ONE motto that the Wildman Street Pentecostal Tabernacle has adopted is to become all things to all men.

The sacred institution has lived up to this mantra by providing counselling services, educational facilities, upliftment, groceries, spiritual guidance and fellowship to residents living in communities in and around the Central Kingston area where it is located.

Among the initiatives started by the church, which lends itself to fostering peace and civic pride, is Project HOPE. This is a community-based, non-profit organisation which stands for “Helping Other People Excel/Endure”. The initiative was conceptualised by Reverend Winston Stewart, a former pastor at the church who was concerned about the high level of poverty and hopelessness that existed in the community in which the church is.

“Our pastor felt that we were coming to church in this community and leaving the community and the many needs of the community were not being met. So we then did a needs assessment and we identified quite a bit of things that we thought the community would need,” said Director for Project HOPE Mavis Ferguson.

“We had quite a few young ladies who were pregnant, had dropped out of school and there were boys on the corner. So we started what we thought was a second-chance school to give them a second chance at education,” she stated.

The project was registered as a foundation in 2005 and has therefore been able to access funding for a number of community projects it has introduced over the years. Although most of the programmes primarily benefit those in Central Kingston, other communities such as Nannyville, Waterhouse and Rollington Town are also assisted with educational and economic opportunities.

In addition to starting the Pentab High School and Evening Institute which allows pregnant teens to get a second chance at education, Project HOPE also operates a nursery and daycare centre and a big brother/big sister programme. It also introduce young people in the various communities to income-generating tools, hosts remedial classes and provides temporary housing solutions for ladies who are homeless.

When the Pentab High School was initially started in 1998, only third and fourth form students were being admitted. However, today, the school takes in students from first form upwards, and currently has 200 children enrolled.

“We were just told that we will be getting 68 students from the ministry (Ministry of Education) who had done both GSAT and the Grade nine examinations for September,” Ferguson said.

But apart from meeting the educational needs of the various communities, the church helps to ensure that residents are fed by partnering with Food for the Poor to distribute food items to needy families.

“We get a portion of stuff that we distribute to our members and the community, but there is a wider aspect to the business that deals with churches, so we deal with all denominations and we cut across borders. We just act as a conduit really, because they (Food for the Poor) supply the stuff,” explained coordinator for the feeding programme, Peter Hibbert.

He also works in collaboration with the church’s field officers to source resources such as desks and chairs for schools in the area.

The spiritual growth of residents factors prominently in the church’s outreach endeavours, and so regular prayer meetings, Bible readings and personal evangelism are undertaken by members.

“What we realise with communities like these is that they are not asking for material things; most of them just want to be saved and change their way of living,” said Moses Williams, who is responsible for the outreach arm of the church.

He said one of the initiatives they have embarked on is ‘Operation Invasion’, a project geared towards changing the culture and the thinking of the residents living in feuding communities.

“The church is basically located in an inner city, and so from time to time we have our challenges. What we have done is that as a church, we have selected a community nearby and that community is Southside. In July 2011, we embarked on ‘Operation Invasion’, and so the church marched into the community and we knocked on every door and talked to the people and prayed for them,” he said.

“Our intention was to remain in the community and have a visible presence so we could influence the morale of the community and show them a better way of living and awaken them to their God-given talent,” he said.

Similar initiatives were undertaken in communities such as Duhaney Park and Nannyville.

Pastor for the church, Rev John-Mark Bartlett, emphasised that meeting the needs of the less fortunate is more than a responsibility they have decided to undertake; it’s a biblical commission.

“We believe that we can transform the lives of people by entering their world and experiencing things from their point of view and not standing afar off and preaching to them,” he said.