WESTERN BUREAU: After spending nine years at the New Beginnings Boys’ Home in Hanover, 19 year-old Orville Gardner has a new lease on life.

Apart from “finding” Christ, the former “problem child” no longer drifts aimlessly, because he now has goals that he is working towards.

Gardener, who became a Christian in 1995, has long cherished the dream of becoming a pilot, and he is laying the groundwork to make it a reality.

The eldest resident at the home, Gardener is using his last few months there to prepare for his General Equivalency Diploma (GED). After sitting these exams, he will be going off to Belize to participate in a six-month training programme called “Youth with a Mission”.

The first three of those six months will see Gardener receiving biblical instructions. He will spend the remaining three months travelling to other nations to impart his newly acquired knowledge. On completion of his studies, Gardner said, he will be returning to New Beginnings to “give back” something of himself to the institution which helped him find his way in the world. For, in addition to helping him decide on a career path, New Beginnings has also had a positive impact on his interpersonal relationships. And Gardener is the first to admit that he now has greater appreciation and respect for his elders.

“I am now totally different… even when I go to visit my mother, I’m much more respectful to her. I’m not the person I used to be. I’m now respectful and independent,” he said smiling proudly.

“My experience (at New Beginnings) has been good. I used to waste a lot of time in school (but) since I come here, I don’t have a lot of friends behind me. And I couldn’t move around in class without telling someone, or getting permission. I really have to concentrate on my book. When I came here I had problem in school and my reading wasn’t strong but since I’ve been here I’ve started to pick up,” he recalled.

Gardener said he became a “problem child” at about age seven, following the death of his grandmother, who was a strong source of guidance to him. The situation worsened, Gardener explained, after his father left the home.

“(My grandmother) was the only one who kept me inside the house, and after she died, I wasn’t listening to my mother. I (would) leave the yard whenever I feel like… whenever I wanted to go the beach I would just go,” he said.

“After my grandmother died, my father leave, and then the family start fall apart. Most of the family was in the (United) States. It was only my two uncles, my mother and my aunt and then after a while, my aunt was getting ready to leave.”

He said, however, that it was that aunt, Yvonne Porter, who introduced him to New Beginnings before she left for the US.

Gardener admitted that he was initially opposed to going to the home because he thought that it was a “state-run facility”. But after visiting, he had a change of heart. Now, he says, he will always be grateful to Bob and Mary Holland, operators of the home.

“If it wasn’t for them I don’t know where I would be. Right now, I see some of my friends, and they are driving cars, and they think they are ‘all that’. They are smoking ganja and taking coke (cocaine) and their lives are going down the drain,” Gardener said. “(New Beginnings) is a good place. Up here is quiet. It’s not like in the town. It’s nice. There’s not any hype. There’s not any war,” he said.

The teen went on to encourage homeless or “problem boys” to think about their future, and recognise that discipline and order are a fundamental part of life.

“Most of them out there, they don’t want anybody in charge of them because of the enjoyment out there. All of that feels good but what about the long run? What is going to happen after all of that? What about your future? Discipline is a part of life. You have to learn from your mistake and develop,” he said.

New Beginnings was founded in 1986, with the Reverend Bob Holland taking in the first boy to a fellow missionary’s home at Bogue Heights in Montego Bay. Since then the home has housed and educated between 250 and 300 boys, helping them to become productive citizens.

The home is founded in Jamaica and is licensed as a one of the 18 children’s homes in the country.

But the facility is in need of financial help to meet the needs of the growing number of street and problem boys like Orville Gardner in western Jamaica.

Persons wishing to make a contribution or who need information about the home can contact Mary and/or Bob Holland at 999-2672 or write to them at Box 4, Ramble PO, Hanover.