FROM its annual back-to-school fair to its mega-health expo, the Hope Gospel Assembly has been known to host events that never fail to capture the attention of the ordinary man, government officials and the media.

But pastor of the church, Reverend Peter Garth will tell you that it’s the prospects of helping people and not so much the media glare that propel the church to lend a helping hand.

Behind the scenes, the church, which is located on Old Hope Road in St Andrew, has implemented a raft of activities aimed at empowering and enriching the lives of those living within the surrounding communities. These communities include Standpipe and Sandy Park where residents have consistently struggled to put their lives together after the aftermath of a hurricane or natural disaster.

One of the major projects for the church, Rev Garth noted, is the clinic which it operates every third Saturday. Those who visit the clinic are admitted free of charge, and are able to seek advice for a variety of ailments which are treated by doctors connected to the church. But then the church goes even further by helping to fill the prescriptions of these individuals to speed up the process of recovery.

“What we try to do, for instance, is to buy the most important ones, and so if you get a prescription for antibiotics and vitamins, we might ask you to get the vitamins and we get the antibiotics,” the pastor said.

These ventures are made possible through the support of the congregation and proprietors of the nearby Liguanea Drug and Garden Centre and also the operators of the General Foods Supermarket.

The pastor said that persons from time to time still remind him of the mega-health fairs that the church used to host on the grounds of Jamaica College up until six years ago. These fairs generally saw as many as 1,000 patrons coming to view the over 100 booths that were set up to display a variety of medical products and provide information. Pharmacies were also set up on the grounds with the permission of the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica.

“Every single thing was free. God blessed us with a few medical doctors and we got additional doctors to come and deal with everything that you can think of, and persons went to the pharmacy and had their prescriptions filled,” Rev Garth said.

Another popular project at the church is the feeding programme that sees the congregation providing nourishing meals for individuals within the community. Most of those who benefit are children and senior citizens.

“We deliver it, we have talks with them and things like that. That goes on every Saturday and we give them a good solid meal – not soup – a good solid meal, and they do appreciate that,” the pastor stressed.

In the past they would have had someone cook and deliver meals to about 30 street boys in the area as well, but most of these boys have since changed their location or have got in trouble with the law.

While the church obviously has no problem giving, it also strives to empower people to help themselves through their “self-help” programme. Under this project, individuals are given grants to assist with starting a business. Although the church usually gives about $5,000 towards these projects, Rev Garth said that beneficiaries have most times managed to use the money to further themselves.

“Persons who come with something realistic, we help them. They may want to start a small business, like to do some buying and selling. What we do is try to encourage them on what not to go into, like we advise them not to go into perishables,” he said.

“Part of what we have started to do when people come is to say, “Listen, if you get $5,000, it can’t go very far, so what we are going to ask you to do is to find four or five other persons and give them my name and tell them to call me and I will say that we will pledge $5,000 to this project’. So if you find four other persons, that’s $25,000 to start and the person doesn’t get it as a loan, because if they say lend me $5,000 that can’t work, the person will die before you start and the business is aborted,” the pastor reasoned.

He said that one of the success stories he can recall is of a man to whom the church gave $5,000 to start selling soup. In no time, the man bought a handcart and started selling in downtown Kingston until he bought a car and started taking orders from businessplaces. Another that also came to mind is the ex-con who was given $5,000 by the church to assist with starting up his marketing company. He grouped with other persons who also contributed to making this dream possible.

“That was someone who used to walk around and beg and now he is a businessman. What I did was to sit him down and said, “You have to take out some (of the money) to live and plough back some in the business, and he got it,” the pastor said.

Of primary importance to the church is building healthy families. It is for this reason that a Family Ministry was started in 1999 which arranges family events and panel discussions so issues in the home are brought to light.

“What we do is focus on strengthening the family relationships between husband and wife and children and we also focus on singles. We encourage the singles to stay faithful to the Lord and to await their time for marriage,” said Major Patrick Aiken, who was at the helm of that ministry for over 10 years.

One of the major events organised by the ministry is the much-anticipated family fellowship dinner which is hosted on the first Sunday of December each year. Each family represented in the church is encouraged to bring a cooked meal and all the meals are then served buffet style. The group also arranges regular movie nights, where wholesome family entertainment is presented.

The church’s Sunday School also helps to strengthen families and the community in general by teaching children sound values.

“The Sunday School also helps the teachers to go into the community and meet with the parents of the children, so we build good communities. As we go and visit the children, the parents would get to know us,” stated elder Owen Ferguson who arranges the Sunday School classes.

The work that the church has been doing within the community has not gone unnoticed, by people in surrounding communities.

“Most of the people around here, they would defend the church, because of the programmes that we offer and the care we show,” said Deacon Ronald White.