Mould­ed from ex­pe­ri­ence and what she calls the di­rec­tion from God, Arch­bish­op She­lia Jor­dan cel­e­brat­ed 57 years of ser­vice in her faith and 50 years of the ex­is­tence of the Mt Bethel Di­vine Mys­ti­cal Bap­tist Church. The Gold­en Jubliee An­niver­sary took place on Ju­ly 26 at the church's com­pound in Ste Madeleine. Jor­dan says she start­ed her spir­i­tu­al jour­ney at her home in Pleas­antville with six peo­ple and ex­pand­ed and moved to Mara­bel­la. As the mem­ber­ship grew, she even­tu­al­ly set­tled in Ste Madeleine. The 87-year-old said her min­istry was built on a dream. "This vi­sion was di­rect­ing me what to do, and I on­ly had a Bible, a can­dle, a white rose and a glass of wa­ter.

Peo­ple be­gan com­ing to my house say­ing that I had a prayer group and they heard about it and af­ter time it be­gan in­creas­ing. I be­gan to get the di­rec­tion from God to start heal­ing peo­ple and pray­ing for peo­ple. I am very grate­ful for this." The cer­e­mo­ny in­clud­ed ded­i­ca­tions to Jor­dan in mu­sic, song and dance. Bish­op John from Cana­da, the Ster­ling Bel­grove of the Rose Foun­da­tion and Bethel North Star Church were among some of the peo­ple in­volved in ex­press­ing their grat­i­tude to Jor­dan for her out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the re­li­gion. Bish­op Jor­dan's daugh­ter Ava Jor­dan says she is very proud of this mile­stone her moth­er has achieved. "Peo­ple look at us in a dif­fer­ent man­ner to­day, we have earned that re­spect, we are not looked at as 'obeah peo­ple', and we are not ashamed of be­ing a Bap­tist."