Montserrat was recently honoured for its contribution to sharing the Pentecostal word to Barbados, which now has 26 Pentecostal assemblies with over 7,600 members and more than 11,000 worshippers in Barbados. Members and other worshipers gathered at the Hilton Barbados Resort on Saturday night to celebrate Barbados’ 100 years of membership of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies (PAWI).
Dr Howard Fergus KBE was present to accept the award on behalf of Montserrat for its contribution. Fergus accepted the Lydia Dowdye-Mings Servanthood Award. Dowdye left Montserrat in 1916 for Barbados and began to preach the gospel.
Montserrat was selected for this honour because of the significant role it played, “as the womb that birthed Pentecostalism in the region, and because it was Montserrat that gave Barbados two of its most prominent Pentecostal pioneers”.
First of those pioneers was Dowdye, a young missionary from Cudjoe Head who, after being married to Charles Mings, became fondly known as Mother Mings.
Following her was Reverend William Morgan who, along with his wife, arrived in Barbados from Montserrat in 1923. According to the testimony of the Barbados District: “The Morgans gave stability to the work during those formative years and were instrumental in founding several churches on the island.”
With the work of these pioneers as the fuel for the flame, the Barbados District said that along with its assemblies across the island, it has “added to its service to the nation of Barbados, a primary school, a Bible College to train its ministers, a radio station, and the Family Cooperative Credit Union”.
“I was specially invited as a guest to receive the award on behalf of Montserrat delivered by the Governor-General. I was enormously pleased that micro Montserrat had played a major pioneering role in the establishment of the Pentecostal message and movement in Barbados,” Dr Fergus said. “This is yet another instance of the Montserrat flag flying overseas, signalling a Montserratian accomplishment, albeit under the leading and direction of God. In fact, two Morgan brothers from Montserrat, Michael Henry and William following where Lydia led, contributed significantly to the expansion of the movement in the 1930s. The name of Montserrat is written all over Pentecostalism in Barbados. It was a humbling but uplifting experience to be present at the celebrations and reflections, as a Montserratian.”
Click the link to read the full story.
http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2016/10/11/barbados-pentecostal-flame-burning-for-a-century/
