Tamaya Henry survives childhood trauma, realises her dreams –
SHE SPENT days wondering what went wrong, why it went wrong, and why her family was encountering a mountain of challenges.
Moving from house to house and being displaced as soon as the stage of settling came took a toll on her, and with each step made forward, there seemed to be several other setbacks.
Twenty-six-year-old Tamaya Henry was born in a rural community called Jeffery Town, St Mary. Her mom was an allrounder who did odd jobs to make ends meet, and her dad was a carpenter.
The older of two for her father, she said that although she was the youngest of four for her mother, it was not until adulthood that she met her older siblings.
She knew her mother to be a strong woman, but during her childhood, things began taking a turn for the worse.
“When I was about seven years old, I realised that my mom was struggling with something. She was always tired, didn’t have much energy to do things around the house, and had frequent mood swings. Things got so bad, it cost her her marriage and her children. It was not until I was in my teens that I understood that she was mentally challenged. Her illness changed everything for my siblings and I,” Henry lamented.
Her mother grew incapable of caring for her, and there began the life-changing moves.
“She gave me to my grandaunt, who also tried her best but after a year was unable to care for me due to financial constraints. Eventually, my dad stepped in and shipped me off to my aunt who lived in Portmore, but that living arrangement, too, was short-lived as my aunt moved me back to St Mary to live with my grandmother. Sad to say, I moved about five times after that, spending less than a year in each
THE CHRISTIAN Leaders Fellowship (CLF) will be holding its fourth annual World Conference from June 25-27 and will feature lectures by executive pastors, Christian celebrities, and CEOs.
The is a global faith-leadership initiative that strives to unite Christian leaders through Bible-based theology, implement practical ministry solutions, and encourage fellowship rooted in the gospel.
The “CLF is a place where pastors home, and it was not until the fifth moved that I was able to experience some stability,” Henry told Family & Religion.
Stability came when Henry was introduced to her stepmother, Cynthia Wynter, who was a school cook at the time. from different denominations, creeds, and ethnicities can gather regardless of doctrinal disagreements and engage in fellowship in Christ”, said Reverend
Yeong Kook Park, president of the CLF. “Pastors have a place to study scripture and receive advice from their fellow pastors from different parts of the world and different walks of life. We believe that more than anything else, God wanted His children to engage in fellowship within Christ as written in 1 Corinthians 1:9. So instead of just taking this verse with a grain of salt, executive pastors from around the world have opened doors for their denominations to participate in CLF-related events with their fellow labourers in Christ who might bear some disagreements with their understanding of the scriptures.”
Despite having more than 250,000 past participants from over 90 different countries, the CLF was born in the United States, with its first conference in 2017 being held in New York with 700 pastors from 40 different countries in attendance.
CLF World conferences feature programmes such as theological crash courses in church history, the tabernacle in the Bible, and the different offerings of the book of Leviticus. Keynote speakers will deliver lectures on healing, youth ministry, prison ministry, and how to live a life of faith. Through these various programmes, church leaders and pastors who wish to brush up on biblical knowledge that serve as the pillars of their faith and who also wish to receive advice from expert spiritual guides will have an opportunity to do so.
“CLF is a place where pastors from different denominations, creeds, and ethnicities can gather regardless of doctrinal disagreements and engage in fellowship in Christ.”