into full-time Christian service. Accordingly, he sought to prepare himself by enrolling at the Jamaica Bible School (Jamaica Bible College).
Among the skills he learnt at that institution, and for which he was renowned, was the art of person-to-person evangelism. When he was not in classes or studying, he would often go into Mandeville and environs to engage in person-to-person evangelism.
New venture
Joy Webster (right), widow of George Webster, gives assistance to a Source of Light customer.
The day after young Webster graduated from the Jamaica Bible School, he joined Christian Literature Crusade - where he was again working along with George DaCosta who, by that time, had left the Issa Store to pioneer this new venture.
While at CLC, Webster was responsible for the distribution of the Caribbean Challenge magazine which is published monthly by CLC; he operated the bookmobile; he also travelled all over the island, showing gospel films produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He worked at CLC for the period 1957 to 1961.
Then he was approached by the founder of Source of Light Mission, Charles Gilmore, to take over the supervision of a fledgling ministry which majored on promoting both Bible correspondence courses. He accepted the challenge and went to work at Source of Light, then located at 117 Orange Street in Kingston.
The six feet three inches tall George Webster married Jeanette (Joy) Kenny on September 1, 1962. That union produced one daughter, Heather, and three sons, Stuart, Kevin and John. His wife, who worked for many years with an airline industry, and still found time to give much assistance to the ministry of Source of Light.
In 1971, Source of Light was relocated to its present location at 22 Hagley Park Plaza, St. Andrew. In that year, Webster became the ministry's executive director. The mission expanded its offering to include books and a range of inspirational and spiritually themed gift items. Today, the store has two levels. On the ground floor are general books, music CDs and gift items. Ever mindful of the needs of pastors and the Christian academic community, Webster reserved the upper floor to be the place where academic books were sold. He knew it would not be an economically viable concern, but he felt he had to do so as pastors, preachers, seminarians and Bible teachers needed to have tools necessary to be at the cutting edge of Christian scholarship.
Local radio
The entrance to Source of Light Mission in Hagley Park Plaza in St. Andrew. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Concurrent with the growth of the bookstore was its Bible correspondence courses ministry which, at its peak, had more than 100,000 courses being delivered to post offices all over the nation. In fact, there was hardly a post office in Jamaica that did not handle Bible correspondence material from Source of Light. The courses were geared for adults to persons as young as four years old.
'Source of Light Mission' was originally the name of an evangelistic radio broadcast out of western Pennsylvania. In 1952, Charles Gilmore, the host and founder of the programme with Cam Thompson, director of Pan American Testament League, came to Jamaica seeking to buy air time on local radio.
Gilmore and wife Bette returned to Jamaica in 1953 to assist in an evangelistic crusade in Kingston which was conducted by Dr. E.C. Sheehan. More than 900 persons made a profession of faith in Christ. Gilmore and his wife, on seeing the number of persons who had publicly made a decision to follow Christ, sensed an urgent need to put Bible correspondence material in their hands as a channel to ensure their quick maturation in the faith.
He returned to the United States intent on setting up ministry to get Bible correspondence courses in the hands of Jamaicans. The local demand for the correspondence courses soared rapidly. Gilmour, himself, wrote a lot of the correspondence material. It soon became awkward to properly administer the Bible correspondence courses from the United States. Accordingly, Gilmore and his wife Bette initially established an office in Jamaica to do just that. As the ministry grew, they decided to turn it over to local leadership. When they did, they established a local board and tapped George Webster to take over the day-to-day running of the ministry.
Under George Webster, Source of Light in Jamaica flourished and it became a model for other branches of what is now a global ministry. Source of Light now has branches in 23 other countries covering Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean.
In addition to being executive director at Source of Light, Webster gave service to many other Christian ministries and para-church organisations. Among the ministries most dear to his heart was the work of Medical Missions International (formerly Medical Group Missions) for which he was the Jamaica Project Director. In this role, he coordinated projects involving surgeons, physicians, nurses and other health professionals who came to the island on short-term visits (usually for two weeks) to offer free health care in the nation's clinics and hospitals. Most of this ministry was concentrated in the parishes of St. Elizabeth, St. James and St. Catherine.
As the project director, he had responsibility for coordinating all aspects of the team's visit, including securing the registration of these health professionals with the Ministry of Health. He also secured clearance for the importation of medical equipment and drugs that would be used by the team. The work of the medical missions team flourished. After the first two years of the project, the overseas team began coming to Jamaica four times yearly. At times, the contingent was as high as 80 participants.
Distinctive spiritual tone
Webster ensured that there was a distinctive spiritual tone to complement the medical team's ministry. He secured persons to function as chaplains during the stay of the medical team. These chaplains would minister to both the team and those who were seeking medical attention.
He also ensured that those who came for medical attention were given Christian literature. He kept the spiritual tone high as the medical team did their work. He would even organise prayer before persons underwent surgery.
For more than 40 years, Webster worshipped at Galilee Gospel Hall, on Dunoon Road, in east Kingston where he was an elder. In the last 10 years of his life, he worshipped at Mon Chapel, in St. Andrew.
Well known and loved in the local Christian community, the Webster name carried with it a huge capital of goodwill.
Illness diagnosed in 2000 influenced Webster to shed a lot of his responsibilities at Source of Light and elsewhere. George Webster's funeral took place on June 23 at the Swallowfield Chapel, St. Andrew.
In the words of his widow, Joy, "his entire being - physical, spiritual and emotional - was centred on the Lord and getting out the Gospel. He served the Lord in everything".
Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com
