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Mar 28, 2011 at 09:03 AM
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Early Saturday afternoon an unexpected anonymous caller phoned to say the ‘prophet’ had been disappointed in a STAR story entitled “Saviour or Quack? The Price of a Blessing . . . ” that made the front page of our weekend newspaper. The story shared the sentiments of people who’d witnessed William Braham’s ministry, either at lunchtime inside the Town Hall in Castries, at the Gros Islet Secondary School, or the Bay Gardens Hotel. Braham was a special guest of Trumpet to the Nations Ministry.
Braham’s presence on the island has generated much speculation, but nevertheless a great number of people have either gone to see him for themselves, or heard tales from friends or family who’ve been there. On Saturday my “private” caller seemed apologetic to the fact that we hadn’t gotten our one on one with the ‘prophet’, and promptly gave me the “apostle’s” private digits adding: “make sure you don’t give it to anyone else!”
The anonymous call was weird enough; it was also a little unusual to schedule an interview at 8:30pm, as I did with the “apostle” minutes later. We were to meet at the Gros Islet Secondary School at 8:30pm on Sunday. Propelled by curiosity, I got there half an hour early the next day.
The woman barreling towards me could not have been coming to greet me with a friendly hug—after all she was one of the people who’d failed to grant me an interview with the “prophet” in the first place.
“You’re Kayra Williams? Are you Kayra Williams?” she said loudly in an accusatory tone before I’d even gotten to the entrance. “How could you write such a horrible story about us. That is wrong, that is propaganda!”
Staying as calm as possible given the circumstance, the eyes of the few people who’d been outside now fixed on the scene, my response had to do with obviously not having been able to meet with the “prophet” in the first place. Not satisfied she went on, but I busied myself with typing her words onto my phone as I knew that they would later come in handy. She walked off, then came back this time with a different composure. “My girl, I’m not trying to be mean, but that story was really something. By the way, you look nice.”
Disliking the way the night was going, and debating whether or not to leave, I made my way into the auditorium searching for the “prophet”. He phoned me as soon as he arrived ten minutes later and we settled into his driver’s jeep in the parking lot for the interview. The service inside the secondary school auditorium had already begun and it was much quieter there.
Braham first expressed his thoughts upon reading the story: “When I saw the story I felt definitely I needed to clarify some things. There’s always more to something. I was not too surprised because people can interpret whatever they see in their own way.”
We spoke about his spiritual background, and he said he’d received a lot of prophesies even during his school days. He claimed he’d received prophecies from great men of God concerning his calling.
“My mom was a strong Christian who was taking me to church, (House of Power Prayer Ministries) every day. By the time I was seven I was a great prophet in our nation (Ghana, Africa). When I received the call at the age of 14 I was following my mom, but at one point the calling became so strong because I began to have personal experiences with God in my dreams.”
He said he entered fully into the ministry at 17, straight after secondary school and served in various ministries like Royal House Chapel in Ghana, and others in Amsterdam where he resided. He now had his own, Glorious Fire Ministry.
“At that tender age, the Lord used me to speak into people’s lives,” he said. “I spoke prophetically to people and it was coming to pass. The Lord used me to give direction to people at that age, and that is how the calling started.”
He went into detail speaking of an instance where a minister of his country was about to be assassinated.
“He saw that in his dreams about seven times,” Braham said. “The day before the plot for the people to kill him, the Lord ministered through him to me and it almost came to pass but he escaped it because he had prophetic direction.”
“It’s never true,” he said of claims that persons called a number on the ministry’s flyer only to be told they could not have a one on one with the “prophet” unless they gave some sort of seed offering. “They have not yet arranged a day for me to sit down with people one on one. In the olden days when you were going to see a prophet and even now, the Bible says never go to the House of the Lord empty handed. It’s up to the person’s discretion to give something, not to the prophet but to support the work of God. I would never ask someone to give something just to get a blessing.”
“The Bible tells us we should give, in the same measure we give, that’s how we receive. People give willingly. It’s not charged. It’s not forced. After people have seen what God is doing in their life, then they want to support the work of God. Not personally to the prophet.”
At the lunchtime ministry several persons have witnessed people coming inside the Town Hall, attempting to disrupt the proceedings. In one instance, a man came inside saying loudly: “That’s a fix ting. They just fooling every body in St Lucia!”
To that Braham responded in our interview: “I’m a total stranger in this land. No one knows me. I’ve never been to anyone’s house before. I don’t see them before. One of the things I know is that when something people have not seen is happening, they end up calling it whatever they will call it, but as people grow to understand that part of ministry, the deliverance and prophetic, they would begin to understand it. Most of them you’d be surprised, after they get their healing you don’t see them again, even in the ministry. We want to bring people into the kingdom of God. People must get their problems solved, healed, delivered. That would give them more conviction about their salvation.”
But what exactly was his method for picking out various people in the crowd and “healing them”?
“It is the Holy Spirit who would depict or show you various problems of different people,” he said. “If you realize in my ministry, I don’t normally pick people random, but I call the situation, the problem you are going through and the person would come and say it’s me. Most times it’s the dream. The Lord moves me into the dreams of people because you know, dreams are a spiritual aspect of one’s life. If you’re able to deal with it physically everything would begin to work for you. That’s the area God has gifted me. If I was being systematic, I’d pick the rich people, or pick those in my eyes that are good, but since I don’t have control over it, it is the spirit of the Lord that leads me, the Lord will lead me to various people. It’s not that we intentionally don’t want to pray for them. Even Jesus when he came it was not all the blind people he healed. It’s not all the sick people he healed. It was people that he was led to that he healed.”
He went on: “I don’t have to prove myself. God will vindicate me and prove judging by the works. You have to be patient enough to allow people to get the ministry and understand you. God is doing a new thing. I believe after me, God will even raise his own prophet from this nation that will help establish the kingdom of God. When a person gets delivered, you see. When they are healed you see and the person don’t come again with the problem. I believe its hunger and what the people see that keeps bringing them. It’s not about man it’s about God. When God moves, people will be attracted to what God is doing.”
Braham’s presence on the island has generated much speculation, but nevertheless a great number of people have either gone to see him for themselves, or heard tales from friends or family who’ve been there. On Saturday my “private” caller seemed apologetic to the fact that we hadn’t gotten our one on one with the ‘prophet’, and promptly gave me the “apostle’s” private digits adding: “make sure you don’t give it to anyone else!”
The anonymous call was weird enough; it was also a little unusual to schedule an interview at 8:30pm, as I did with the “apostle” minutes later. We were to meet at the Gros Islet Secondary School at 8:30pm on Sunday. Propelled by curiosity, I got there half an hour early the next day.
The woman barreling towards me could not have been coming to greet me with a friendly hug—after all she was one of the people who’d failed to grant me an interview with the “prophet” in the first place.
“You’re Kayra Williams? Are you Kayra Williams?” she said loudly in an accusatory tone before I’d even gotten to the entrance. “How could you write such a horrible story about us. That is wrong, that is propaganda!”
Staying as calm as possible given the circumstance, the eyes of the few people who’d been outside now fixed on the scene, my response had to do with obviously not having been able to meet with the “prophet” in the first place. Not satisfied she went on, but I busied myself with typing her words onto my phone as I knew that they would later come in handy. She walked off, then came back this time with a different composure. “My girl, I’m not trying to be mean, but that story was really something. By the way, you look nice.”
Disliking the way the night was going, and debating whether or not to leave, I made my way into the auditorium searching for the “prophet”. He phoned me as soon as he arrived ten minutes later and we settled into his driver’s jeep in the parking lot for the interview. The service inside the secondary school auditorium had already begun and it was much quieter there.
Braham first expressed his thoughts upon reading the story: “When I saw the story I felt definitely I needed to clarify some things. There’s always more to something. I was not too surprised because people can interpret whatever they see in their own way.”
We spoke about his spiritual background, and he said he’d received a lot of prophesies even during his school days. He claimed he’d received prophecies from great men of God concerning his calling.
“My mom was a strong Christian who was taking me to church, (House of Power Prayer Ministries) every day. By the time I was seven I was a great prophet in our nation (Ghana, Africa). When I received the call at the age of 14 I was following my mom, but at one point the calling became so strong because I began to have personal experiences with God in my dreams.”
He said he entered fully into the ministry at 17, straight after secondary school and served in various ministries like Royal House Chapel in Ghana, and others in Amsterdam where he resided. He now had his own, Glorious Fire Ministry.
“At that tender age, the Lord used me to speak into people’s lives,” he said. “I spoke prophetically to people and it was coming to pass. The Lord used me to give direction to people at that age, and that is how the calling started.”
He went into detail speaking of an instance where a minister of his country was about to be assassinated.
“He saw that in his dreams about seven times,” Braham said. “The day before the plot for the people to kill him, the Lord ministered through him to me and it almost came to pass but he escaped it because he had prophetic direction.”
“It’s never true,” he said of claims that persons called a number on the ministry’s flyer only to be told they could not have a one on one with the “prophet” unless they gave some sort of seed offering. “They have not yet arranged a day for me to sit down with people one on one. In the olden days when you were going to see a prophet and even now, the Bible says never go to the House of the Lord empty handed. It’s up to the person’s discretion to give something, not to the prophet but to support the work of God. I would never ask someone to give something just to get a blessing.”
“The Bible tells us we should give, in the same measure we give, that’s how we receive. People give willingly. It’s not charged. It’s not forced. After people have seen what God is doing in their life, then they want to support the work of God. Not personally to the prophet.”
At the lunchtime ministry several persons have witnessed people coming inside the Town Hall, attempting to disrupt the proceedings. In one instance, a man came inside saying loudly: “That’s a fix ting. They just fooling every body in St Lucia!”
To that Braham responded in our interview: “I’m a total stranger in this land. No one knows me. I’ve never been to anyone’s house before. I don’t see them before. One of the things I know is that when something people have not seen is happening, they end up calling it whatever they will call it, but as people grow to understand that part of ministry, the deliverance and prophetic, they would begin to understand it. Most of them you’d be surprised, after they get their healing you don’t see them again, even in the ministry. We want to bring people into the kingdom of God. People must get their problems solved, healed, delivered. That would give them more conviction about their salvation.”
But what exactly was his method for picking out various people in the crowd and “healing them”?
“It is the Holy Spirit who would depict or show you various problems of different people,” he said. “If you realize in my ministry, I don’t normally pick people random, but I call the situation, the problem you are going through and the person would come and say it’s me. Most times it’s the dream. The Lord moves me into the dreams of people because you know, dreams are a spiritual aspect of one’s life. If you’re able to deal with it physically everything would begin to work for you. That’s the area God has gifted me. If I was being systematic, I’d pick the rich people, or pick those in my eyes that are good, but since I don’t have control over it, it is the spirit of the Lord that leads me, the Lord will lead me to various people. It’s not that we intentionally don’t want to pray for them. Even Jesus when he came it was not all the blind people he healed. It’s not all the sick people he healed. It was people that he was led to that he healed.”
He went on: “I don’t have to prove myself. God will vindicate me and prove judging by the works. You have to be patient enough to allow people to get the ministry and understand you. God is doing a new thing. I believe after me, God will even raise his own prophet from this nation that will help establish the kingdom of God. When a person gets delivered, you see. When they are healed you see and the person don’t come again with the problem. I believe its hunger and what the people see that keeps bringing them. It’s not about man it’s about God. When God moves, people will be attracted to what God is doing.”
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The Government of Saint Lucia is acting on its commitment to immortalize the late Dame Marie Selipha “Sesenne” Descartes, Saint Lucia’s Queen of Culture. During his tribute at the funeral service of the late cultural icon held on Saturday, August 28th, 2010, Prime Minister Stephenson King made a number of pronouncements which were geared at advancing his Government’s commitment to appropriately recognize the life and work of the cultural giant.
Among the announcements made by Prime Minister King was the decision to officially name the road leading to Sesenne’s home and the site for the proposed museum as well as the wider area commonly known as “Vietnam” in honour of the late Queen of Culture. On Sunday, March 27th, 2011, the Government of Saint Lucia in collaboration with the Folk Research Centre, the Cultural Development Foundation and the community of Mon Repos, Micoud will stage a ceremony which will proclaim the areas in question to be officially named after Sesenne Descartes.
The ceremony will be held to coincide with the birth date of Sesenne Descartes who was born on March 28th, 1914. The ceremony which will be held on the grounds of the Patience Combined School commencing at 4:00 pm and will include remarks from the Folk Research Centre, the Parliamentary Representative and a representative of Sesenne’s family. Prime Minister Stephenson King is also scheduled to deliver the feature address. Cultural presentations will be made by individuals and groups from the wider Mon Repos area and a special proclamation from the Government of Saint Lucia will also be read followed by the unveiling of the road sign and bill board.
Work is currently underway to finalize arrangements related to the other pronouncements made by Prime Minister King to immortalize the life and work of Saint Lucia’s Queen of Culture. Substantial work has gone into digitizing the work of Sesenne and Government expects to make an announcement soon on this aspect. Further a Management Board for the Endowment for Cultural Industries to be named in memory of Sesenne will soon be launched. Government has also appointed a ten (10) member Task Force to review the concept of converting the house where Sesenne lived as a museum.
Among the announcements made by Prime Minister King was the decision to officially name the road leading to Sesenne’s home and the site for the proposed museum as well as the wider area commonly known as “Vietnam” in honour of the late Queen of Culture. On Sunday, March 27th, 2011, the Government of Saint Lucia in collaboration with the Folk Research Centre, the Cultural Development Foundation and the community of Mon Repos, Micoud will stage a ceremony which will proclaim the areas in question to be officially named after Sesenne Descartes.
The ceremony will be held to coincide with the birth date of Sesenne Descartes who was born on March 28th, 1914. The ceremony which will be held on the grounds of the Patience Combined School commencing at 4:00 pm and will include remarks from the Folk Research Centre, the Parliamentary Representative and a representative of Sesenne’s family. Prime Minister Stephenson King is also scheduled to deliver the feature address. Cultural presentations will be made by individuals and groups from the wider Mon Repos area and a special proclamation from the Government of Saint Lucia will also be read followed by the unveiling of the road sign and bill board.
Work is currently underway to finalize arrangements related to the other pronouncements made by Prime Minister King to immortalize the life and work of Saint Lucia’s Queen of Culture. Substantial work has gone into digitizing the work of Sesenne and Government expects to make an announcement soon on this aspect. Further a Management Board for the Endowment for Cultural Industries to be named in memory of Sesenne will soon be launched. Government has also appointed a ten (10) member Task Force to review the concept of converting the house where Sesenne lived as a museum.
A Correctional Officer of Marchand, Castries, was arrested on Sunday the 20th March 2011, about 9:30pm at the Bordelais Correctional Facility. He was in possession of a quantity of cannabis which was concealed in several dhalpuries after a search was conducted. The Correctional Officer has been in the service for the past twenty five years.
He was charged for Possession of Controlled Drugs and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday the 21st of March, 2011.
He was charged for Possession of Controlled Drugs and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday the 21st of March, 2011.
It wasn’t a far stretch for anyone in or around the Castries Town Hall to think that perhaps maybe the world was in fact coming to an end.
This week crowds of people flocked the building in hopes of seeing the African ‘prophet’ they had heard was in Saint Lucia. On the inside it was an even more chaotic scene. Apostle William Braham was in town and everyone wanted to be touched, prayed for, anointed with oil or even better, witness a miracle first hand.
I went to see first hand what all the talk and commotion was about, and perhaps even score a one on one exclusive interview with the prophet himself.
The Town Hall was packed on Wednesday but one woman lifted her hang bag and eagerly offered me an empty seat. At the time prophet Shorn Jules was preaching and he told the gathering among other things that he would bring some of the greatest men to St Lucia. Later it would be Apostle William Braham’s turn, and that’s when things got really interesting.
Braham singled out a man in the crowd, asked him what his pain was and proceeded to heal the man who claimed he’d been suffering with a stiff neck for years.
“Now tell me where is your pain?” Braham asked. “Do you feel any pain?” The man responded no.
The African went on: “When God heals your pain it’s forever,” then went onto the next objective. A young boy and his mother were brought forth and Braham asked, “Is it because of your pain you don’t go to school?” The boy’s mother said he stayed home for two days sometimes, not being able to walk. “Do you feel the pain now? Don’t cry,” Braham said prophesizing: “I saw the father is spiritually getting into some things and it’s affecting the boy.
The boy’s mother put in: “He said if I don’t bring the boy for him, and anything happen to him he’ll cut my neck.”
“After a while he won’t be able to walk,” Braham continued suggesting that the boy was being used by his father in some sort of evil deal. “Do you know that whatever is happening with him is connected to the father?”
The people inside the packed Town Hall were urged to pray for the boy and they willingly obliged, raising their hands in praise. The lunchtime prophetic ministry and prayer went well beyond the 2pm end time, and at the end of it all, some people seemed reluctant to leave. Some stayed back to collect their bottles of olive oil which had been blessed, while others fought for a chance to talk to or even just touch the prophet. Braham left as soon as the ministry was over.
“I just want to talk to you for just two minutes,” one woman begged as the remaining prophet Shorn Jules tried to leave.
Since I’d been at the Town Hall from morning, and given that organizers hadn’t kept their promise of asking apostle Braham if he was willing to do an interview, I tried to get Jules’ attention.
At first he acted as though I was coming to him to seek some kind of blessing. He spoke to the crowd saying, “Even if you come to me, if the spirits don’t want me to see you I won’t.”
I stepped aside and tried again, explaining exactly what I wanted once he’d managed to maneuver the throng of people. This time he directed me to their PRO. “That’s why government ministers make mistakes all the time,” he said. “That’s why even if you put a camera or mike in front of me, sometimes I just wouldn’t speak.”
I pressed on: “Even if we can’t do an interview today, anytime this week would be good.”
“Yes we can meet… sometime. Don’t worry, everything will work out,” he said walking away abruptly, leaving my “sometime when?” floating around somewhere in the sweat filled, stale Town Hall air.
Everyone seems to have their own outrageous version of something that happened or was said during one of the Glorious Fire Ministry conferences at the Town Hall or the Gros Islet Secondary School. There are mixed reviews and some of the positive messages on Apostle William Braham’s Facebook page read: “St Lucians have all what they have to say but man of God I tell you no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Continue the works of the Lord. We love you and we believe in you.”
“You are truly a man of God!” another note read. “I thank you for helping me to release the fire that I have in me through Christ Jesus. May God continue to bless you in your work as you bring the message across that the Lord is with us.”
On the contrary, one woman told the STAR she’d talked two close friends who needed some sort of breakthrough in their lives to go to the one of the conferences, and went along with them, only to leave disappointed.
“A lot of people who had issues and really needed answers, they went for some kind of hope, some kind of deliverance in their lives,” she said. “People who were oppressed by all kinds of issues in life, demonic oppression and things like that; they went because in the Bible the scripture says, God has given to men different gifts.
“Based on what we
saw or heard, he was a prophet of God. People have gifts of prophesy, gifts of healing and teaching. Everybody doesn’t have the same gifting so we figured if he has a gift of prophesy we can hear what he has to say, and receive from the impartation. What I saw had me questioning a lot of things. I found the reality aspect of it, there was something lacking. Truth lacking.”
She went on: “Based on my biblical principles and what I know, it was contrary to what I was seeing. People who really needed the breakthrough or deliverance, they were not able to get it. There was a point where he was calling forth the different denominations of money; those with $1000 come up. He said he knew it was not for every body. He said he knew not everyone was going to come; this blessing was not for everybody. Obviously not everyone will have $1000.
“I don’t know if it was to give a blessing for business people or whatever it was. Then he was calling another group, those who could give $500 there was a blessing for them. It was like a seed offering, an offering for what was happening.
“The people who really needed it didn’t have that kind of money. They stayed in the pew. These are the people who really need miracles, signs or wonders in their life and they didn’t have the money so they stayed by the way side. That was my deterrent. That was what I felt bad about.”
Our witness went on: “I spoke with other people afterward and they told me the services prior to the one of Friday made no mention of money or anything like that. He was just walking through the congregation, calling out people, speaking into their lives and telling them what was happening in their lives.
“The people I brought didn’t even get prayed for and they would not have gotten prayed for based the sequence of what was happening. They came back home with all their issues, suicidal thoughts, negativity, depression, demons, all the things they thought they could get somebody to really help them breakthrough.
“My friend still didn’t give up. She called a number she saw on the flyer to try to meet with the prophet and she was told that she couldn’t see him one on one unless she gave a seed offering.
“I was very disappointed because God doesn’t work that way. He meets our needs freely. Freely you give, freely you receive. I know in this society we need to pay for everything but there are certain things money can’t buy. There are times we need to use wisdom and stop following the first thing that sounds like a miracle. I would not go there again and I would not tell anyone to go.”
Apart from coming across the Facebook page of the prophet who lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands, originally from Kumasi, Ghana, and the Facebook fan page of Thumpet to the Nations, the independent institution or spiritual grouping responsible for apostle Willam Braham being here, there was no information online about apostle William Braham.
In fact the name that kept popping up when the search engine tried to correct my search, was William Branham, a man some believe was one of the most influential bible ministers, and others saw as one of the most controversial prophets from the Voice of Healing Movement. Branham died in 1965 from injuries from a car accident in Tucson Arizona.
The African prophet will reportedly be in Saint Lucia for the rest of the month. Hopefully at some point he will be ready to speak with us about his work and what brought him to out little isle.
This week crowds of people flocked the building in hopes of seeing the African ‘prophet’ they had heard was in Saint Lucia. On the inside it was an even more chaotic scene. Apostle William Braham was in town and everyone wanted to be touched, prayed for, anointed with oil or even better, witness a miracle first hand.
I went to see first hand what all the talk and commotion was about, and perhaps even score a one on one exclusive interview with the prophet himself.
The Town Hall was packed on Wednesday but one woman lifted her hang bag and eagerly offered me an empty seat. At the time prophet Shorn Jules was preaching and he told the gathering among other things that he would bring some of the greatest men to St Lucia. Later it would be Apostle William Braham’s turn, and that’s when things got really interesting.
Braham singled out a man in the crowd, asked him what his pain was and proceeded to heal the man who claimed he’d been suffering with a stiff neck for years.
“Now tell me where is your pain?” Braham asked. “Do you feel any pain?” The man responded no.
The African went on: “When God heals your pain it’s forever,” then went onto the next objective. A young boy and his mother were brought forth and Braham asked, “Is it because of your pain you don’t go to school?” The boy’s mother said he stayed home for two days sometimes, not being able to walk. “Do you feel the pain now? Don’t cry,” Braham said prophesizing: “I saw the father is spiritually getting into some things and it’s affecting the boy.
The boy’s mother put in: “He said if I don’t bring the boy for him, and anything happen to him he’ll cut my neck.”
“After a while he won’t be able to walk,” Braham continued suggesting that the boy was being used by his father in some sort of evil deal. “Do you know that whatever is happening with him is connected to the father?”
The people inside the packed Town Hall were urged to pray for the boy and they willingly obliged, raising their hands in praise. The lunchtime prophetic ministry and prayer went well beyond the 2pm end time, and at the end of it all, some people seemed reluctant to leave. Some stayed back to collect their bottles of olive oil which had been blessed, while others fought for a chance to talk to or even just touch the prophet. Braham left as soon as the ministry was over.
“I just want to talk to you for just two minutes,” one woman begged as the remaining prophet Shorn Jules tried to leave.
Since I’d been at the Town Hall from morning, and given that organizers hadn’t kept their promise of asking apostle Braham if he was willing to do an interview, I tried to get Jules’ attention.
At first he acted as though I was coming to him to seek some kind of blessing. He spoke to the crowd saying, “Even if you come to me, if the spirits don’t want me to see you I won’t.”
I stepped aside and tried again, explaining exactly what I wanted once he’d managed to maneuver the throng of people. This time he directed me to their PRO. “That’s why government ministers make mistakes all the time,” he said. “That’s why even if you put a camera or mike in front of me, sometimes I just wouldn’t speak.”
I pressed on: “Even if we can’t do an interview today, anytime this week would be good.”
“Yes we can meet… sometime. Don’t worry, everything will work out,” he said walking away abruptly, leaving my “sometime when?” floating around somewhere in the sweat filled, stale Town Hall air.
Everyone seems to have their own outrageous version of something that happened or was said during one of the Glorious Fire Ministry conferences at the Town Hall or the Gros Islet Secondary School. There are mixed reviews and some of the positive messages on Apostle William Braham’s Facebook page read: “St Lucians have all what they have to say but man of God I tell you no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Continue the works of the Lord. We love you and we believe in you.”
“You are truly a man of God!” another note read. “I thank you for helping me to release the fire that I have in me through Christ Jesus. May God continue to bless you in your work as you bring the message across that the Lord is with us.”
On the contrary, one woman told the STAR she’d talked two close friends who needed some sort of breakthrough in their lives to go to the one of the conferences, and went along with them, only to leave disappointed.
“A lot of people who had issues and really needed answers, they went for some kind of hope, some kind of deliverance in their lives,” she said. “People who were oppressed by all kinds of issues in life, demonic oppression and things like that; they went because in the Bible the scripture says, God has given to men different gifts.
“Based on what we
saw or heard, he was a prophet of God. People have gifts of prophesy, gifts of healing and teaching. Everybody doesn’t have the same gifting so we figured if he has a gift of prophesy we can hear what he has to say, and receive from the impartation. What I saw had me questioning a lot of things. I found the reality aspect of it, there was something lacking. Truth lacking.”
She went on: “Based on my biblical principles and what I know, it was contrary to what I was seeing. People who really needed the breakthrough or deliverance, they were not able to get it. There was a point where he was calling forth the different denominations of money; those with $1000 come up. He said he knew it was not for every body. He said he knew not everyone was going to come; this blessing was not for everybody. Obviously not everyone will have $1000.
“I don’t know if it was to give a blessing for business people or whatever it was. Then he was calling another group, those who could give $500 there was a blessing for them. It was like a seed offering, an offering for what was happening.
“The people who really needed it didn’t have that kind of money. They stayed in the pew. These are the people who really need miracles, signs or wonders in their life and they didn’t have the money so they stayed by the way side. That was my deterrent. That was what I felt bad about.”
Our witness went on: “I spoke with other people afterward and they told me the services prior to the one of Friday made no mention of money or anything like that. He was just walking through the congregation, calling out people, speaking into their lives and telling them what was happening in their lives.
“The people I brought didn’t even get prayed for and they would not have gotten prayed for based the sequence of what was happening. They came back home with all their issues, suicidal thoughts, negativity, depression, demons, all the things they thought they could get somebody to really help them breakthrough.
“My friend still didn’t give up. She called a number she saw on the flyer to try to meet with the prophet and she was told that she couldn’t see him one on one unless she gave a seed offering.
“I was very disappointed because God doesn’t work that way. He meets our needs freely. Freely you give, freely you receive. I know in this society we need to pay for everything but there are certain things money can’t buy. There are times we need to use wisdom and stop following the first thing that sounds like a miracle. I would not go there again and I would not tell anyone to go.”
Apart from coming across the Facebook page of the prophet who lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands, originally from Kumasi, Ghana, and the Facebook fan page of Thumpet to the Nations, the independent institution or spiritual grouping responsible for apostle Willam Braham being here, there was no information online about apostle William Braham.
In fact the name that kept popping up when the search engine tried to correct my search, was William Branham, a man some believe was one of the most influential bible ministers, and others saw as one of the most controversial prophets from the Voice of Healing Movement. Branham died in 1965 from injuries from a car accident in Tucson Arizona.
The African prophet will reportedly be in Saint Lucia for the rest of the month. Hopefully at some point he will be ready to speak with us about his work and what brought him to out little isle.
The news that the Government of Belize has appointed a sitting magistrate from St. Lucia to become the next Chief Magistrate of Belize has sparked a hot debate in legal circles this week.
The word is that St Lucian Magistrate Ann Marie Smith was appointed to take over as Chief Magistrate, when Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie demits the office in June.
Smith, The Reporter understands, is required to serve three months notice to the Government of St. Lucia before she can take up the appointment in Belize.
That may explain why Magistrate Mckenzie was given a extension of three months, after she was employed on a contingency basis last October as Chief Magistrate for six months, to end in March 2011.
Smith’s appointment, flies in the face of Belize Judicial and Legal Services Commission, which had informed the Solicitor General in writing last October: “The Commission has also agreed that Ms. Sharon Frazer, Senior Magistrate be considered for the post of Chief Magistrate at the expiration of the six months contract of the present Chief Magistrate.”
The Commission’s letter was also copied to the Financial Secretary, the Auditor General, the Accountant General and to the Chief Magistrate.
But what no one in Belmopan at the Solicitor General’s and the Attorney General’s office can explain, is how come a foreign magistrate applied for the post of Chief Magistrate when there was really no vacancy to fill. Neither was there any advertisment of the post, either locally or internationally.
Attorney General Bernard Q.A. Pitts has denied any knowledge of such an appointment, but credible sources have confirmed to The Reporter that an appointment letter was sent.
The word is that St Lucian Magistrate Ann Marie Smith was appointed to take over as Chief Magistrate, when Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie demits the office in June.
Smith, The Reporter understands, is required to serve three months notice to the Government of St. Lucia before she can take up the appointment in Belize.
That may explain why Magistrate Mckenzie was given a extension of three months, after she was employed on a contingency basis last October as Chief Magistrate for six months, to end in March 2011.
Smith’s appointment, flies in the face of Belize Judicial and Legal Services Commission, which had informed the Solicitor General in writing last October: “The Commission has also agreed that Ms. Sharon Frazer, Senior Magistrate be considered for the post of Chief Magistrate at the expiration of the six months contract of the present Chief Magistrate.”
The Commission’s letter was also copied to the Financial Secretary, the Auditor General, the Accountant General and to the Chief Magistrate.
But what no one in Belmopan at the Solicitor General’s and the Attorney General’s office can explain, is how come a foreign magistrate applied for the post of Chief Magistrate when there was really no vacancy to fill. Neither was there any advertisment of the post, either locally or internationally.
Attorney General Bernard Q.A. Pitts has denied any knowledge of such an appointment, but credible sources have confirmed to The Reporter that an appointment letter was sent.
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