BOSA Newsletter
“Only The Best Is Good Enough”
Produced by:
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA)
Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased)
New Market P.O. St. Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies
Email: beershebaoldstudentsassn@gmail.com
Officers:
Glenis Daley, President
Victor Smith, Vice President
Vincent Samuels, Secretary/Treasurer, Newsletter Editor/President.
Ann Hamilton, Assistant Secretary
Objective
The objective of BOSA Newsletter is to inform and educate the people in Beersheba Primary School Community and all Beersheba Primary School Alumni in Jamaica and the Diaspora by means of clean and wholesome news. In doing so, the Newsletter will continue to highlight and celebrate their achievements, mourn their losses, defend their rights and articulate their needs. With meticulous calculated professional news reporting, the Newsletter will ceaselessly expose the entrenched culture of silence, secrecy, non-response and pussy-footing that has characterized the unscrupulous tyrannical oligarchy rule that is tarnished with nepotism that is designed to frustrate Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) as it continues to work assiduously as the safety net and mentor for voiceless and vulnerable students who reside in the impoverished peasant farming Beersheba Primary School Community from falling through the cracks cognizant of the fact, that had it not been for intervention of the Association, these students would be left alone to fend for themselves contrary to the vision of James “Dick” Richards, (1872-1965), Beersheba Primary School Alumnus, Soldier, Self-made Businessman, Philanthropist and Icon.
Reflection on Beersheba Primary School Alumni that have passed on
In keeping with the decision of Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) to support a paperless friendly environment and go green, effective from Volume 16 of its newsletter, the Association will no longer list in its newsletter the names of Beersheba Primary School Alumni that have passed on.
All Beersheba Primary School Alumni, Honorary BOSA Members, Friends, Well-wishers, and all our other readers who are accustomed to see the names of those that have passed on listed in its newsletter, are asked to visit BOSA website: bosaonline.org where information is listed in full detains and it will be updated periodically.
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) wishes to express its sincere condolence to all family members and relatives of the deceased as they continue to grieve and mourn the loss of their love ones. May the memories of these bereaved love ones continue to linger in our heart and subliminal consciousness. Sunset in one land is sunrise in another.
Progress Report On Shanisa Jones, Nickayla Stevens and Damanike Smith
Shanisa Jones
As a result of Shanisa Jones’ outstanding success in Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) in 2016, now that she has graduated from Saint Elizabeth Technical High School in Upper Six Form, Shanisa is now enrolled as a student at the University of Technology (UTECH) Kingston Campus.
For more on Shanisa Jones’ success story, our readers are invited to read the news article captioned: “Whatsoever A fe U Can’t Be Un Fe U”that is posted on BOSA website.
Nickayla Stevens
Nickayla Stevens, who graduated from Saint Elizabeth Technical High School in 2016, has been successful in six (6) subjects with passing grade of 2 and two (2) subjects with a passing grade of 3 in 2016 Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Examination. Nickayla is currently enrolled at her alma mater as a Lower Six Form Student.
Damanike Smith
Damanike Smith – part of the trio of excellent academic performing students from Flint Valley, New Market, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies – graduated from saint Elizabeth Technical High School in 2016. Damanike who has been successful in all subjects that she sat in 2016 Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Examination, is currently enrolled at HEART-NTA, Black River Campus where she will continue her studies in her career choice.
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) wishes to congratulate Shanisa Jones, Nickayla Stevens and Damanike Smith – all from the impoverished peasant farming hilly terrain of Flint Valley, New Market, Saint Elizabeth, for their scholastic accomplishments at Saint Elizabeth Technical High School. Photographs of all three students can be viewed online in Volume 25 April 2016 of BOSA Newsletter at bosaonline.org
Sameika Maitland BOSA Adopted Achiever and Trailblazer
Sameika Maitland, financially challenged grade 8, Form 3 boarding student at Hampton School, Malvern, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies for whom Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) is safety net and monitor, received the Silver Award and recognition as a member of the Headmistress Round Table as commendation for her excellent academic performance for 2014/2015 school year. (Please view and read the news article that is posted on BOSA web page about Sameika’s achievement).
Beersheba Primary School Alumni, Honorary BOSA Members, Friends, Well-Wishers, Visitors to BOSA website and Readers of this newsletter in Jamaica and the Diaspora who would like to assist Sameika Maitland defray the cost of her boarding and tuition fees at Hampton School, should make checks (cheques) or money orders payable to Munro & Dickenson Trust – Hampton School and send them indicating that their donations is for Sameika Maitland, student ID 2923 to:
Mrs. Svetlana Crawford-Keane
Bursar Hampton School
Malvern P.O.
Saint Elizabeth
Jamaica West Indies
Please notify BOSA by email: beershebaoldstudentsassn@gmail.com to let the association know that your donations have been sent to the Bursar so that they can be reconciled with her and promptly acknowledged.
Sameika Maitland continues her excellent academic performance at Hampton School with her End of Year 2015/2016 Report showing that she achieved a grade of 82.8 which is A grade at her school.
BOSA Invaluable Beersheba Primary School Alumni, Honorary Members, Friends, and well-wishers
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) wishes to place on record and express its sincere gratitude and appreciation to those Beersheba Primary School Alumni – including Winston and Sheila Hamilton, Roy Holness, Kenneth Smith, Dr. Trevor Hamilton, Dorette Lind, Nora Lawrence, Winston Hamilton, Neville “Butty” Cooke, Professor Patrick Brown, Merlene Holness-Pryce et al for their invaluable financial support that they continue to give to the Association.
MEET THE ACHIEVERS AND TRAILBLAZERS
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) is pleased to feature as an Achiever and Trailblazer in this Volume of its Newsletter, MERLENE HOLNESS-PRYCE who writes that she has been a frequent visitor to BOSA website and that she has kept herself up to date with what is happening in Beersheba Primary School Community. Continuing, Merlene says that she is very proud of the achievements of past students in Jamaica and the Diaspora as well as students that are currently attended and have recently graduated from Beersheba Primary School.
Merlene Is No Stranger to Beersheba Primary School Community
Merlene who was born at Happy Hall (Holness Corner), New Market, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies to Curtis (Tailor) and Ida Holness, received her pre-school education from Mrs. Melita Cain at Long Ground, New market saint Elizabeth and her elementary education at Beersheba Elementary School under the tutelage of Mrs. Crawford, Mrs. Joyce Black, Mrs. Louise Tomlinson and Mr. Clifford I. Chang.
Transfer To Springfield Primary School Did not Let Merlene Forget her Roots
After Merlene relocated to Sprinfield Primary School in 1957, she sat the Third Jamaica Local Examination which she passed in first class and was placed second in the island of Jamaica. As a result of Merlene’s excellent academic performance, she was awarded a full scholarship to Bethlehem Teachers College. Prior to her admission to Bethlehem Teachers College in 1959, Merlene worked as a PT4 (Pre Trained Teacher Grade 4) at Springfield Primary School for 6 months.
Internship At Ballards Valley Primary School
Still affected by the tutelage that she received from Clifford I. Chang her mentor, after graduating from Bethlehem Teachers College with a Teachers Diploma in 1961, Merlene migrated to Ballards Valley Primary School where she did her internship under the watchful eyes of her mentor who was Principal at the school.
From Elementary to High School Teacher
With insatiable desire to further her teaching career, Merlene applied for a teaching position at Christiana Senior High School in the Parish of Manchester, Jamaica West Indies where she was gainfully employed on November 22, 1963.
Migration to Greener Pastures
In 1967, Merlene migrated to Hartford, Connecticut, USA where she diversified her career and obtained employment as an Analyst at Hartford Insurance Company.
Wedding Bells
While Merlene was employed at Hartford Insurance Company, she met and fell in love with Alton Pryce from Donegal, Springfield, Jamaica West Indies with whom she exchanged marriage vows in February 1970 and relocated to their matrimonial home in Bloomfield, Connecticut, USA.
Migration From The Nutmeg State to The Sunshine State
Merlene’s quest as an Achiever and Trailblazer further manifested itself when she accepted a job with Connecticut General Life Insurance Company as an Assistant Administrator. When Merlene’s husband Alton was transferred from his job in Connecticut to Miami, Florida in 1973, Merlene succeeded in obtaining transfer from her job at Connecticut General Insurance Company to the Company’s Office in Coral Gables, Miami, Florida.
Merlene The Devoted Mother and Caregiver of Her Children
As any good mother should, when two children were added to the family of Merlene and Alton, Merlene stayed home and nurtured her children until they were old enough to be placed in Day Care and Pre-Kindergarten School before she went back to work.
From Teaching and Insurance Career to Medical Career
Instead of returning to her job in the Insurance Industry, Merlene went to work as a Unit Secretary at Jackson Memorial Hospital. While working in her new job, Merlene enrolled at Miami Dade College in the Medical Record Technology Program from which she graduated in 1981 with an Associate in Science Degree. Not long thereafter, Merlene landed a job as a Professional Reviewer with the Professional Review Organization (PRO) a Government Agency that is responsible for monitoring Doctors and Hospitals that are enrolled in Medicare Program in the Counties of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
While Merlene was working with the Professional Review Organization, she enrolled in Florida International University from which she graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Medical Record Administration. Equipped with her BSC Degree, in 1988, Merlene enrolled in the Accelerated Option Nursing Program at Miami Dade College from which she graduated with her Nursing Degree in 1989.
After her Nursing Internship at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Merlene went to work in the Medical/Surgical and Telemetry Units at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. When her first daughter went off to College in 1992, Merlene went to work as a Nurse Case Manager for HIP Health Plan of Florida and she was assigned to Jackson Memorial Hospital, Cedar’s Medical Center and Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Merlene and Alton Jamaican Roots in the Moravian Church In Jamaica Explains Their involvement in Philanthropy and Outreach
Merlene who grew up in the Moravian Church and attended Moravian Elementary Schools and Teachers College, found the niche with her husband Alton – also a Moravian – to work assiduously with Moravians from Nicaragua and other islands in the West Indies to build the Prince of Peace Moravian Church in Miami, Florida, USA.
In 2003, Merlene and her husband Alton relocated to Port Saint Lucie – Spring Training Home of The New York Mets – where they tried to plant a Moravian Church but their effort was shot lived because Moravians who resided in the area were already attending other Churches. A year later Merlene and her husband Alton decided to fellowship with believers at First United Methodist Church where they have been active members up to the present time.
The involvement of Merlene’s mother “Miss Ida” as a Trailblazer in her position as an active Helper in the Moravian Church at Carmel by which like Archibald Monteath, Igbo, Jamaican Moravian (1760-1864), visited and cared for the sick and shut-ins members of the church in Long Ground, Flint Valley, Carr, Ruinit, Glenbournie, Paynes Town, New Savannah and other areas in Carmel Moravian Church District; explains the fire that Merlene and Alton her husband had in their bellies to devoted themselves sacrificially to philanthropy and outreach in the interest and welfare of poor and needy people to whom they did not just share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ but as the outstretched hand of Christ they practically demonstrated the Love of God in meeting the physical needs of these individuals.
Other Communal Activities and Outreach Programs in Which Merlene and her Husband Alton are involved.
In addition to working assiduously locally and internationally for the local church where they are in fellowship, Merlene and her husband Alton are also actively involved in the following communal philanthropic outreach activities:
- Assisted Living Facility that has in operation for 7 years.
- Caribbean American Cultural Group (CACG) in which Merlene is Assistant Secretary. This Organization which has been in operation for 32 years provides scholarships for High School Seniors going to College, Red Cross, Cancer Society, Alzheimer’s Organizations, Back-to-School Programs, Thanksgiving and Christmas Projects. CACG also fund and sponsor projects in Jamaica. The Organization is currently working assiduously to raise funds to acquire Pulse Oximeters for Bustamante Hospital for Children
- Contribution to anonymous charities.
- Contributions to HOLD THE CHILDREN in Haiti.
Editors Note: Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) wishes to commend and BIG UP Merlene, Beersheba Elementary School Alumna for her unselfish desire to remember her Moravian Heritage that nurtured her and for her unselfish desire along with her husband Alton to give back and remember poor and needy High School Students who need to be consistently monitored and encouraged to heed the message that education is the effective tool that they must use to unshackle themselves from poverty.
If Beersheba Primary School Alumni in Jamaica and the Diaspora would like to see themselves being featured under this heading, Alumni who have not yet responded to appeals made in BOSA Newsletters to send the Editor/Producer their curriculum vitae, academic, and communal profile as an attachment to the Association’s e-mail address: beershebaoldstudentsassn.@gmail.com as soon as possible so that they can be published in as well as future Volumes of the Newsletter.
Resolution To Rename Beersheba Primary School James Richards Primary School.
As a result of the above subject matter being thoroughly discussed with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education in a meeting that was held at the Ministry’s Head Office in Kingston, Jamaica west Indies on March 13, 2013, and the matter being given full support by the Saint Elizabeth Parish Council, South Coast Resort Board and Jamaica Heritage Trust Foundation, Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) is hopeful that with the full backing of the entities named herein,the School Board at Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased) will do the right thing so that James “Dick” Richards, Beersheba Primary School Alumnus, Soldier, Self-made Businessman, Icon and Philanthropist will be officially recognized and honoured as an integral part of the heritage in Beersheba School Community.
Members of the School Board of Beersheba Primary School, New Market, Saint Elizabeth:
The National Council on Education (NCE) has published the names of the following persons whom the Honourable Minister of Education Senator Ruel Reid has appointed to serve on the School Board at Beersheba Primary School (Government School), New Market, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies for 2016/2017 Academic School Year:
Chairman: Rev. Christopher Euphfa
Principal: Mrs. Tatlin Smith-Williams
Academic Member: Mrs. Naomi Foster-Brooks
PTA Member: Nickesha Lawrence
Community Member: Mr. Valdes Hamilton
Member 1: Mr. Michael Morgan
The Elesa Hamilton Scholarship Programme
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) is pleased to announce that Harry Archer of New Savannah, New Market, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies and a member of the graduating class of 2015 at Beersheba Primary School, is the first qualified beneficiary that has satisfied the criterion of 85 average to benefit from Elesa Hamilton Scholarship Programme.
Harry Archer – an orphan who is currently under the care giving and guidance of Angella Balds – began attending Saint Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) where the Ministry of Education placed him as a grade 7 student on the basis of his performance in the 2015 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).
Harry Archer whose tuition fee of JMD 24,000.00 was paid by the scholarship programme was provided with three (3) suits of khaki uniforms and school supplies by Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA).
Cognizant of the strict criteria by which the scholarship programme is administered, Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) has arranged for Vincent Brown, Retired Trained Teacher at Beersheba Primary School to monitor Harry Archer in his school work so as to ensure that he will consistently maintain 85 average that will enable him to continue to benefit from the scholarship programme.
Because of the students Psychological Profile, BOSA Secretary/Treasurer met with Mr. Shields, Harry Archer’s Form Teacher who decided that he will make Mrs. Levy, Head of Guidance Counseling Department aware of his challenges so that further intervention –including home visit – can be arranged to provide him with additional support that he needs.
Need For GSAT Students Graduating Beersheba Primary School To Be Computer Literate
Against the backdrop of information given on page 2 of 10 Volume 15 October 2013 under the above heading, and in light of recent announcements made by the Ministry of Education with respect to the introduction and provision of Computer Tablets to each student at the Primary Level, Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) met with the School Board at Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased) on December 4, 2013 to discuss the way forward regarding this matter.
Decision taken at this meeting at which four (4) additional items that were used as terms of reference for this meeting, is that the Administration at Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased) will take appropriate action to contact Stephen Curran, Network Design Director at Digicel Group, Kingston, Jamaica West Indies regarding his interest that he has indicated to Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) to provide Wireless Broadband Internet Service to the school notwithstanding the fact that his knowledge of the terrain in the area could be challenging to provide service to the school.
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) has not received any information from the School Board at Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased) with respect to the outcome of the contact that the Board is expected to make with Stephen Curran, Network Design Director at Digicel Group.
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) is hopeful that with the appointment of a new School Board at Beersheba Primary School, that the Chairman Rev. Christopher Euphfa, Moravian Minister at Beersheba Moravian Church will take the initiative to ensure that the offer from Digicel Group is pursued in the interest and welfare of the students that are enrolled at the school.
BI-Monthly Meetings of BOSA
The Administration at Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased), has granted Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) permission to continue holding its bi-monthly general meeting in the main auditorium of the school.
Meetings are held in the main auditorium at Beersheba Primary School bi-monthly on the second Friday commencing at 4:00 p.m.
Fund Raising Activities In Connection with BOSA Support Fund for High School Students
BOSA Members, Honorary BOSA Members, Friends, Well-wishers, and other Beersheba Primary School Old Students who have not yet heard but who through the help of other Old Students, and this News Letter, will be made aware of BOSA existence and the work that the Association has been doing in the interest and welfare of students at Beersheba Primary School, are urged to make Checks (Cheques)Money Orders for their generous financial contribution to BOSA Support Fund payable to BEERSHEBA OLD STUDENTS ASSOCIATION and is to be mailed to: Vincent Samuels, Secretary/Treasurer, Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) at 99 Jacaranda Avenue, Flat Rocks Subdivision, Black River P.O., Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies. All donations received will be promptly acknowledged in writing on BOSA official letter head.
Persons living in Jamaica, West Indies may deposit their generous financial contribution to BEERSHEBA OLD STUDENTS ASSOCIATION Savings Account No. 5501336655 at any Branch of Sagicor Bank Jamaica Limited and advise the Secretary/Treasurer of the Association when the deposit has been made so that such contributions can be promptly acknowledged in writing.
Discovery of Slave Burial Ground At Paynes Town, New Market, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica West Indies.
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) again invites readers of its Newsletter to log in to its website: bosaonline.org to read and view photographs related to the above captioned news article that is published on its web page.
Mrs. Elvie Miller, 79 year old widow (owner of the property on which the Slave Burial Ground is located) and her daughter Mrs. Madge Mullings who reside on the same property, is awaiting the visit from Archaeologists from the History and Archaeological Department of the university of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica West Indies and Jamaica National Heritage Trust to take over, preserve and secure the site where the mortal remains of Hon. John Salmon, former Custos Rotulorum for Saint Elizabeth and President of the Legislative Council in Jamaica, Samuel John Manley, grandfather of Norman Washington Manley, former Prime Minister of Jamaica and Jamaican National Hero and myriad African Ancestors are buried.
As a result of the significant discovery of the Slave Burial Ground, Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) in anticipation of New Market – including Carr District, birthplace of James “Dick” Richards – being declared a National Heritage Site by Jamaica National Heritage Trust – has written to the Ministry of youth and Culture (copied to other related Government Ministries, Agencies and Quasi Agencies and Hon. J. C. Hutchinson, Member of parliament NW Saint Elizabeth and Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of Industry, Investment, Commerce and Agriculture requesting that favourable consideration is given to refurbish the Old New Market Police Station into a Museum that will be managed by a trained professional Curator.
Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) is delighted to inform readers of its Newsletter that as a result of representation that the Association made to Government Ministries and Agencies to rid the Old Police Station at New Market of Squatters who had illegally occupied the building, that the building has been repossessed and the entire premises is being cleaned and cleared of thick overgrowth and vegetation. The Association looks forward to the building being turned into a museum and the monument that was built on the site and dedicated in a civic ceremony on the night when Jamaica gained Independence from Great Britain refurbished.
BOSA Science And Health Corner: Water and Aspirin May Help You Avoid A Heart Attack.
A Cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in the USA has determined that heart attacks can be triggered by dehydration. How many folks do you know who say they don’t want to drink anything before they go to bed because they will have to get up during the night?
Heart Attack and Water
Do you know that drinking one glass of water before you go to bed can avoid stroke and heart attack?
The Cardiac Doctor was asked why people need to urinate so much at night time. The answer given by the Doctor is that gravity holds water in the lower part of your body so when you are upright, your legs will swell. When you lie down and the lower body (legs etc) seeks level with the kidneys, it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier and we all need water to help flush the toxins out of our bodies.
Correct Time To Drink Water
The Cardiac Doctor says drinking at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body; Consider the following:
- Drinking 2 glasses of water after waking up helps activate internal organs.
- Drinking 1 glass of water before taking a bath helps lower blood pressure.
- Drinking 1 glass of water before going to bed avoids stroke and heart attack.
Something Else From a Primary Care Physician (PCP)
A Primary Care Physician (PCP) says that drinking water at bedtime will also help prevent night time leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up in the night.
Mayo Clinic On Aspirin
Dr. Virend Somers, Cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic and lead author of the report in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology says: “Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6:00 a.m – Noon.
Having a heart attack during the night when the heart should be most at rest, means say Dr. Somers that something unusual happened. Dr. Somers and his colleagues have been working for a decade to show that asleep apnea is to blame.
If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night. The reason that aspirin should be taken at night is because aspirin has a 24-hour half life, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning, the aspirin would be strongest in your system.
Bayer And Its New Innovation
Bayer is making crystal aspirin that will dissolve instantly on the tongue. This type of aspirin will work much faster than the tablets.
Keeping Aspirin On Your Night Table Is A Wise Decision.
Although keeping aspirins on our night tables is about heart attacks, we should be aware that there are other symptoms of a heart attack besides the pain in the left arm. We must also be aware of an intense pain in the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating; however, these symptoms may also occur less frequently and there may be no pain in the chest during a heart attack.
The majority of people (about 60%) who had a heart attack during their sleep did not wake up. However, if a heart attack occurs, chest pain may wake up an individual from deep sleep. If this should happen, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a sip of water.
Do The Following Thereafter
- Call 911; phone a neighbor or a family member who lives nearby and say”heart attack.” Let the person you are speaking to know that you have taken two aspirins.
- Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door and wait for the arrival of EMS, your neighbor of family member. DO NOT LIE DOWN!
A Cardiologist has expressed the view that if each person after reading the foregoing article brings it to the awareness of 10 people, probably one life could be saved.
BOSA DEVOTIONAL
Similarities And Differences Between Adam And Jesus.
In the era of the Great Depression, the dust bowl and breadlines, it might seem fitting that in the 1930s also produced a dark comedy cartoon that came to be known as The Adams Family. Created by illustrator Charles Adams for The New Yorker Magazine, the single-frame comic gags took a satirical look at a ghoulishly eccentric American Family. Eventually the strip was adapted into a television comedy series that portrayed the family as somewhere between normal and morbid, in a home rigged with trap doors, and assisted by a mysterious disembodied hand called “Thing.” The television series puts this close-knit, bizarre clan in a rundown Victorian mansion near a cemetery and a swamp at 0001 Cemetery Lane.
In thinking about the legacy of Charles Adams, I have wondered whether his haunted family, humorously enmeshed in the dark side of life, was an intentional takeoff on the storyline of the Bible. The Adam of Eden also lived in an enchanted world somewhere between nature as we know it, good, evil everlasting life, and 0001 Cemetery Lane. The family of Genesis lived in a world where a snake could talk and where the fruit of one tree could give you life, while the fruit of another could take it away.
The Bible’s family of Adam, however, rises far above the comedic, bizarre, morbid life of the Adams family. From the opening words of Genesis, we hear a story that is lofty, realistic, and hopeful in its portrayal of good and evil. Its use of the supernatural is not entertaining and arbitrary/ the miracles of the Bible instead are carefully orchestrated in a way that eventually find their source and purpose in the God who lovingly and truthfully revealed Himself in Christ.
From Genesis to Jesus, a real-life drama moves from the created and fallen Adam of Eden to what the New Testament calls the Last Adam –resurrected and declared to be the Creator, Savior and Lord of a new creation. Even the Bibles’ emphasis on human mortality is life-giving in purpose (Romans 5:14-15). As author Paul explains in his first letter to the Christians, “The first man Adam became a living being. The Last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (Romans 15:45 NKJV)
By Paul’s comparison of Adam and Jesus, he brings into focus the redemptive contras the has in mind when he writes “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive.” (Romans 15:22 NKJV)With this sentence Paul; captures one of the most wonderful and profound truths of life. In words that recall the Adam of Genesis, he describes the beginning of a new story and family that lives somewhere between mortality as we know it and the gift of everlasting life. So he writes in his letter to the Romans, “Therefore, as through one man offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” (Romans 5:18 NKJV)
Since Paul’s day, many have observed the similarities and contrasts that Paul alludes to when he refers to the first and Last Adam:
- Both were born without a human father/
- Both were tested by the devil; one in a garden the other in a wilderness.
- Both left the legacy of a tree.
- Both acted in a way that affected every member of their extended family.
Together, the similarities and differences between Adam and Jesus form the most important story ever told: “The life and immortality that the first Adam lost by one act of distrust, the last Adam restored by one act of suffering and death for the sins of the whole world.
The result is a life-changing story that puts our own experience in perspective. From the first Adam we have inherited our physical, fallen nature and mortality. Through faith in the Last Adam, our spiritual immortality is restored as we are born and adopted into the everlasting family of God.
In Christ, we learn to laugh with joy. Even though He lived His life in the shadow OF A HORRIFIC SACRIFICE, He used the darkness and morbid suffering of his own death to become real reason for us to believe in life and light and love and hope.
By the time His story is told, we see why His biographers describe Him as the Source of all that is both natural and supernatural. His touch on the face, hand or shoulder of those living in despair brings them into the presence of the God of the nail-scared hand.
Father in heaven, there’s so much we don’t yet understand. But slowly we’re beginning to see why it is so urgent for us to trust Your Son. Nowhere else can we find such an answer for our own wrongs and mortality. In relying on Him, we find our evil taken so seriously – yet so forgiven. Because of Him, we are overwhelmed by how much You have sacrificed to bring us into the truth, hope and love of Your eternal life.
Editor’s Note: The foregoing devotional article that is written by Mart DeHaan is taken from “Being Thinking” that appeared in Our Daily Bread Ministries on September 11, 2013.
GOLDEN THOUGHTS AND NUGGETS:
“If you can dream it you should be able to build it”
“Where there is no ceiling, the sky is the limit” —– Hillary Clinton, USA Presidential Nominee addressing Democratic National convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA on July 18, 2016
“God has been good to me, I can’t complain” —– The late Mrs. Louise E. Tomlinson-Meyler (Miss Lou), Retired Principal, Beersheba Primary, New Market, Saint Elizabeth Jamaica West Indies.
Additional Editor’s Note: We wish to remind our readers that as part of its vision to contribute to a paper free environment as well as to use Information Technology (IT) to minimize cost, Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA) will no longer circulate its Newsletters by Post Office and hand delivery. Effective immediately, BOSA Newsletters will be posted quarterly on its website: bosaonline.org. It is my sincere wish that all our readers will have a Peaceful, Blessed and Spirit-filled summer.
“A heart that is focused on others will not be consumed with self”
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