The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

To those who may have not known him personally, the late Dr Myles Munroe was a leading Bahamian evangelist, author, speaker and leadership consultant who founded and led the Bahamas Faith Ministries.

But to playwright and filmmaker Gaylene Forbes, he was a giant of man who consistently nurtured her creative gifts, taking her under his wing to ensure she was always in alignment with God’s plan for her life. 

Gaylene, who is currently a member of BFM, joined at age 14. However, the first time she met Dr Munroe, she was only five years old. It was during a church service and Dr Munroe made a commitment to mentor and nurture Gaylene until she was able to tap into a her talents and use them to the glory of God. 

“We were at an auditorium where the late Tom Skinner was the evangelist. That night he was preaching and he said there was a little girl in room that the world was going to meet through the arts, but I did not recognise that it was me what he meant at the time,” Gaylene told Tribune Woman.  

“(Pastor Skinner) called all the persons with little girls. And as he passed them he kept saying, ‘This isn’t the child’. Now my mother had a young girl at the time; she refused to take me up there. She was the only parent who did not take their child up. Then, for the final time he said, ‘Who in here is keeping this kid?’ Then my mother decided to get out of her seat. He said, ‘This is the child’. Pastor Myles was there that night and he said, ‘I will ensure that his child goes into the direction God wants her to go’, and that was how the alignment started.”

As a teenager, Gaylene found herself drawn to BFM, specifically its youth centered events and activities. While attending one of those events, she had another encounter with Dr Munroe. 

“During that time BFM was the craze and I always had this urge to go. Then he was there and he sat down. I was impressed because I am thinking, ‘This older man who is the pastor is just sitting down, hanging out’, and I thought he was just so cool. He was the kind of person who you could talk to and relate to. Then he said to me, ‘You are great. You need to stop hiding.’ I didn’t get what he meant, but as time moved on I became a part of BFM and that nudging was always there. When I finally decided to step up to the plate, he told his sister to make sure I worked with them. That was from 1996 to 2000,” she said.

Dr Munroe ensured that Gaylene worked along with anyone who would help to hone her skills and draw out her gifts. 

“He saw that I loved writing or saying things whenever we had productions or anything with regard to the Bahamas,” she said. 

“He remembered that gift and spoke to it consistently. When the opportunity provided itself as a young woman at the age of 21, he asked me, along with Kayla Lockhart Edward. So I co-wrote ‘The Guards’ with her. She was so impressed by my writing she told him, ‘Give her whatever she needs’, and that was confirmation to him.”

Gaylene received great support from the leadership of BFM, including from the late Dr Richard Pinder, who was on board the plane that crashed on November 9, 2014 in Grand Bahama, killing Dr Munroe, his wife Ruth, members of BFM and the two pilots.

“Pastor Richard Pinder, I must say ,has played an integral part in all of this. He ensured I went off to the New York Film Academy in 2007. I was grateful for their support of my craft,” she said. 

As a talented filmmaker and member of BFM she said her main goal is help minister the gospel of Jesus Christ in non-conventional ways.

Since tapping into her God-given abilities, she has written nearly 60 plays, books, and made three films, one of which is being released this month.

‘The Crucifixion: Dying to Self’ was written and directed by Gaylene. It seeks to share the message of learning to trust solely on Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.

The film follows the story of a young woman by the name of Mattie who is the product of a violent rape. After giving birth to Mattie, her mother, Sandra, leaves her baby at the hospital to be taken in by an orphanage. 

While a grown-up Mattie appears to have things together in her life, beneath the surface lies a troubled young woman who seeks answers to the internal troubles she faces. 

During the 1 hour 15 minute film, Mattie discovers a myriad of secrets concerning the rape of her mother and the perpetrator.   

“Originally, ‘The Crucifixion: Dying to Self’ was supposed to be an Easter drama production. In February of this year I was contacted by the leadership of BFM and they wanted a drama for Easter. We started to work towards it and then I said it won’t work for that time because it is bigger than that, even though there is an element of Easter because it is called ‘The Crucifixion: Dying to Self’,” Gaylene explained.

“The film is about us as people, the body of Christ, as a nation, and as people on earth in general who don’t realise that every day you have to put something on the side or on the back burner, sacrifice something in order to he here today.”

A free screening of the film will be held on the church grounds.