Twice a week Pastor Keith Graham makes the hour-long journey over the sea to Bequia to give leadership to the Bequia Pentecostal Church, and while it took some time to get used to, he loves every minute of it!

An experienced minister, Graham has been in ministry for over 10 years, having served as the assistant pastor at the East Ruimveldt Life Improvement Centre in his native Guyana, the church where he got saved 20 years ago.{{more}}

A few years ago he and his wife Jillian started thinking about having a fresh start in a different Caribbean country and were considering what their next move should be. In the end the choice of St Vincent and the Grenadines was the most natural, because Jillian’s father is Vincentian.

“We saw it as an opportunity to get our fresh start but also for Jillian to get to know her relatives,” Pastor Graham said.

Jillian came to St Vincent in 2003 and about a year or so after Keith followed.

An accredited minister with the Assemblies of God in Guyana, PAWI’s sister organization, Graham fit right in and started to attend the Faith Temple church and went through the process of being accredited in the PAWI.

“I felt so welcomed, I was allowed to preach and be involved and started to feel at home,’ he said.

When asked to pick up the challenge of giving interim leadership to the Bequia church Graham gladly accepted and has been working hard at building the church. When he started a year ago, there were 18 members, one year later the church has 30 members and an average Sunday Morning attendance of 40 persons.

As for Jillian, she is teaching at the CW Prescod Primary School where she is very instrumental in the school’s literacy program.

The couple has three children, Faith, 10, Martin, 7, and Gillian just gave birth a month ago to their third, and they claim, their last child, John.