Not many would do what she has done.

Forsaking formal education, Nicola Carara has committed her life to “walk streets” — a role she’s convinced God wants her to do. She works is a full-time missionary, concentrating in the Central Kingston region, which contains some of the country’s inner city communities.

Though not from there, she walks through the community with a boldness no other outsider would.

In fact, so great is her confidence that she has offered to chaperone new police personnel in order to help them familiarise themselves with the community. Of course, no officer accepts, but she is convinced “they’ll be good” walking with her.

The Faith In God’s Holy Truth (FIGHT) Mission headed by Carara was birthed to empower children in inner city communities. Initially focused on “South Side” in Parade Gardens, the mission extended to “Tel Aviv” and other surrounding communities as word spread of her work.

“It’s whatever I see; first I started with the children, so I wanted to give them something like a Sunday school…Then as I started that they asked me if I could facilitate a women’s meeting because they wanted to bring the two parts of the community together, so I did that…for two and a half years,” she explained.

Though focused on children, Carara assists the elderly and disabled in the community through the help she receives from churches and individuals across the world. The initiative, which is fashioned like an overseas project Carara was a part of in Pennsylvania, also distributes clothes, connects with schools in the community, assists in sending children to school, and most recently facilitates a support group for fatherless children whose fathers, in most cases, died due to violence.

But all this was never in her plan. After completing studies in the United States, Carara intended to return to Jamaica, secure a full-time job, and work in inner-city communities on the weekends.

“That was my plan, that wasn’t God’s way, because I was not getting jobs, and I was like what’s going on, what’s wrong with me, nobody wants to hire me! and I was getting depressed,” Carara told the Jamaica Observer.

“I would come down with another ministry and I [eventually] would stop that because I was running out of money to even come down, and then somebody said ‘please come and help’.”

Perplexed by the request and her personal circumstances, she said she prayed, fasted and went into the community to conduct prayer walks.

Soon her prayers were answered, as a friend, who despite grieving for her mother at the time, committed to helping Carara start the mission.

“The Wednesday before I was supposed to start…she comes at 10 o’clock at night after putting together the songs for her mother’s funeral and gave me $10,000 to start,” Carara noted. “Those are the things that keep me going, because I see how selfless acts like that just started me out.

“From that day God has let the ministry grow and He has provided funds in just the weirdest ways; like I don’t know how they come in, but they just come in from people who I never even thought would help.”

Her commitment knows no bounds, as throughout everything she trusts God and “shows up” for the people she now calls family.

“I have no job, nothing…but somehow I pay my bills,” she said. “I have had days when I’m like ‘God, I’m kinda running out of food,’ and then I get a knock on the door and a neighbour gives me food,” she stated.

“I have had days when I put out on Facebook that someone needs food and somebody gives me food for them and I’m laughing because they have more food than me, and I just laugh and bring the food to them,” she said in a fit of laughter.

Despite this, she said she has never gone starving, neither has her bills gone unpaid. This she said is because “God has put people in place.”

Interestingly, Carara views the fact that she has no vehicle as a blessing that aids in her mission, reasoning that if she had a car she would not have developed such a bond with the people.

Working in communities prone to violent flare-ups, the local missionary has also shown her strength as, though many would be deterred at the sight of trouble, she continues her work.

“One day I was teaching the kids over at the [community] Centre and we just hear bow, bow, bow, bow, bow,” she said mimicking the sound of gunshots. “And I had a whistle and I’m blowing, shouting ‘get into the kitchen, go, go get into the kitchen,’ and the children are scattering because they want to find out what’s happening, and I am thinking I don’t want to die.

“Then I went to the police afterwards and I said, ‘listen, you need to tell them enuh, what they must do when they hear gunshots because next time I leaving everybody’,” she said jokingly. “That’s probably not the Christian thing to do, but the children want to see what’s going on, and I just want to save my life. And I am trying to save them and they are like ‘what’s going on?” she related, laughing hysterically at her then reaction.

“It was crazy, absolutely crazy.”

The missionary recalled tense moments within the community that have caused her “very imaginative mind” to wonder whether she could spot and dodge bullets like in the sci-fi movie Matrix.

“I remember several people got shot up the street a few years ago, and I looked up the street and everybody was inside and I now have to walk up the street to get the children. And I am like ‘alright, Lord, here we go,’ and I just walked,” she said.

“Sometimes it’s scary because the people are afraid when things flare up. I am afraid if things flare up but I still go because I know God sent me. And I say if I die I am going to heaven, but my goal is to get as many people into heaven with me, so I keep that in my mind,” she continued.

Her unwavering conviction to be in the community, despite the circumstances, stems from the reaction she got from the people after not showing up on the weekend. While the community was under curfew, Carara said a Superintendent of Police suggested that she stay home for her safety, and “the people got upset with me because I didn’t come”.

For Carara, the mission has surpassed just helping strangers to become helping families.

“It’s like we’re all in this together; it’s not me trying to come down and help somebody, it’s all of us who are in this together,” she said. “We praying for each other, working with each other…we looking after each other, taking care of each other, so who would regret helping family, working with family, or being with family,” she said.

“What I am doing is not about results, it’s about showing up, because I may never see results, because God could move me and put me somewhere else…I just know and trust that I am doing what He wants me to do at this point, and later on you might have prime ministers, doctors, lawyers who I’ve worked with,” Carara told the Jamaica Observer.

“I just want them to be people who are productive and will help Jamaica. I just want them to understand how important they are, and so I have to show it to them.”

She said though it may not “look like I’m doing anything, just walking streets…I want people to know that I am there for them, and I am walking the streets because that’s how they will tell me their issues”.

Many may not understand, but Carara is unwavering in her commitment.

“My poor father, him send me to college in America and I out here walking streets and sometimes bringing him to do stuff for me to,” she said when asked of the reception from her friends and family. “But they understand now, my friend in America, if she comes down, they are sending stuff for the kids. My neighbours are giving me stuff for people. They hear about a fire, they’re giving me.

“I think they would love it if I would make some money, but they understand, and many of the Christian ones pray for me,” she said smiling.

FIGHT Mission has adopted eight schools throughout the community, namely Parade Gardens Pre-school, Highholborn Street Basic School, Highholborn Street Church of God Basic School, Holy Family Primary and Infant School, Rae Town Salvation Army Basic School, St Michael’s Primary, St Michael’s Infant School.

Carara has ‘fought’ in Fletcher’s Land, Allman Town, Spoilers, Rose Gardens, and Rae Town.

The mission partners with other foundations, ministries, companies, and individuals with the same aim of assisting the community.