Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor-News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

The Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith is one that is very deep and ex­ceed­ing­ly com­plex. This is why it can of­ten be mis­un­der­stood.

Rev Kath­leen Thomp­son from the Mount Beu­lah Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church in Co­corite has been work­ing to make peo­ple bet­ter in­formed about the faith.

Hav­ing turned 69 on March 21, Thomp­son has been a Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist for 51 years. She con­vert­ed when she was 18 years old. Her en­counter with the faith came when she was very ill, and she said she was sent to Mount Beu­lah Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church by God. She would spend over half a cen­tu­ry there learn­ing un­der spir­i­tu­al lead­ers James Charles and Bish­op Fin­bar Bri­an Thomp­son.

“Be­ing a Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist is very ed­i­fy­ing to me,” Thomp­son told the WE mag­a­zine this week. She added, “With­in the re­li­gion you learn a lot where the word of God is con­cerned. It gave me op­por­tu­ni­ties to learn the deep­er side of the an­ces­tors. I learnt in the Bap­tist faith how the mind works, how the spir­it works and the depth and how far you can go in the spir­it.”

An­oth­er key part of her ear­ly learn­ing in the faith was the strug­gles of those who tried to prac­tise the faith be­fore her but en­dured re­li­gious per­se­cu­tion. It gave Thomp­son a deep­er ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the faith she had en­tered and how she would deal with it go­ing for­ward.

Thomp­son has em­barked on a mis­sion to ed­u­cate as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble, those who are Bap­tists and those who are not, to learn that the faith is much more than the per­cep­tion of obeah. “The Bible it­self shows that there is a lot of good and bad, and it is what you choose to be­lieve in. I choose to be­lieve in the good. There is a lot of good in the Bap­tist faith,” she added.

Her work isn’t mere­ly through evan­ge­li­sa­tion. She in­sists Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists do a lot of work in the coun­try that of­ten goes un­recog­nised. “Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists help peo­ple who can­not help them­selves. We al­so see af­ter the sick. We are al­ways there for them, help­ing them in oth­er ways that they can­not help them­selves, and when it comes to the Bible, we help ed­i­fy peo­ple. For me, those are the high­lights of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith.”

Thomp­son stress­es that the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith is a cor­ner­stone in this coun­try at a time when many peo­ple are in need of as­sis­tance. She added, “There are peo­ple in your neigh­bour­hood who don’t know where their next meal is com­ing from. We have to pray with peo­ple in the hos­pi­tals, help the home­less, and guide the chil­dren.”

She is adamant the faith has a ma­jor role to play in ad­dress­ing these so­ci­etal chal­lenges that are plagu­ing the coun­try.

At her church in Co­corite, she and oth­er el­ders work tire­less­ly in help­ing to keep young men and women of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith walk­ing the straight and nar­row path.

How­ev­er, she said at a na­tion­al lev­el, the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith al­so has a role to play in re­shap­ing how T&T is seen.

She em­pha­sised, “Prayers have a lot to do with it. A lot of peo­ple can­not pray for them­selves, so there­fore we have to pray for them and cov­er them. We have to be able to reach out to the younger peo­ple and even the el­der peo­ple and show them the di­rec­tion they should be go­ing in. You have to be able to ex­plain to peo­ple the right from the wrong.”

In her 50-plus years in the faith, Thomp­son said she has seen a lot of peo­ple turn to the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists for di­rec­tion in life, and that is where prac­ti­tion­ers of the faith have to rise to the oc­ca­sion.

Giv­en the per­cep­tion Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists car­ry in the coun­try, Thomp­son is im­plor­ing cit­i­zens to not cast as­per­sions but rather vis­it its church­es, ask ques­tions, and learn more about the faith.

Though they are called Shouter Bap­tists for the way they wor­ship, fol­low­ers of the faith usu­al­ly go about their work in so­ci­ety in a dis­creet man­ner, not seek­ing re­ward or fame for the help they ren­der. Thomp­son aims to con­tin­ue the work she be­gan 51 years ago, stay­ing true to her mis­sion.