Paula Gordon and Sheldon Williams, Star Writers

Life has not been good for 39-year-old Karen Martin and her three children.

The family has been living in a deplorable condition in Frazers Content, St Catherine, for more than a year.

They occupy a one-room zinc structure with no running water and no bathroom facilities. According to Martin, she uses the nearby bushes as her bathroom.

“Me go Meadowrest go get water. Sometime a di bullfrog water we get and when dem get water fi dem worker bathe we get some fi drink,” she said.

When THE STAR visited the family yesterday, Martin’s twin boys were sitting on a makeshift bed, barely clothed. They sported dirty, torn baby ‘onsies’ and no pampers.

Our photographer had to request that a sheet be used to cover the children from the waist down in order to have some pictures taken.

Outside was a coal stove that was being used to boil what looked like bush tea.

Martin said, “I had twins, they are one year and six months and I have an 11-year-old, him don’t even have shoes to go to school.”

She said that the zinc structure that she calls home was built by her mother’s boyfriend, however, when her mother moved to another area in St Catherine she took up residence there as she had nowhere else to go.

She explained that, “The problem is with the zinc, when the sun hot yuh can’t go and sleep cause in there is baking, we have to wait until evening and when rain fall we have to set bucket cause is bare water.”

Martin says she has been living in the dilapidated structure simply because she is unemployed. She said that in order to survive she has to resort to selling fruits on weekends.

“Mi look nasberry and sell down at Meadowrest on Saturday and Sunday,” she said.

Further, she noted that she has been unable to get a job because, “My mummy didn’t send me to school, she was a gambler and she left us with my grandmother.”

She says that she is unable to send her son to school often because of the lack of funds to do so.

She reasoned, “I went to write up for the Path Programme so him can get lunch at school, they say they will call mi but they have not as yet.”

Further she noted, “Many days I go to bed without dinner and I give the children dem sugar and water and I cry.”

She told THE STAR that her son’s father died in England some years ago, however, the father for the twin contributes when he is able to.

Martin also has another child, who lives with his grandmother. She said sometimes she gets help from the church she attends and the people in her community.

“They will buy pampers and Lasco and sometimes bring likkle brief for the babies dem,” she said.

She is pleading to the public to assist her in whatever way they can.

“I want to live somewhere comfortable and if dem could even help me with some clothes for the children,” she remarked.

Meanwhile, persons interested in helping Martin and her family can make a deposit at the Bank of Nova Scotia, Cross Roads branch, account number 336622 or contact her at 497-0401.

Slain in the Spirit
ost of you have seen this phenomena occur in the charismatic churches. This is where you see pastors or ministers laying hands on people, usually on their foreheads, and then they fall backwards. The charismatics have named this phenomena as being “Slain in the Spirit.” Some people call it “Falling in the Spirit” or “Resting in the Spirit.”
Is this a real phenomenon? If it is – is it really God operating through the power of the Holy Spirit, or is it demonic spirits trying to masquerade as the power of Holy Spirit coming onto someone? There are many Christians and Christian groups who are really attacking this phenomena.
I will go ahead and give you the main Scripture verses where this phenomena is coming from. I will then give you some of the main arguments of those Christians who are against this phenomena and I will then end this article with my own personal opinion as to why I think this phenomena is a true manifestation from the Lord.
THE SCRIPTURE VERSES

Here are the main verses from Scripture showing people falling to the ground whenever God would manifest His presence to different people. The first verse is from the Original King James Version of the Bible, the rest are from the New King James Version.
“… that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:14)

Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Then when He said to them. “I am He,” – they drew back and fell to the ground.” (John 18:6)

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.” (Revelation 1:17)

“And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.” But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” (Matthew 17:6)

“And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:3-4)

“So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 3:23)

“Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.” (Numbers 22:31)

“And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw – like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 43:2-3)

“Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; so I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 44:4)
Now I will give you some of the arguments being made by those who are against this phenomena and then some of my own arguments as to why I believe this a real manifestation from the Lord.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST BEING SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT

The Christians who argue against this phenomena really being from the Lord base their arguments on the following reasons:
Every time people fell when the presence of God would manifest – they would always fall on their faces, not fall backward.

Nowhere in the Bible do the prophets, the apostles, or Jesus Himself ever lay hands on someone and then the power of God comes through their hands to knock them backward.

The only time people fell in the presence of God was when God was rendering some type of judgment.
Now to some arguments that will counter some of the above arguments if you should ever need them in any kind of debate.
ARGUMENTS FOR BEING SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT

I will take each one of the above arguments and see if I can give you an opposing point of view in order to try and defend this phenomena as being from the Lord.
1. The First Argument – people always falling face down rather than falling backwards. Granted, 5 of the above 9 verses specifically state that these people had fallen on their faces rather than falling backward.
However, the other 4 verses say they simply “fell to the ground,” or that they “could not stand” when the presence of God would manifest. Who is to say that when these people fell to the ground, they could not have been falling backwards. These verses do not say if they fell forward or backward, so I believe this means they could have fallen either way – thus showing that there was the possibility of falling backwards when the presence of God would manifest.
The first verse says that the priests “could not stand” when the manifest presence of God would enter into the temple. Again, they could have easily as been falling backwards as well as falling forward. Since Scripture does not specifically say in which direction they were falling, I believe we are on safe ground making the assumption that these other 4 verses give us the possibility of people falling backwards whenever the presence of God would manifest.
2. The Second Argument – stating that at no time did Jesus or the apostles ever lay hands on people causing them fall backwards. Though I could not find any actual Scripture verses that did show this phenomena occurring as it does today by the laying on of hands, I feel the key argument for the possibility of this phenomena occurring is the following argument:
Sometimes when the presence of God would manifest like described in the above verses, people did fall to the ground. No question about it. However, there were other times God would manifest His presence and people would not fall to the ground. This thus was a manifestation that was completely controlled by God. He, and He alone, would decide when people would get knocked to the ground and when they would not whenever He would manifest His presence.
I think the key point to grab a hold of is that this phenomena can occur when God does decide to manifest His presence in this particular way. And sometimes God will manifest His presence through the hands of a pastor or minister. And if He does decide to manifest His presence through the hands of a minister, then I believe it is only logical to conclude that God can knock people to the ground like He did back in the Bible days if He should choose to do so.
There is no question that the manifest presence of God is coming through a pastor or minister when hands are being laid on someone for a healing. The manifest presence and power of God will literally flow through the hands of the pastor or minister – flow into the person’s body and then the Holy Spirit Himself will do the healing once inside the person’s body.
If “healing power” can come through a minister’s hands, then why not “knockdown power?” God can either knock someone over with a direct hit Himself or through the hands of someone who is operating under His anointing at any given moment. I believe God can and does go either way with this particular manifestation.
3. The Third Argument – God only knocked people down when rendering some type of judgment on them. Look closely at the above 9 verses. It was only on the apostle Paul that God was rendering judgment on when He knocked him to the ground. The others were priests of the temple, prophets like Ezekiel and John the Revelator, or the apostles themselves. None of them were under any kind of direct judgment when this phenomena was occurring.
CONCLUSIONS

1. Being slain in the Spirit is simply when the presence and power of God comes directly at you causing you to either fall forward or backward. This power can either come directly through the hands of someone operating under the Lord’s anointing at any given moment, or directly at you by God Himself – such as when you see people falling to the ground while just sitting in their seats with no one laying a hand on them.
This manifestation of God’s power can either come directly at you very lightly where you just start to lose your balance and then proceed to fall. Or it can come at you very strongly to the point where you cannot resist it and you are literally blown to the ground. When this happens, it looks like a cannonball is hitting someone right in the stomach and they fall backwards with a fair amount of force. God decides how strong He will manifest this kind of power when He does decide to manifest it on someone.
Granted, there will always be some people in a church service that will be falling backwards out of their own flesh. The power of God is not causing them to fall backward. They just want to be part of the crowd and they will fall backwards all on their own. However, you cannot throw out the baby with the bathwater on this manifestation just because some people will always choose to act out of their flesh.
2. So what happens when people are slain in the Spirit? Sometimes just a nice, restful, peaceful, relaxed feeling will come over the person. Sometimes people can receive inner and/or outer healings while resting in the Spirit. Some people can receive visions, instructions or advice from the Lord on a situation that He may want to deal with them on. People can rest anywhere in the Spirit from 1-2 minutes or as long as 4-6 hours if God would choose to go that long with a particular individual.
For those of you who would like additional information on this phenomenon – there is a book titled “ Overcome by the Spirit” by Francis MacNutt. Francis MacNutt is an ex-Catholic priest who received a powerful healing ministry from the Lord. He noticed that this phenomenon would occur quite often whenever he would lay hands on people for their healings.
He interviewed many people after they had fallen in the Spirit to find out what their reactions were and exactly what had happened to them while they were resting in the Spirit. There are many direct quotes from the people he interviewed and it was all very positive.
He came to the conclusion that being slain in the Spirit was a very real manifestation of God that was occurring because of all the good fruit it produced in the people who had experienced this phenomena. He said some of the actual healings that came through his ministry occurred when people were “resting in the Spirit” after he had initially laid hands on them.
This man, in my opinion, is a true servant of God. He explored this phenomenon with complete objectivity back in the 1970’s. He covers, in this most informative book, all of the things that he saw happen when this manifestation would occur.
SHORT STORY

I will leave you with a short story on this manifestation occurring to someone I used to work with. I will never forget it as long as I live. It was very touching and I feel like God allowed this story to come my way when it did to help confirm that this particular manifestation was really coming from Him.
About 15 years ago, I worked with a man who was a very devout Catholic. He was married, with 2 girls, ages 8 and 11. There was a priest from Chicago who had come down for the Sunday service. I cannot recall the name of the priest, but he had a healing ministry and he did a lot of traveling with the healing gift that God had given him. He too found that people would fall backwards whenever he would lay hands on them.
On the Sunday this event occurred, this man, his wife and his two girls all went to see this priest. When this priest then made the call for anyone to come up and have hands laid on them, all four of them went up just to see if God would do anything with any of them.
My friend said that absolutely nothing happened to either him, his wife or his older 11-year-old daughter. They felt no power come against them and none of them fell backwards in the Spirit.
However, his youngest daughter, who was 8 years of age, was hit hard! He said she went down like a ton of bricks. He said it looked like a cannonball or bowling ball hit her right in the stomach blowing her backwards with great force. There obviously was a catcher behind her when she fell backward.
He said the minute she hit the ground, she started bawling profusely. He said she was crying as hard as she could. My friend initially thought there was something wrong with her because she was crying so hard. He then started to go over to see what was wrong with her, but he received an immediate check from the Holy Spirit that he was not to go near her, that God was doing something very special with her.
He said that she laid on the ground crying as hard as she could for a good 10-15 minutes. After the 10-15 minutes, she all of a sudden quit crying and stood up. He immediately went over to her and started to walk with her outside. When they got outside, he turned to her and asked her why she had been crying so hard after she had been slain in the Spirit.
I will never forget these words as long as I live. This little 8-year-old girl turned to her daddy and said with a real big smile on her face:
“Daddy, Daddy, He felt so good, He felt so good!”
God was obviously manifesting His loving presence all over this little girl for the 10-15 minutes that she was “resting in the Spirit” to the point that she was crying as hard as she could. She obviously was in the manifest presence of God and He was allowing her to literally feel His love for her.
As I was driving home from work that day after hearing the above story, I then tapped in and asked God what had happened and was that really Him that did all of that.
These three words immediately came up out of my spirit and again, I will never forget these three words. The three words were – “I touched her” – with an emphasis on the word “touch.”
I then immediately started to laugh. He touched her, but she went down like a ton of bricks! I really felt like God was telling me two things with these three specific words:
That it was His manifest presence that blew her backwards causing her to fall like she did, and that it was His manifest presence stirring on the inside of her causing her to cry as hard as she did.

The fact that she told her dad that “He felt so good” – showed that God had to be literally manifesting His love to her where she could literally and physically feel it all over her physical body.
You will each have to come to your own conclusions as to whether or not you feel this is a true manifestation from God. For those of you who do believe that this is a real manifestation from the Lord, the above Scripture verses, and arguments off of those Scripture verses, can give you some ammunition should you ever find yourself in a debate with another Christian over this topic.
As for myself, I really do believe that this phenomenon is a true and powerful manifestation from the Lord when it really is Him doing it. But as with all of the other manifestations from God, there are always demons out there who will try and counterfeit some of His manifestations, along with other people just acting out and pretending God is manifesting on them when He is really not doing so. These people are either operating under the power of suggestion or they simply want to be part of the crowd if they see other people truly falling under the power of God.
But do not let counterfeit activity from the dark side or some people acting out of their flesh prejudice you against what I feel is a very powerful and wonderful manifestation from the Lord when He does decide to do it on someone.
For those of you who have been truly slain in the Spirit – you know exactly what I am talking about since you have had this real experience. For those of you who have not – I challenge you to go direct God the Father in prayer and ask Him to personally show you if this manifestation is something that is really coming from Him or not. God loves it when you start to press in and ask Him specific questions on anything you may really want an answer on.

Killer cop paints uneasy marriage

2011-04-07 13:36:16 | (27 Comments)

Detective Corporal Wayne Llewellyn

Mark Beckford, Online Content Coordinator

Detective Corporal Wayne Llewellyn, who murdered four members of his family, before killing himself, appeared to have had marital problems, according to postings on his Facebook page.

Facebook postings, days leading up to this morning’s multiple murder/suicide, indicated that Detective Corporal Llewellyn was in a struggle with his relationship.

On March 26, Llewellyn posted a picture with the saying ‘Heart Closed Until Further Notice’.

On March 28, he changed his relationship status on Facebook from ‘married’ to in a ‘complicated relationship’.

One friend commented “imagine that”, while another asked, “what complicate your relationship now, married man?”

On April 1, Llewellyn then changed his relationship status to ‘no longer complicated’.

A friend commented “What God has joined together let no man put ……..no one said it would be easy. Ask the Lord to lead daily. Hang on in there.”

Llewellyn then responded by saying “Luv that sis …..but life has its options too….happiness comes from within.”

That was Llewellyn’s last relationship update, and today he killed his mother-in law, father-in-law, brother-in-law and stepdaughter in Tree Hill, St. Mary.

The victims were identified as 79-year-old Rachel Brown her husband 73-year-old Voldy Brown, Fitzroy Townsend, and 16-year-old Jorjhan Flynn.

Llewellyn also shot his 40-year-old wife in the neck and she was hospitalised.

Since the incident, several persons have commented on his Facebook page.

One person said, “Wayne!!!!!! Why??? I can’t believe this!!”

The same person went on to say, “Wayne, Wayne, Wayne!!! Only God alone knew what happened when you snapped and ended so may lives including yours. May God be with the family at this time!!!”

“I am saddened…Wayne we spoke at length and I suggested you give it time…I am in shock…I taught and loved Jorjhan…she was a beautiful girl….in hindsight you should have left your gun at home,” another person said.

With the recent drop of 31 categories in the annual Grammy Awards, the campaign to improve the Reggae Grammy award is on in earnest.

Yesterday the National Academy of the Recording Arts announced that it would be reducing the number of gramophones won from 109 to 78 and making changes. The changes which will take place for next year’s ceremony, according to Neil Portnow, the organisation’s president, are done to ensure “that the Grammy remains a rare and distinct honour and continues to be music’s most prestigious and only peer-recognised award.”

Changes concern the processes for voting and music submissions. If fewer than 25 submissions are received for a category, that award will be suspended for a year; after three consecutive suspensions a category would be eliminated, with future submissions being redirected to the next relevant category. The Reggae Grammy category, introduced in 1985, many speculate, could be at risk under the new changes.

According to an article on the New York Times website, at the first Grammy ceremony in 1959, there were only 28 categories. Over the years that number swelled with new genre fields and with multiple subcategorises within a single genre. Categories, including best rock or rap gospel album and best Hawaiian music album, have been eliminated. Separate awards for male and female vocal performances in the pop, rock, R&B and country genres have also been eliminated.

blame ourselves

Speaking with The STAR yesterday Cristy Barber, vice- president of marketing and promotions at VP Records, said the Jamaican music industry had no one to blame but themselves if the Reggae Grammy category gets suspended or eventually eliminated. Barber launched a campaign last year to educate the reggae industry about the awards and to get more voters in an effort to see the nominations and final result “reflect what is going on”.

She said: “The categories that fall in the same realm as the Reggae Grammy have been taken away, so we have to work to save what we have. We can do this by voters, registration and submission. We don’t have voters, we’re hanging on by a thread.”

According to Barber, despite her campaign to get voters, no one has signed up as she said: “If the Jamaican music industry doesn’t fight for it, it’s their fault for not doing their part. They have no one else to blame cause there is an island full of eligible voters.” Persons eligible to vote are those with six creative credentials which, according to Barber, apply to artistes, engineers, video directors, musicians, back- ground singers and more.

“We needed a 100 voters and just got 25. Everything is down to use, the next time it comes around, we got to start voting, or we’re gone and they aren’t gonna give us another category,” Barber added.

According to Barber, a Grammy is one of the biggest achievements in music and losing the reggae grammy category could prove to be a disaster. “There would be nothing to aspire for, no matter who you are – you could be a Rihanna, you want to win a Grammy, every artiste does. It brings up your brand as an artiste to have one under your belt,” she said. Registration to vote can be done at: www.grammy.com

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