Church Supports Education and Small BusinessesBy: December 28, 2023 , The Full Story With a mission to open “doors of greatness” for all, the Mandeville based Power of God Ministries International (PGMI) is investing millions in education, small businesses, and road safety. Founder of the church, Prophet Roydel Rowe, tells JIS News that in September, they provided tuition support to deserving and needy students at a cost of $1.2 million, while also spending a considerable sum on road safety campaigns undertaken by the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS). He says the church strongly believes that the society can “survive in greatness and success,” so its members use their resources to lift persons out of poverty, and “that is our goal” to ensure that reasonable lives can be enjoyed on earth. “Every church is preparing for heaven, but at least one church in the world is preparing for the earth. Our church is preparing God’s people to survive comfortably, and survive happily upon the earth,” Mr. Rowe says. “We go around Jamaica, we stop at bars, and we stop at shops. We do not have to be invited, we just show up at a bar, your shop, and if it is not stocked, we stock it for you. We find people who are doing livestock, chickens and other stuff and provide them with assistance,” he tells JIS News. During the TODSS’ road safety campaigns over several months, the church provided 100 taxi operators in each parish with gasoline. “While doing this, we are sending children to school, we are building houses for people, and taking people out of poverty little by little. We are doing a lot for society. This is what the church’s intentions are all about,” Mr. Rowe says. For persons in deep rural communities where motor vehicles might not be able to traverse at ease, they buy donkeys for those residents who use them to transport water for their small farms, and to move the produce from the fields to markets and buyers. To further their mission in the empowerment of ordinary individuals, the PGMI provides assistance to persons to obtain their passports, birth certificates, and driver’s licences. “This is what this church is all about, and you don’t have to be a member. It doesn’t matter which church you are from, once you are a visitor, we help you. That is what we do,” he notes, adding that for its support to education, all that the church requires is that the students do well. “Whatever we can do to make God’s people happy in any organisation, I will be there,” Mr. Rowe says, pointing out that he and his members are preparing to respond to a request from a St. Andrew based Rastafarian group that has reached out to them for help. He says that whatever legitimate business people are in, and they need help to build up the enterprise, his role is not to be judgemental, but to provide help when resources are available, and to encourage people to use their success to reach others in need. “When I help them, I explain a lot of things to them, like God is love, God is real, and God loves and cares for them, and just as I help them, they must help others, so that they can prosper. We want to give you a career so that you can help yourself, and you can also be independent, that is what we do,” Mr. Rowe explains. Head of TODSS, Egeton Newman, says the support to the public transport sector is very important. “Mr. Rowe is supporting it in a remarkable way, and come next year, he will be doing much more,” he adds.
