OPERATION Save Jamaica (OSJ) — a non-denominational Christian group — on Monday announced a programme to bring sustainable spiritual, social and economic revival to the island, starting with a pilot project in Old Harbour, St Catherine.

“Old Harbour is a testing ground for us to see if we have all the resources in place to implement the programme on a national basis,” said Major Neil Lewis, a director of OSJ. “We want to have teams visiting all the homes in the community and praying for the needs of people. Then we will invite them to visit the crusades we will have in the area as well as participate in free seminars that we will put on.”

According to Lewis, the seminars would focus on issues such as living a victorious Christian life, successful family life and the development of leadership skills.

“We also want to cater to the economic needs of the community so we are in negotiations with both local and overseas investors to see how we can stimulate growth,” he explained. For the Old Harbour community, he said, negotiations were under way with investors who were interested in establishing two factories to manufacture low and middle income houses.

“We have not yet finalised discussions so I can’t comment more on it,” Lewis said. The Old Harbour project starts on Friday, Labour Day, with a crusade at the Jamaica Broilers Sports Club in Spring Village, St Catherine. Depending on the success of the project in Old Harbour, Lewis said, then the relevant revisions would be made to take the project across the island. The pilot project would run for about four months, Lewis said.

“We want to do the same thing for all communities across the island over the next five years. We would go in and do the home visits, crusades, seminars and economic activities and then move on to the next community. The churches in the area would continue to oversee the programme,” explained Lewis.

OSJ has been working with the Ministers’ Fraternals in the communities to mobilise the churches, he added.

According to a brochure on the OSJ, a series of phased, preaching, teaching, deliverance and life equipping campaigns would be carried out over four-month blocks in 30 zones covering manageable population increments of about 180,000 persons at a time.

“We believe that the church has a key role to play in community transformation in Jamaica… and we have been doing a lot of work especially in the inner-city areas,” said chairman of the OSJ, Pastor Bruce Fletcher. He said that since the start of OSJ in December 1997, the group has been working in communities such as Majesty Gardens, Trench Town and Grants Pen.

“We want to halt the moral slide among the youth and to see deeper levels of discipleship in the church.We want to change the mindsets and attitudes and to see revival and empowerment especially among the youth,” he said.