Stepping into 2024 with God at the core
Man follows deceased father’s lead into baptism
Published:Tuesday | January 2, 2024 | 12:11 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
When Uriah Richards’ father died three days before the world ushered in the new year, he resolved that the time had come for him to engage in holy baptism.
And, on the brink of 2024, immediately after Sunday’s sunset, just as hundreds of Jamaicans across the country chose to do, he was baptised inside the Shortwood Seventh-day Adventist Church. The church is located in Grants Pen, St Andrew, a community that has been plagued in recent months with violence and gun terror and lives being senselessly lost, including that of David Clarke, the brother of popular dancehall entertainer, Jahshii, last September.
For decades, hundreds of Jamaicans, like Richards, choose to be baptised on Watch Night, with high hopes of welcoming prosperity into their lives from the crack of midnight and into an upcoming year.
Speaking with The Gleaner immediately after being lifted from the waters of the church’s pool, Richards said his 92-year-old father Wilbert Richards’ death not only took a toll on him, but made him move much faster towards making the ultimate life decision. It’s a decision religious leaders continue to preach needs to be taken by all human beings, to be present in eternity with Christ.
“After seeing that my father [a Christian] has lived a good life concerning the Almighty God, I would like to live a life near to the life that I have seen him live,” Richards, 67, told The Gleaner.
His father had long been battling prostate cancer and, before his last day alive, Richards sensed he was in his final hours and would not live to see 2024.
“I spoke with him [my father] the day before, and it was not his [usual] voice. He was down,” he said.
Life, in recent times, has also brought Richards down, where he has had to rely on help from the Almighty God, which further brought him to the decision he made to become a baptised member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“Right now, I am unable to work. I am a mechanic all my life. I have been going to doctor for over five years now and they declare me that I have a heart condition, and God is so good, [because], when I went to do a surgery [recently], they said they would have put a [artificial cardiac] pacemaker in me, and, when they put the machine on me, they discovered that there is no problem again with my heart. So I know that God has healed me,” Richards, who has also been diabetic for years, told The Gleaner.
“I acknowledge that Jesus is my Lord and He has protected me from so many dangers, and I recognise that, without Him, I am just nothing. I decided that I don’t want to go over into the new year without really being connected to the Almighty God,” he said.
Some of the dangers he said he has been protected from include accidents and health scares.
The church he got baptised in was not one he has been going to continuously before being baptised, but it is one two of his sisters, Sandra Richards and Sonia Fiddler, have been baptised into and been attending for years.