ALTHOUGH it offers all-day classes, health care, counselling services, business financing and back-to-school assistance at no cost to residents, pastor of the Gregory Park Baptist Church Reverend Karl Henlin is proudest of the fact that the church has created an open space where people are free to worship.

The church’s approach to outreach is two-fold; on the one hand, it places a lot of emphasis on announcing the Gospel through crusades and evangelism in the area, but then there is the focus on social interventions for the poor.

The Gregory Park Learning Centre is one of the church’s flagship projects, and gives almost 400 school dropouts from communities such as Caymanas Bay, Waterford, Portsmouth and Central Village a chance to complete their schooling. Over 30 teachers volunteer their time to teach eight subjects at four different levels from nine o’clock in the mornings to nine at nights.

“We have loads of young people who dropped out of school and need further qualification but can’t afford it,” explained the pastor. “So we thought that, as a church, we should model the love of Jesus for them by putting in the centre.”

The centre was started in 2006 and since that time has qualified a number of students to enter tertiary institutions. Henlin takes tremendous pleasure in the fact that a number of former dropouts were able to secure distinctions in their Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams, but he is equally proud of those who have increased their confidence and built their character through the interaction with their teachers and peers. The centre is preparing 53 students for CXC this year.

Principal Shirley Whylie said most of the students are mothers who are just looking for a second chance to uplift themselves.

“They walk in off the streets because it is absolutely open, anybody can come, and they will take forms and carry it for their friends,” she said.

Because the church does not place any restrictions on them, these mothers are able to take their children to classes with them. Since the classes are free, the teachers are not paid, but this has not deterred persons from the church and the community from coming forward to volunteer.

“What it has done for the members is in terms of their Christian commitment [and] in terms of their openness to mix with persons of all sectors in the society,” said Henlin. “So what is happening here is that members of the church now have daughters, because people here are now their daughters and sisters,” he said.

The church’s members are equally accommodating of the elderly who they host at least twice-monthly for fellowship and a cooked meal. The Golden Age Club was started 10 years ago and currently has 70 elderly persons from the community visiting the church for meetings.

“They have a great relationship, because they go out on outings and they do competitions in craft [and] in sports. They have a great bond, they don’t miss the meetings and it’s always well-attended. Some people say it’s the food, but I think it is the fellowship,” said Reverend Henlin, who also pointed out that the church provides a Christmas dinner for the senior citizens during the Yuletide season.

The members of this club are also the main beneficiaries of the church’s clinic, which is open at least once per month. The clinic is manned by volunteer doctors and nurses from the church who diagnose and treat illnesses as well as give referrals.

“The clinic is set up like a doctor’s office: the patients come in, the nurses take the blood pressure and their sugar and they go to the doctor. A file is kept on everybody that goes in,” explained the church’s administrator Salome Graham.

“There are times when we have to help people with prescriptions to go out to pharmacies, because they are so devastatingly poor that we have to help,” she added.

Henlin said that in addition to examining patients and assisting with the financing of prescriptions, the church also funds some medical procedures such as x-rays and surgeries. In June of each year the church hosts “Healing Sunday” when about 150 persons are given medical, optical and dental care from a team of medical experts. Pharmaceutical companies and government representatives are usually present on this day to register persons for their National Insurance Scheme (NIS) cards and the Jamaica Drug for the Elderly Programme (JADEP).

These initiatives by the church over the years have no doubt been costly, but Henlin said the members have made it all possible through their generosity.

“People criticise the church all the time, that all we do is collect people’s money, and I heard one guy say that the pastors are living a great life on the people’s money. But it is the people’s gift in church on Sundays that funds all of this; it is part of our mission. There is no fund-raising from anybody, no sponsorship from anybody,” he said.

On the first day of each month, church members are given the opportunity to contribute groceries which are then distributed to the poor. But apart from this general call to give, individual members also reach out to the community by purchasing school shoes, bags and books for destitute mothers.

The church also provides an opportunity for those without a steady income to start their own businesses by purchasing the first set of supplies needed by these individuals to get their businesses off the ground. Some, Henlin said, become juice or snack vendors, while others start off selling clothes.

After being in the community for over 20 years, Henlin has become in-tune with the needs of the area and residents, likewise, have looked to the church when life became unbearable. But the pastor made it clear that the distribution of goods and services was not the central purpose of the church.

“We don’t have to be doing these things to be relevant, because the church gathers for worship, therefore we offer an opportunity to anybody to come and worship God. We must never think the church is a service agency doing health and education,” he said.