OUR CHILDREN STILL REPRESENT OUR FUTURE"

Superintendent Minister of the Anguilla Methodist Circuit, Reverend Lindsay Richardson, told teachers that some of the wayward students, whose deviant and violent behaviour today is cause for concern, may well be the leaders of tomorrow.

“All is not lost. Our children still represent our future,” he admonished teachers from the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School in particular who attended the Teachers’ Day Service at the Maranatha Methodist Church in Blowing Point on Sunday, October 2. The teachers were still reeling from the recent acts of violence at the school which have spread fear among them and the majority of the student body.

He based his sermon on the Old Testament story of Jacob who, together with his mother, Rebecca, swindled his older brother Esau out of his inheritance from his father Isaac. Despite their cunning and falsehood, Jacob secured his father’s blessing for power and prestige and became the leader of Israel - even bearing the name of the territory as well.

Reverend Richardson went on: “I want to believe that there are many Rebeccas and many Jacobs among us. And like Esau, the brother, who was swindled out of his birthright, we want to crush and destroy them – those parents and children who fail to live up to our expectations… to be model parents and students. There are times when we can become so aggravated, so annoyed and so angry, we want to crush and destroy them like Esau who devoted most of his life taking revenge against his brother for stealing his birthright.

“The point about this story is that it raises a question – how do you know that the Jacob we most despise – that child, that student – is not the one that God chose to do good for Israel? As wicked, sinful and evil as Rebecca and Jacob turned out to be …as horrible as the story is, Jacob is the one…whom God used to fulfill his promise to the children of Israel. Jacob himself was named Israel. Jacob was the one whom God chose to execute his plan of redemption for the world. The hope of Israel was fulfilled through Jacob.

“…How can we know if the Jacobs in our community, the Jacobs in our families, if the Jacobs in our class are not the one[s] that God has chosen to lead us in the next generation? But we want to crush them – don’t we? That’s the challenge…Perhaps we ourselves need to think about some of the things we have done as children, as young people and even as adults and God is still able to use us.”
He advised parents and teachers not just to hope for a better day, but to believe and have faith in it, and above all, faith and belief in God and in their children. “Are you ready to put your faith in your Jacob child, to believe in your child because the hope of Anguilla lies in the Jacob of your home, the Jacob in your class who is rebelling and refusing to do what he or she is supposed to do?” he asked. “This means that we can’t as parents and teachers just get rid of them. No matter how much we feel like it. We can’t just send them to Dog Island because the hope of Anguilla is in Jacob, and we must ensure that there is something on Dog Island that would facilitate Jacob coming to his senses, realising that he is in pig pen like the ‘prodigal son’ and that he could be living a better life on the mainland.”

Reverend Richardson was referring to calls from teachers, parents and students to remove the misbehaving children from the school and put them at some other place for alternative education. In fact, one parent who attended a meeting called by the Student Council on Monday, October 3, actually shouted that the wayward students should be sent to Dog Island, one of Anguilla’s far-flung and uninhabited cays.

The Reverend said that as much as teachers blamed parents for the bad behaviour of children, they could not just throw their hands in the air and abandon them. “There will always be a Rebecca, a parent who fails to be a parent, a parent who cannot be trusted and a parent who neglects their child because Rebecca’s son Jacob carries the promise,” he stated. “We cannot abandon Jacob because of Rebecca and that makes your task and my task and the task of all of us as community builders even more difficult...Our task as a community, as parents, as a church, as teachers and as a government… is to save the Jacobs of our community because in them is the promise of a better tomorrow.” He made the point that the better day would not come unless those wishing to see it were to work harder and without complaining.

He appealed to teachers “who believe in the promise of our children for a brighter tomorrow, and a better day, to launch out one more time…to try again with the Jacobs of the school.”

Speaking generally, Reverend Richardson ended his soul-searching sermon saying that like Martin Luther King Jr., the people of Anguilla should also have a dream: “We have to dream about that day when children from Blowing Point and children from the Valley will once again walk hand in hand without fear of being attacked…when children from East End and South Hill and from Sandy Ground and Stoney Ground and from West End will once again meet at one place and celebrate life without fear of being shot or stabbed. We got to hope in that and not let go.”

Revd. Lindsay Richardson with choir members (in background)

Some of the teachers at the church service

Members of the congregation and others

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