Speech by the Prime Minister

19th Annual Gathering of Heal the Family, Heal the Nation Church Service


19th Annual Gathering of Heal the Family, Heal the Nation Church Service

Greetings

By

Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP

Prime Minister of Jamaica

At

Heal the Family, Heal the Nation

On

January 8, 2025

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Thank you, Custos Pitkin.

Let me acknowledge my colleagues in the Cabinet, Minister Chuck and Samuda, MP Robert Miller, Mayor Swaby. And allow me to return the wish of blessing to the leader of the opposition and to my good friends Bishop Delford Davis and his wife for putting on and organizing this event. I was reflecting that I’ve been to possibly more than 10 of these events. It’s been a little while and it is always, for me, the best way to start the new year.

Allow me to acknowledge Reverend Courtney Gordon, Chairman of the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches and other leaders of the faith community, locally and internationally, who are attending this event and to you, the important people in the room, the people who make it happen.

As we assemble for the 5th gathering of the National Day of Prayer, we also mark the 19th year of the Heal the Family, Heal the Nation service; this is our fixture on the annual calendar. And as I said, I’ve been to about 10 of these and it has reached the point where no leader dear misses this and I say it in that way because my friend Mark has somewhere else to be. I don’t know, he may have gotten wind of something, and he has to run off to some other part of the country. Right Mark?

I too have to go to another part of the country. Not for the same reason that Mark is going, it is to another part of the country, but I have to attend a funeral of a dear friend, but I could not miss this. And the difficult thing is that both events are within an hour of each other in terms of start time so I do have a tight schedule today, but we will make it happen. This is important. It is important to the nation that we assemble and ask God for his blessings for the new year.  So, as we assemble for the 19th time, I extend God’s richest blessings to you. I pray for a productive year for all of us.  I pray for your good health.  I pray that you will be hopeful, that you will have peace, and that prosperity and victory will be yours.

This occasion is always a perfect way to begin the year bringing us together as a nation under God’s grace and guidance.  I hold this event close to my heart.  And I look forward to it each year. It serves as a powerful reminder of the strength and unity we derive from our faith and the importance of seeking divine guidance and direction for the challenges and opportunities of the year ahead. I deeply value the prayers and reflections shared here which inspire not only personal renewal, but also a collective commitment to healing and uplifting our families and communities throughout the nation. Your theme this year, “The Hour of Decision” with the scripture reference from Joshua 24, 1 – 17, reminds us of God’s unwavering faithfulness in guiding, protecting, and providing for his people.

It calls us to make a deliberate choice to serve him wholeheartedly, rejecting distractions and idols that compete for our devotion. Joshua’s leadership and bold declaration, “as for me and my household, we will serve the lord.” This sets a powerful example for all of us to lead by faith and inspire others in our communities and indeed our families to follow the words of Joshua; as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.  So let us reflect on our personal histories and recognize God’s faithfulness in our lives. Let us recommit ourselves to his service, choosing unity over division, compassion over indifference, and service over self-interest.

Just as Joshua challenged the Israelites to remember God’s blessing and live with gratitude, so too must we acknowledge his goodness in guiding us through the trials and triumphs of the past year. The past year tested our resilience, but it also revealed our strengths. In the face of challenges such as the devastating Hurricane Beryl, we witnessed the extraordinary spirit of Jamaicans. Many of you here were your brother’s keeper. Many of you here gave from your household to other households who suffered. So, though it tested us, it also revealed our strength, our strength of character, our brotherliness, and our commitment to rebuilding Jamaica.

So, despite widespread damage, as a country, we were able to mount a spectacular recovery. In fact, within weeks, we had recovered. To date, the government has delivered over 14,000 recovery grants to households that were affected, and many Jamaicans have recovered from the impact of Hurricane Beryl. This resilience echoes Joshua’s lesson, when we place God at the centre of our plans, we can overcome even the greatest obstacle.

I recall meeting with representatives of the church just before the hurricane struck and they prayed for us.  And my recollection is that the prayer calls upon God to spare us and even though Beryl was the earliest forming category five hurricane, and even though it hit us at about a category four, and though it hit the southern parishes the hardest, when compared to Hurricane Gilbert, it was still a glancing blow. Some may think, well, it’s just the nature of the path that the hurricane chose but I know this body knows and believes that God continues to protect and guide and spear Jamaica with his mighty hand.

2024 also brought some achievements that should inspire us and for almost all the time that I’ve stood at this platform and addressed you, I have asked God and for your prayers to keep the nation safe, to bring peace to our land, to help us to address the scourge of crime in Jamaica. This year, we are pleased to report an 18.9% reduction in murders.  Your prayers had a lot to do with that.

I recall one year we had prayers for the security forces. On many occasions, we prayed for our youth, for them to turn away from a life of crime. Prayers are not just wishes. Prayers are the direct request to a higher power. Our requests are being heard so I call upon you this morning to continue in prayer on your knees every morning, in your churches throughout the land, continue to pray for our security forces, our police men and women, the members of the JDF and MOCA and all the other security entities in the country. I wish to thank them for their efforts, and I too will continue to pray for peace and security in our land. It is not just the statistics of 19% reduction in murders. I think you might identify with it if I were to say that that translates to about 250 lives being saved: that’s significant, very significant. And if I put it another way, it could have been any one of us gathered here whose life was saved so for you and your household, I know you will continue to serve the Lord.

And when we talk about household, I know that many of you have had a difficult time economically. Every day you go to the supermarket or to the market, you face a higher price, I am aware. It is not just Jamaica, it is globally.  This business of inflation eats out the little money that you earn and as fast as we increase the minimum wage and we increase public sector wages, this evil inflation eats it out.  And when you go into the supermarket and you have to face these high prices, or you go to the market, you get vexed. I want you to know that the government hears the vexation, hears the anger, and we have been doing, if I may say so myself, quite a good job given our circumstances, and we have been doing quite a good job compared to other countries who have more resources than us to bring stability back into our economy.

The inflation was caused by the COVID pandemic. It affected the global supply systems, and that has not yet been corrected to pre 2019 circumstances, but simple things do affect the prices that you face. When we are hit by a hurricane, that damages the agricultural sector, the production in the agricultural sector is reduced and the yam, the banana, the tomato, the irish gets scarce and all of those prices go up. So, though the government is not the cause of the prices going up, the government is still responsible for the management of the economy. And one of the things that we are committed to doing, is to make life easier for the households so if it is the cost of electricity that is going to make your life more difficult, we’re going to do something about it. If it is the water bill that you face, we have been doing something about it and for those of you who have yet taken advantage of the amnesty, please do so, that will reduce your cost of living.

We are going to be spending significant resources over a billion dollars from now to the next budget to increase our agricultural output so that you have more agricultural produce in the market so that the price of it goes down. Already, inflation has gone down to about 3.9% coming from a high of 12%. Transportation, another big cost in your consumption basket and we have made sure to expand the JUTC into other areas so that the price that you face is a subsidized and a reduced price. So, we are doing everything we can to bring down inflation and in particular food inflation.

We want your household to be able to afford a decent life and the basics in Jamaica, but it is not just in managing inflation that we have done well. Our unemployment rate is at the lowest ever, about 3.6%. We have never had that level of employment in the country before but still, I know for many of you, there are still many youngsters out there who are not working, and we are going to put in place… In fact, we have put in place programmes to get those youngsters into the labour force. You know what they always say, the devil find work for idle hands.  The less idle hands that we have, is the less hands there for the devil’s work so we are putting them in jobs.

We are also focusing on those persons who can’t work, who don’t have any pension, who don’t have any income and I’m saying it here because there might be persons here who are qualified for these programmes, but don’t know about them.  We have something called the Social Pension, that if you are 75 years and you are not part of the NIS, you can go to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security  and get registered for that Social Pension so we are making provisions for persons in households who  have no support from the state, have no income,  and are not able to have the basic consumption for the basic quality of life. So even though times are hard, we agree, things are tough, but I want you to take a positive view, a hopeful view, not just reflect on yourselves, I also want you to reflect on the regional and global situation.  If you think things are hard in Jamaica, check Canada and hear what they are saying.  If you think crime bad in Jamaica, check Trinidad and hear what they’re saying

I want you to appreciate, yes, it’s rough here, not going to deny that but count your blessings, God has been good to us. Give God thanks for the little that we have. Maintain a positive attitude. Meet life with an open arm, a positive outlook; the glass is not half empty. It is only half empty when you are looking down to the bottom. For us, the glass must always be half full when we are looking up to the Lord because the promise of the Lord, the promise of our God, is that he has a plan for us, not to harm us, but to give us prosperity and I believe in the promise of our God. He told us that he has a mansion with many rooms for us and we must believe in him so my friends, it is always good, as I’ve said, to start a new year praying, worshipping and giving thanks.

Hardships there are but the land is green and the sun shineth. I pray that the Lord continues to guard us with his mighty hand.

God bless you!