The Bronx-based St. Matthias Charities, Inc. continues to raise much-needed funds to assist health care in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The group, headed by Pastor Robert McBarnett, on Dec. 2, hosted its 6th Annual Prayer Breakfast at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center in Brooklyn.
“The event had many new attendees, who were able to see the magnitude of work that St. Matthias is doing on behalf of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and other Caribbean countries,” McBarnett told Caribbean Life. “Many of the patrons were happy to see the various pictures and news clips that were aired.”
The Prayer Breakfast – which was graced by the presence of St. Vincent and the Grenadines New York Consul General Howie Prince and his Grenadian counterpart Rosemary Welch – also featured Jamaican gospel artiste Crosswell Daley, as the top act; and Christmas and gospel selections from Zita Adams, a public school teacher in Brooklyn.
St. Matthias Charities, Inc. also bestowed its Humanitarian Award on Bishop Merton Cumberbatch, pastor of the St. Anthony’s Divine Church of Healing in Brooklyn.
The message, “Change,” was delivered by Dr. Wendy Jack-Gordon, of the Brooklyn-based Elim International Worship Center.
“We have the technological change in an ever-changing world,” Dr. Jack-Gordon said. “Change has to come to all mankind.
“Sin does not have the mastery over us,” she added. “We are thought to deny un-Godliness. Isaiah [the Book] recognizes change. He cried out, ‘I’m a man of unclean lips.’”
In May, the St. Matthias Charities, Inc. completed a mission to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, distributing over 200 cases of pampers for patients and residents at the Mental Health Rehabilitation Center and Lewis Punnett Home for the Aged, respectively.
The group also handed over two EKG machine – one to the Levi Latham Hospital in the Marriaqua Valley and the other to the Georgetown Hospital on the northeastern coast, McBarnett said.
In August, the group donated toothbrushes, toothpaste, body wash, soap and other supplies to Mental Health Rehabilitation Center and the Lewis Punnett Home for the Aged.
On Thursday, members were expected to be on the ground in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to hand over four commercial washing machines, one dryer and three television sets to the Lewis Punnett Home for the Aged and the Mental Health Rehabilitation Center.
McBarnett thanked the following, among others, for contributing to the group’s mission: Daley “for enriching us with his performance;” Dr. Jack-Gordon for bringing the message; Vaughn Toney for contributing towards the dryer and for “allowing us to have the annual events at his facilities;” Anita Bottia for contributing to the washing machines; Trinidadian DJ Kyle for “keeping the people on their feet dancing;” Bishop Cumberbatch for donating three televisions; and Pastor Cornelius Olive and Trinity Apostolic Church for “the continuing support.”
