MANDEVILLE, Manchester:

“I still remember it as if it were yesterday. My friend and I had spent Grand Market night partying away and enjoying ourselves. At daybreak, I got up and went to get some soap to wash. I passed by his house and he said he was going to wash also and that we should link up later. Moments later, my mother came to me and said they had killed my friend. I ran out of the yard just to see his lifeless body on the ground. I stood there at that moment with millions of thoughts going through my mind, wondering if I would be next.”

This is how it began for Marvin Pryce, a minister of religion in training whose life, prior to accepting the call of God, was heavily involved in womanising, partying, drinking, and witnessing people being killed around him.

WANTED BY THE POLICE

He had many near misses, but it wasn’t until his brother died that true transformation began in his life.

“About three days after my friend was killed, my mom called to inform me that the police drove through the community, announcing on loud speaker my name along with two others that we were to report to the police station. I got my stuff, went back home, and was about to leave for the station when my mom decided that I was not going to the station alone.

“When we turned up at the station, the officers took me into a room. When I got there, they were already questioning the other two guys. I still remember vividly the officer saying that they need the gun because they know that I killed my friend. They said that the other guys told them that it was me who killed him. They had me in that room for about four and a half hours before letting me go,” he added.

THE ULTIMATE CHANGE

Pryce said he left Clarendon for Portmore to work temporarily and took that time to reflect on his life. He said that following his return to Clarendon, he would visit church with his mother but would still indulge in the womanising, partying, and drinking.

“Now this is when the ultimate change was set in motion. I went by a friend’s house one night and got home after 12. Feeling so tired, I fell asleep with my window open. Now, my bed was right underneath my window. I placed my phone and wallet on my bed then went to sleep. When I got up in the morning, I rushed to the outside toilet and when I returned, I saw my wallet on the ground outside my door. I picked it up and realised that everything in it was gone! Only the sim card and the empty wallet were left.”

He said he went to explain to his mother, and his brother overheard and started quarrelling as he had had a dream that he was crying and actually woke up crying.

“Three days went by, and I went back to the same friend’s house, but while there, I felt uncomfortable. I left, and when I got home, I closed the door [and] I turned on the TV, and then I heard the sound of gun shots. I paused the TV, went to the door to peek, and I heard the sounds again. Now, this was common in my community. That night, I knew that those shots had ‘connected’ (to someone or something) as I could tell the difference between the ones that did and the ones that didn’t. I waited for a while to see what I would hear, but I heard nothing, so I went to bed.”

He continued with the startling revelation, “I was awakened by the shout and banging on my door. I got up, opened the door and saw a family friend who said, ‘Marvin, them kill Norton’. By this time, the police was already on the scene. My mother fainted and was taken to the hospital. I walked out that yard that night and got to the gate to see my brother’s body lying about 150 feet from home. He was shot while running home. It was there that it hit me: God was trying to get my attention.”

Join us next week as we share other shocking details of how this man moved from the mess he was into the ministry.

familyandreligion@gleanerjm.com