‘God ordained me to be a light to my peers’
Published:Sunday | April 26, 2020 | 12:14 AM
Zhara-Marie Henry started her walk as a Christian at the tender age of 11 and recounts her faith journey through the years to Family & Religion.
In 2009, just one year after being baptised, she was awarded the J.A.G. Smith scholarship for being the top-performing female student in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT). For her efforts, she was placed at the much-respected Glenmuir High School in Clarendon.
Her celebration, however, was short-lived as she was faced with the horrific murder of her father, who fell prey to two marauding gunmen.
“My dad was murdered right after I was named the top GSAT [female student]. It devastated me because I was wondering why God allowed me to feel so accomplished and then so defeated.”
The Gleaner article ‘Pain comes after GSAT success story’ documents the tragedy that claimed the life of Henry’s father, Geddes Henry. The late Henry was a taxi operator who was shot and killed by two gunmen who posed as passengers.
Henry said that amid the loss of her father, God provided her with “father figures”, whom she lauded for contributing to her success.
Her Mother, Her Rock
The only child for her mother, Henry praised the relationship they share, asserting that her mother is her tower of strength. “She’s my rock. She did everything in her power to ensure that I kept the faith and stayed true to what I believed,” she said.
Henry said that hurdling over the loss and with a zeal for success, her relentless pursuits of academic excellence led her to being named the head girl of Glenmuir High School in 2015 and to her matriculation into university.
The 23-year-old Norman Manley Law School student, who holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, told Family and Religion that although life in university was not an easy feat, God always came through for her.
“God has blessed me so much. I have numerous testimonies of not seeing the school fee. Law studies cost US$10,000 per year, and my mother isn’t rich, but I’ve always been content with knowing that my Father in heaven is rich. Sometimes I don’t know where the next red cent is coming from, but I knew that all I needed to do was put God first, and He would do the rest,” she said.
A former member of Advent Fellowship (AdFel,) a support group for students of The UWI and the University of Technology, Jamaica, of Seventh-day Adventist background, Henry asserted that God has ordained her as a “light” to her peers. “I knew that my purpose on campus was not primarily to get a degree, but I was there to be a light. I felt that God placed me on the Elsa Leo-Rhynie Hall, the Faculty of Law, and now the Norman Manley Law School these years for a reason. I knew that once I put Him and His work first, then everything else would fall into place.’’
A member of the Freetown Seventh-day Adventist Church in Clarendon, Henry said: “My relationship with God is paramount, and I have to ensure that I live a life that reflects Him at all costs.”