From a recovery room in Cornwall Regional Hospital, Seventh-day Adventist Pastor Egnal Grant said he has forgiven the attackers who shot him in the abdomen during an attempted robbery on Thursday evening, May 10.

“My greatest joy will be to see [the attackers] baptized,” Grant said, adding that if given the opportunity, performing the baptism himself would be “the crowning act” of his ministry. “I would love to get the privilege to see these guys and talk with them about the issues of life ... I would love to find a job for them,” he said.

Listening to Grant’s words of forgiveness was “a very defining moment [for me],” said Pastor Patrick Allen, president of the Adventist church in the West Indies, after visiting Grant on May 15.

“[Grant] was most concerned, not so much for himself, but for the perpetrators of the crime,” Allen said. “He is in the ministry of reconciliation, healing and forgiveness.” 

Allen, also a member of the Police Civilian Oversight Authority (PCOA), which monitors the performance of Jamaica’s police force, reported that the investigation of the crime continues. Along with other PCOA members, Allen is currently visiting the St. James Divisional Headquarters of Jamaica’s police force in Montego Bay due to increased criminal activity in the region.

Pastor Glen Samuels, president of the Adventist church in West Jamaica, suggested that reaching out to unemployed, desperate young people would do considerably more to curb crime than merely condemning the actions of such “misguided youth.” He then urged the Jamaican government to help churches increase the number and effectiveness of social intervention programs.

“Many of [these young people have] no hope,” Samuels said. “They don’t have any leadership in their homes and [in seeking] leadership in the community, the sad thing is they sometimes attach themselves to the wrong kind of leadership. The church must continue its programs of reaching out to these youngsters.”