Reverend Ransford Gordon Smickle

George Henry, STAR Writer

It is often said that choosing to become a Christian changes a person for the better. Well, for resident pastor for the Spaldings Gospel Assembly Church in Manchester, Reverend Ransford Gordon Smickle, that indeed is a reality.

While he attended Spaldings High School 26 years ago, Reverend Smickle could easily have been described as a bitter individual; but all that changed when he accepted Jesus Christ in his life.

"He delivered me from bitterness, self-centeredness and a life of criminal intentions," confessed the church leader.

He explained that he had intentions of planting ganja for sale and to get rid of persons who were standing in his way. But all those plans were shelved when the Lord entered his life one afternoon.

Reverend Smickle said on the day in question, he had planned to destroy some persons whom he believed were being a bother to him for a period of time. That afternoon he said he was at home and his grandmother spotted him and immediately knew that there was something wrong.

"There was a crusade going on at the church below the house and she encouraged me to go there. But I did not see the sense of me going there at the time. Eventually, I saw some young ladies from the district going to the church; so I saw it as a good reason to go to the church then," said Smickle.

He noted that he went that night with intention to disturb the service and to have it end early. He added that while the service was in progress, he and the late reggae artiste Garnet Silk, who was known as 'Bimbo' at the time, and a few other fellows were on the outside mocking the preacher.

Smickle said just as the preacher was about to close his sermon, he went to the door of the church and he heard the preacher ask a question.

"He asked ... 'If you were living in the time of Christ and everybody was crying out 'crucify him'; and you were standing there, what would you say? So I said within myself that I would say save that man because he is a good man," said Smickle.

The walk to the altar

He said the pastor repeated the question and he repeated the answer to himself. He said the preacher further said that those persons who were saying 'away with Christ' should not come to the altar. However, Smickle said the preacher also stated that if they were saying that Jesus is a good man then they should come.

"Immediately, I walked towards the altar, and by that time all my friends ran towards the windows and the door of the church and started to shout, 'him get save, him get save', him a go altar go get save'. And I decided to turn back and walk out of the church. Then I heard the preacher said that they can laugh you into Hell but they cannot laugh you out," said the church leader.

Smickle said in no time he went to the altar but never made a decision to follow Christ that night. He said when the preacher asked him for his name he gave him a friend's name.

He said that when he went outside he encountered that friend and told him that he had given the pastor his name and that he was the one that got saved.

"The next day when the church people went visiting they went to his house, because it was his name there in the book. That night I could not sleep because I sat up for about four hours thinking about what my plans were, and the whole matter of serving God," explained Smickle.

Smickle, who had wasted his time while attending school and was involved in several fights, said the following night he went back to the crusade and went straight to the altar and surrendered his life to the Lord. He said since that night life for him as a Christian has been great.

Smickle, who has served as a deacon, elder and now as a pastor said four years after leaving Spaldings High School he enrolled in a bible college. Since leaving college, he has served as pastor at an apostolic church at banks in Clarendon and as pastor at the Richmond and Marlborough Gospel Assembly churches in St Mary.

The pastor, who is married to Everine and is the father of two daughters, Kishaw and Karissa, loves what he does for Christ, and stressed that he would never swap it for anything else in this life.

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