Dr Harris commends SDA church for its lifestyle programmes

Members of Constituency Seven Group, including Senior Minister Dr Timothy Harris, in performance

St. Kitts (April 7, 2010) — Senior Minister and area parliamentary representative for St. Christopher Seven (Belle Vue to Ottleys’), Dr Timothy Harris, is commending the Molyneux Seventh Day Adventist Church for its fine example of inculcating healthy lifestyles among the youth.

“I commend them for targeting young people because if these values and principles of healthy living can be inculcated at a tender age, then the young are less likely to forget them and it means that the next generation would be more successful in terms of their own mental, spiritual and physical wellbeing,” commented Dr Harris.

The minister made the remarks Sunday afternoon at the Molyneux Seventh Day Adventist Church, where the Mind and Body Health Education Club held a concert in honour of the elderly from the surrounding communities. The club which was formed in July 2008, caters for all members of the community, ages five to 75, irrespective of their religious affiliation.

Members of the Mind and Body Health Education Club

According to Dr Harris, the club which is coordinated by the church’s education secretary and retired teacher, Emily Mills, was doing a commendable job and he thanked them for remembering and attempting to inculcate healthy lifestyles in a holistic approach to healthy living.

“It is also good that at this particular moment they have sought to remember the elderly in the various communities,” observed Minister Harris. “It was regret that many more of them were not able to make it because of competing events on Easter Sunday. Nonetheless, the thought of the less fortunate, less physically able at this moment in time is a good one, and one which I find to be very encouraging.”

After prayers were offered by Elder Collin Tyrell, the event set off on a very high note, when Emily Mills invited the first performer, 95-year old Lucretia Browne, to sing. She was one of the few that rendered two songs as she came back towards the end. Following Ms Browne’s performance, another senior citizen, 76-year old Lewis Phipps, took to the podium with a rendition.

When the Constituency Number Seven group took to the stage, their parliamentary area representative, Dr Timothy Harris, was one of the singers. Others who performed were Eunice Venetta Glasford, and the junior members of the Mind and Body Health Education Club led by Shermel Welcome who rendered the song ‘All things bright and beautiful’.

The trio of, from left, Eunice Venetta Glasford, Eliza Mills and Shirmel Welcome

21st Century entertainment, according to event’s coordinator Emily Mills, was brought on stage by two members of Grace and Mercy Dancers, Khadija Caines and Avis Crossley. Other renditions came from Arnold Julius, Erickson Wescott, Eliza Mills, and a duet by Kristyl Bristol and shinelle Willett.

“The event went on well,” commented Dr Harris. “Those who sang did so with much sincerity and the audience did appreciate. It reminds me there is so much talent in the constituency and we need to be able to bring more joy and more fun to the lives of ordinary people in our respective communities.”

He noted that he would immediately start working towards bringing people together more often in a loving and a sharing way, as in that way the communities would end up being more healthy and cohesive “and this certainly will go a long way in creating civic pride, civic values, and respect for each other and certainly should redound in a diminution in the criminal and antisocial behaviours.”