Port Mahoe Church Construction

Since 1890, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been involved in missionary work in Jamaica.

James Palmer's initial tract distribution in 1893 marked the beginning of the church's expansion in Jamaica, as well as the founding of the Jamaica Mission and, later, the Jamaica Conference.

The Jamaica Conference, which had its headquarters in Kingston (now in Manchester), gave way to the East, West, Central, North and North East Jamaica Conferences.

Port Mahoe Seventh-day Adventist, is one of the churches found in the Central Jamaica Conference, located in the parish of Manchester.

The missionary zeal continued to flow throughout the fourteen parishes of the island of Jamaica, and God lead them to a 16.2km square community called Plowden and, more specifically “bottom Plowden” in 1975. The population of Plowden (both bottom and top Plowden) now boasts 1,872 individuals on the records of history, of which at least 50% are from “bottom Plowden”. This was basically the same ratio in 1975 when the population was predicted to be 1,725.

Elder Mitchell was lead by God to Plowden - Portmahone. This he did every Sabbath afternoon as he met in the home of Hugh McCatty, assisted by a couple in the community, Stephen and Louise Marshall.

The Sabbath afternoon meetings continued to grow and expand, especially with the support of the

children of the community. Thus, the meeting place was relocated to Cuthrie Morrison's zinked-up entertainment hall. The service was held every Sabbath afternoon at 3:00pm.

In summer of 1977, the Seventh-day Adventist members of the “mighty south” (Manchester) arranged an evangelistic series in Resource, out of which on July 12, over 30 persons from bottom Plowden were baptized. These new members continued to meet on a regular basis as well as worshipped all day on Sabbath. By the end of the year, they bought land close to where they worshipped. This land was bought from Ivy Shaw. A little shelter was built with great support from community members, including James Marshall and other constructors.

Elder Mitchell continued to minister there, as pastors at that time, had many churches and were seen occasionally due to transportation issues. The pastor in charge of the area at that time was Kenny Malcolm. Later on, Elder Mitchell, by divine providence invited Trevor Barnes, the son of the first Elder (Fred Barnes) of the “Top Plowden”/Restore Seventh-day Adventist Church, the 'mother' church to share in leadership.

Upon Elder Mitchell’s migration, Trevor Barnes became the leader of the Port Mahoe Church.

Trevor Barnes continued to serve the church with distinction and was instrumental in continuing the building process of the church. A small 12 by 24 feet building was erected for the proclamation of the gospel. In 1981, Elder Barnes solicited the help of students from the then West Indies college to share in ministry. Elder Raymond Ricketts and his wife Asanett Ricketts, nee Mohalland, were members of the group that responded to the call.

Since that time to this present moment, they are instrumental to the leadership of the church and serve as elders.

Throughout the years, several pastors lead the church, inclusive of: Lyle, Everett Smith, Silburn Fray, Charles Blythe, Lorenzo King, Clifton Knight, Wayne Palmer, Samuel Hyatt along with many others who interned with the Pastors. Its present Pastor is Lascelles Grant. The church was dedicated in 1993, officiated by then Central Jamaica Conference's President Leon Wellington, Secretary Milton Gregory and host Pastor Everett Smith. The church continued to actively witness to the community, and thus needed a larger building to house its growing membership.

In 1997, Pastor Charles Blythe, then Pastor, celebrated his birthday with a special fundraising function in Mandeville and donated the proceeds to begin the new building. He was assisted by entrepreneur Elder Victor Dixon and others. The church building began in 1998 and has been in building mode since.

The Port Mahoe church is located in a rural farming community in South Manchester, approximately 30 minutes from the town of Mandeville. The building is still incomplete due to low or no income of a significant amount of its present membership. Port Mahoe sincerely needs our support to complete the present structure in order to have a greater impact on the community where it resides. The mission is great and God has placed that church in the community as a lighthouse. Let's give generously to a worthy cause. This year the church celebrates its 50th year and completion of this building is a worthy gift.

Please contribute generously to help complete the construction work for the church's 50th Anniversary celebration this summer, July 25-27, 2025.

Thanks in advance and May God bless you abundantly as you give towards the furtherance of His work

If you are in Jamaica, and you can't drop off or mail your contribution to the church, you can transfer funds to "Portmahoe Seventh-Day Adventist Church" account:

Bank of Nova Scotia

Mandeville Branch

A/c # 808 - 10

(Chequing)

Please indicate "Church Building funds" or "50th anniversary " on the transaction.