The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

FOR the past seven weeks, the Church of God of Prophecy has partnered the other ministries to go beyond the four walls of the church and preach to the communities in a more personal manner.

The outreach initiative focused on the 35 corners off East Street, from Wulff Road to Shirley Street.

This combined effort was the result of the inspiration received from God by Bishop Hulan A Hanna, who led the initiative in partnership with Zion Baptist East and Shirley Streets, Church of God East Street Cathedral, Mount Pleasant Green Baptist Church, and the COGOP Healing and Deliverance Centre on Wulff Road.

Each church covered seven of the 35 assigned streets with house-to-house visitations and one-on-one encounters.

The outreach will culminate tomorrow night with a special concert on Windsor Park as part of “Manifestation: Seeing the Unseen” event. It begins at 7.30pm.

All week long, services have been held featuring special guest speakers from churches that participated in the outreach.

The general public is encouraged to attend the concert that promises to be a “wonderful night of prayer and praise”, said Minister Daren Seymour. Various psalmists, praise teams and choirs will minister during the event.

“What we want to do is activate the faith of people and help them bring the spiritual into the natural. We want people to see things from God’s perspective. We were encouraging people to see beyond their natural situation and realise that God is still in control and that there is hope in this life and the life after,” he said.

Minister Seymour said the churches’ outreach efforts in the East Street and Wulff Road communities received a “tremendous response from those living there”.

“The people were very positive and hopeful after their encounter with members from the various churches. Some people who needed healing got prayed for. A lot of young men committed their lives to Christ. That was the initial impact of the church’s presence in the community,” he said.

There was also a partnership with the Ministry of Health that provided people with free blood glucose, blood pressure and other health screenings.

“What we also realised while being there is that the community is environmentally dirty. We want to go back and initiate clean-up campaigns in the neighbourhood in the near future,” he told Tribune Religion.

“We also want to commend the pastors that participated in the effort and collaborated with us, including Rev T G Morrison, Bishop Hulan Hanna, Bishop Carlton Stuart, Prophet R Devon Rolle, Bishop Andrew Brown, Minister Jason Woodside and Wesley Thompson from Urban Renewal.”

The churches also teamed up with members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force for this effort.