Published 15 March, 2021
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Leadership of government and NEOC praised for the way Covid-19 pandemic has been handled
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, March 15, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — The appearance of Covid-19 forms part of what Jesus taught about the end times, and a leading cleric is saluting the leadership of the government of St. Kitts and Nevis, and the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) for the way they have gone about in keeping the pandemic at bay.
“I am declaring unto you that you must not make the mistake and see Covid-19 as simply a virus because Jesus declared before His coming there will be signs and one of the signs which He says, will be pestilences, and pestilences that come with contagious and deadly disease,” stated Reverend Dr Ben Browne of the Cayon Church of God on Sunday March 14 as he delivered the morning worship sermon under the theme ‘Signs of the times’ whose topic was ‘The signs are signalling… Don’t miss the signal’.
The man of God advised the congregation that included Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris and Ambassador His Excellency Michael Powell, to look at what Covid-19 is doing by making people unemployed, causing all kinds of hardships to the people, has restricted the movements, has killed thousands, has frozen nation after nation, and it has made life miserable all over the entire world.
He however advised that all was not doom and gloom as God has promised grace and mercy to His people, explaining that what ‘grace’ does is that it allows God to do for the sinners some marvellous things, while on the other hand ‘mercy’ is God’s way of withholding from the people what they deserve in terms of judgement.
“Oh for the mercy of God, we need to give praise and thanks,” said Dr Browne. “When I look at how this pandemic is ravaging the economies of the countries around the world, and how it is destroying life after life across the region here as well, and across the other nations of the world, when I look at what this thing is doing and when I see what is happening to us here in this Federation, I have got to give some praise. I have got to give some thanks and some blessings to God.”
Added Dr Browne: “Oh yes I praise God for the leadership of the Government, and I praise God for the leadership of the NEOC (National Emergency Operations Centre) that is behind and above the government and above NEOC is this wonderful God whom we serve, who gives us His grace and I hear the Prophet Jeremiah saying, it is because of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed.”
The Cayon Church of God demonstrated its commitment in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic by hosting a Covid-19 vaccination information session from 6:00 pm that was facilitated by General Surgeon Dr Natalie Osborne under the theme ‘Getting vaccinated against Covid-19…Should I take it or should I not’.
“We know what is going on right now in the world – the pandemic and we know there are fears and so to allay those fears, we asked Dr Natalie Osborne to come and seek to address some of the issues that we may be having,” said chairperson of the evening session, Mrs Rosel Pemberton. “We here at the Cayon Church of God we firmly believe in a holistic development – we don’t just try to feed the spiritual side.”
Dr Osborne, who said she is a daughter of the Green Valley community and a daughter of the small area of Central Cayon, thanked the Cayon Church of God for giving her the opportunity to speak at the church that evening.
“My concern and our concern in the Ministry of Health is as we know that we have been dealing with for over the last year, the coronavirus, the Covid-19 pandemic, which started back in December of 2019 in Wuhan, China, and was officially labelled by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a global pandemic in March of 2020,” said Dr Osborne. “I am here just to enlighten you a bit about the vaccine and why we all should be vaccinated. Once there isn’t any major health counter-indication we all should get vaccinated so that we all move forward together in a unified manner and move past this vaccine.”
Giving the vote of thanks, after a highly interactive information session that also included person online and where persons were advised that the vaccine was safe to be used by persons in the ages 18 to 80, Ms Jamillah Bristol remarked that the presentation was very informative as Dr Osborne removed the medical terms and she brought it down to their level.
“Because I myself have a scare and I have read the negative things (about the vaccine) and I haven’t taken it as yet because of the fear and the negative things, I am grateful you encourage me and you persuade me to go and take my vaccine tomorrow morning,” stated Ms Bristol.
Reverend Dr Ben Browne said he was also going to take his vaccine the following day at the Cayon Health Centre and not at the New Town Community Centre where everyone is going.
