Abandoned by husband, Manchester mother finds purpose in God

Faith Nembhard, pastor of the Long Syne Church of Prayer and Worship in South Manchester, is today thanking God for the journey He has brought her through after her husband abandoned her with a young son and an 11-year-old daughter.

It was a hard, rocky road, but through it Nembhard said there were some valuable lessons learned, as well as seeing her being set on a new path.

Trained as a practical nurse, she abandoned that as she said what she was earning could not sustain her and her two children so she ventured into ‘buying and selling’.

“I had to start all over again and so what I did I went to Kingston and buy things and go into heavily populated communities and sell there. I started building myself from there until I started driving,” she shared.

Nembhard said she kept on improving herself in an effort to support her children.

Soon she took on wholesale selling, parking up in Coronation Market and selling. She hit a rocky road when one day two gunmen held her up and robbed her of over $300,000.

“Remember now, we trust the farmers’ load to take to the market, so therefore you will have to come back and pay them and the profit would be yours. Everything gone, and guess what when I come back I had to take a loan from Jamaica National Bank to help to pay back those farmers and then start again,” she shared with The Gleaner.

CRIED

Nembhard said she cried so much, but it was the thought of not letting down her children that kept her going.

“Through this, I have struggled, there are nights when I cried, but I never let my children see me crying and I tell myself I have to work,” she said.

The resourceful mother said she started seeking God, asking Him to take her out of the market. Her prayers were also echoed by her daughter who was worried she would lose her life there.

Nembhard, sharing a powerful testimony, said God blessed her with the gift of sewing, without her ever having to take lessons.

That gift has seen her making pillows, wrapping upholstery, wreaths, bouquet, cushions, men’s suiting, uniforms, and so much more.

“We go through that phase and it was rough, but we never leave out God. He was there leading us and always directing us, preparing me for bigger things to come,” she noted.

Today, her son graduated from Church Teachers’ College and the University of the West Indies with first-class honours in education – Mathematics and Information Technology and is teaching in England. Her daughter has a Bachelor of Arts in Information Technology and with a contented smile, Nembhard said “I am comfortable now”.

These days, she spends her time being very involved in the church, counselling and sewing.

Nembhard said her children will be amazed when her story is published.

“They actually were suggesting that I should share it on Ian Boyne, he has passed, this is divine intervention,” she quipped.

Nembhard in reaching out to others who might have found themselves in her shoes or worse to look to God.

“In life because you might think that you ‘I want a man to help me look after my children’, ‘I want a partner’, but one thing I can encourage every single mother put your children first because you are going to need them,” she said.