On the afternoon of Sunday, November 25th, Anguilla saw the dedication of a new church edifice and ministry, under the name Kingdom Gospel Global Outreach Ministries (KGGOM). The church is located on the second floor of the Webster’s Building beside Digicel, and its leader is Bishop Bernard Joseph.
The moderator of the dedication service was Mr. Chris Richardson. After the opening prayer offered by Apostle Elmead Allen, the declaration of the church’s purpose was pronounced by seven ministers of various faiths. This was followed by the cutting of the ribbon to the pulpit by two of the junior male members of the church. Next, a session of worship and thanksgiving was led by longstanding member of the ministry, Sister Danielle Bowens, and a special dance was performed by KGGOM dancers.
The dance was followed by the singing of a stirring song, by the KGGOM choir, entitled “You Made a Way” which was appropriately led by Bishop Bernard Joseph. Melodious Praise then rendered a special song of faith: “I know the Master of the Wind”.
An inspiring sermon – “Let There Be Bread in The House” was preached by Pastor Philip Gumbs. Before his message, he congratulated the pastor and members by saying: “I would like to congratulate Pastor Joseph and Sister Linda Joseph as well as the body of believers of this church. On behalf of the Anguilla Evangelical Association, we greet you and we pray that God’s grace would cover you.”
Pastor Gumbs’ message was taken from the book of Ruth Chapter 1, in which it is written how Elimelech left his homeland, Bethlehem, with his wife Naomi and their two sons and journeyed to the country of Moab in search of food because Bethlehem was affected by famine.
The gist of his sermon was that in Bethlehem, which was known as the House of Bread, the very place where bread should have been – there was no bread. And as he said, “so they left the House of Bread because the house of Bread was breadless.” He noted that Bethlehem became breadless due to the people’s iniquity and their departure from God.
Pastor Philip elaborated in a highly sensitive manner: “I feel very concerned today. We are living in changing and challenging times. See, it is possible to have church and not have Jesus show up. It is possible to have lots of noise with singing, and shouting, and screaming, but there is no bread in the house. It is possible to have all of the paraphernalia that would suggest that things are happening. It is easy to have commotion and mistake that commotion for creation. It is possible to have lots of action and mistake it for unction.
“And so our people come to The House of Bread for bread, but there is nothing to feed the deep hunger of their souls because, in many ways, the church has become a place of entertainment. Yes, we can become so taken up with sounding good that we miss the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ Himself. But we must see to it that there is always bread in the house so that the people can be fed.”
Finally, Pastor Philip admonished the congregation to pray for their leader. “Pray for this man of God”, he said, “because the atmosphere of this church highly depends upon the leadership. So cover him with your prayers. God is saying that when you have a righteous leader, bread comes into the house.”
Toward the end of the dedication service, thanks were expressed by Bishop Joseph who declared his sincere appreciation for the many blessings of financial aid he received from donors, as well as the encouragement he received from well-wishers.
