THE East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is a step closer to realising its dream of a “Good Samaritan” inn to help the indigent in the Corporate Area, following the recent purchase of a building in downtown Kingston. The building, which once housed Stanley Motta in Heroes Circle, was purchased at a cost of $30 million, and is also to house a skills training centre.

“.We are going to be doing some restructuring of the building at the back section to house the Good Samarian inn and to have the skills training centre,” said Pastor Adrian Cotterell, president of East Jamaica Conference (EJC).

“The Good Samaritan inn is the one-stop centre for indigent people, where they can get a hot meal, a bath and a change of garment,” he added.

The Good Samaritan inn forms part of the EJC’s $100-million development project, which was launched last year, according to Cotterell.

The development project, he said, is intended to achieve a range of initiatives, including:

. the development of the EJC’s camp site in St Thomas;

. expanding the delivery of education at Kingsway High School; and

. the expansion and diversification of the Adventist ministry to include CDs and other alternative mediums to the church.

“We also want to use some of the funds to assist our young people to go to schools like the NCU (Northern Caribbean University); and there are many members who can’t afford to pay for their prescription and doctor’s bill. We want to use part of the fund as investment, and use the interest to provide medical assistance to them,” the EJC head told the Observer, following the second 10 Commandment Day rally, held at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre in Kingston on Saturday night.

The EJC has managed to raise $5 million so far.

“We hope that this will continue to grow and we hope that by the grace of God we will raise the $100 million so that they can give the work a great push and our young people can benefit, and the nation can benefit because we are involved in the communities,” Cotterell said.

He added: “We are asking the members of the church, by sacrifice, to give according to how they are blessed so that the work of the Lord can continue to grow from strength to strength. The pioneers before us built up this great movement. We are now reaping it.

“We believe that this generation ought to do something for our children, our grandchildren and the next generation coming so that they can continue to build on the foundation that we have made and the work can continue to go forward.”

In the meantime, Cotterell said the business and professional arm of the church – Adventist Lay-person Services and Industries (ASI) – was also involved in helping to finance the operations.

“.They are onboard and they are going to provide needed funds and assist us to make the projects become a reality, especially the Good Samaritan inn,” he said.

Beyond that, he said that they were looking to secure funds from donor agencies, while they moved to get the facility up and running.

“We are looking at this as a long-term initiative, which we intend will benefit the environs and communities around Heroes Circle, there are quite a number of them, but also the wider community in Jamaica,” Cotterell said