Prayer by Pastor Naila Ricketts started the breakfast programme which included the serving both of food for the body and food for the spirit. While persons ate there was music ministry by Mr Patrick Dacres and Mr Amos & Company. Dacres reflected on some reasons for Jamaica’'s present condition. His first dialogue to rhythm spoke to the main root cause of our social problems and the broken family caused by migration of parents. His other dub poetry called ‘Murder’ spoke “…that you only see the murders we commit BUT you don't see the difficulties we go through when sleeping on concrete…” had persons rethinking their positions on the killings we have grown accustomed to hearing reported in our media.
Testimonies were shared by Peter Wood, a successful Christian from the Waterhouse community. Peter operates a successful tamarind ball business in the same area employing persons that live there (full-time 15 persons and in peak time up to 100 persons).
David Chang, an ex-thief and prisoner from the Majesty Gardens area, and Roderick Robinson, an ex-con and prisoner now turned preacher, also gave testimonies. Roderick shared how God spared his life when he was caught by the police with a gun and how prior to that every time he went to prison he made some kind of Christian commitment. His final time was while he served his longest sentence in prison, five years. At 21 years and illiterate, he learnt to read from the Bible while there. Today he is seeking to make his stamp on society no through stealing, violence and murder, but by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The guest speaker was Mr Joseph Ward, originally from Zimbabwe, now living in Belfast, Ireland. Once a hardcore racist, he shared how the Lord delivered him from racism and brought healing to his marriage and family life. His central theme was about finding the real man. He made the point that behind all the masks and façades, there is a real man that we need to seek out and to be ruthlessly honest with. At the end of his ministry he made an invitation to a relationship with Jesus Christ and approximately 50 persons from the inner city responded.
Overall we had about 227 persons at the breakfast. Approximately 170 persons were from inner-city communities; 57 from church organisations. We had some 17 inner-city communities represented, 14 church organisations and 11 para-church or affiliated organisations.