ROSE HALL, St James —Ninety-year-old Rev Menzie Euscevius Oban, the founder and principal driving force of Teamwork Associates in Torado Heights, St James, was remembered as a man of God who fathered many during the thanksgiving service for his life at the Montego Bay Convention Centre recently.

“A man of God, father of many, loving, genuine, decent, honourable, kind, accessible, resourceful, and humorous are a few words I can use to describe my dad, our father,” said Monica Oban McLean, daughter of the late educator and minister of religion while delivering the eulogy.

Oban’s son, Michael, also described his father as “a devoted family man and the best father one could ever hope to have”.

“His legacy will live on through his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the many lives he touched and transformed. He was firm and unwavering in his Christian principles and when, as children, we tested his patience. he responded with the great gift of unconditional love. To us, he was perfect. Well, not totally perfect, because he did lose often in the domino games we played…,” quipped Michael.

He noted that his father was not only a minister of religion who believed in ministering, educating and transforming the whole man or woman, but was an agriculturalist who planted a lot of fruit trees.

Rev Dean Brown of Christ Alive Christian Fellowship in Bronx, New York, in delivering the sermon, used the life and faith of Oban, as “an example of what one with strong faith in God can achieve”.

“Not only in my church in New York City, in so many places I have travelled, I have been told about what this man [Oban] did with nothing. I am really not here today to talk to you so much about him, but as much to use him to talk to you, about you,” said Rev Brown.

“Because, the truth is this, a legacy is greater than a treasure left in a bank. And, ladies and gentlemen, if the legacy of this man does not move you to attempt the impossible, then you have missed the purpose for which God brought him into your life.”

Born in Smithville, Clarendon, on November 28, 1928, he was the founder of Teamw ork Associates at the Torado Heights in St James, which laid the foundation for the lives of hundreds, and perhaps thousands of Jamaicans.

His calling to minister to God’s people dates back to the days of the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London, England, through his Bible school days at the Assemblies of God Bible College in Surrey and continued at the Team Work Centre, which he established in St James in 1975.

On returning to Jamaica in 1971, he first became involved in prison ministry and, with others from the Open Bible church in Kingston, set up a base in August Town as well as at his home in Barbican.

“God directed him to prevent, rather than cure, shifting his focus from prison rehabilitation to education as a tool for preventing young people from getting into a life of crime. This vision led Pastor Oban to St James and the acceptance of the gift of a property in Torado Heights, which he accepted on behalf of the company, Teamwork Associates. At that time, he made it clear that to the donors that the property would belong to the company and not his family. This new work started with the establishment of the Teamwork Basic School,” mourners were told.

Today, Oban’s vision of a church (Teamwork Church), a multi-faceted school (Teamwork Christian Academy), and Teamwork Hospitality and Retreat Centre, has been realised.

Among the hundreds of mourners in attendance were Custos of St James, Rev Conrad Pitkin; Dr Delroy Fray, Oban’s personal doctor; businessman Mark Kerr-Jarrett, and numerous ministers of religion.

His body was later interred in the Dovecot Memorial Park in St James.

Oban leaves behind wife Winsome; children David, Monica, George, Linda, Michael, Peter, Sarah, and Paul, and a host of relatives and friends.