GEORGE HENRY, STAR Writer

Twenty years as a Christian has brought on added responsibilities for Yonique Palmer-Sergeant. While other Christians are held to high standards, Palmer-Sergeant's bar is set even higher because she is the pastor's wife. However, for the woman who has been serving God since she was 13 years old, she loves the life she currently lives as she serves her Maker.

Palmer-Sergeant is married to Reverend Milton Sergeant, the pastor for the Church of God of Prophecy at Foga Road in May Pen. She is a hard worker for the Kingdom of God. She currently serves as praise and worship director and head of the pastor's aid committee for that congregation.

"Yonique was a God-fearing person prior to the start of my journey with Jesus Christ. There was nothing all exciting about my whole life before I got saved, because then I was still going to church. It was just the norm for me to go to church and then back home and nothing outside of the norm until I finally decided to give my life to God fully," explained the praise and worship director.

Though admitting that she never had the fullest knowledge about the way of the Lord at 13, Palmer-Sergeant said she knew a lot which made her aware that there was a God to be served. She said her parents, who were both Christians, showed her and her siblings that the way of the Lord was the right way.

"We had that instilled in us from a tender age. I did understand a lot as it relates to Christianity. I could differentiate between good and bad, what was right from what was wrong; and so I decided that the moment I could do those, then I should also be able to determine whether I want to get saved or remain the same," shared the pastor's wife.

She said her eldest brother passed away at a very tender age and she used his death as a reason to surrender her life to the Lord, since death has no respect for age.

"Looking into myself, I said that I could basically analyse life and know what is right from what is wrong, as well as understand a little about Heaven and Hell. So I made my decision fully, because I had the conviction, I felt the conviction at that tender age; and then I just followed on," said Palmer-Sergeant.

Unlike other persons who started their Christian walk with Jesus Christ at a tender age and experienced extreme challenging times, Palmer-Sergeant bragged that that was never the case with her. She said she never had much challenges during the early stages of her Christian journey.

Peer pressure

"I can recall going to primary school and would go up into the bushes to have prayer meetings with my friends. Sometimes when we got back for class, we were given a spanking by teachers. But that did not change us too much; soon we would be out again. But then as we grew older, there were different things coming on, such as peer pressure," shared the church leader.

She announced that most of her friends who got saved with her at the time backslid, but she was able to keep her focus despite a little pressure, especially when her friends would decide that they would not travel in any vehicle which was not playing certain types of music to their liking.

"I started to basically move all by myself; still encouraged them until most of them came back to Christ," said Palmer-Sergeant.

In dealing with her challenges as they came, the pastor's wife noted that she used the tools of prayer and fasting to conquer them. She added that she was aware that whenever she prayed and fasted, the devil would come at her nonetheless, especially because he wanted to test her mettle.

With this in mind, Palmer-Sergeant said she tried to stay away from certain surroundings and certain situations. She noted that she tried not to go to some of the places she was invited to in order to remain focused. She added that her parents, who were always praying for her, had a lot of confidence in her ability to live for the Lord; and so she was able to stand up for Jesus. She said most weekends she was out ministering in singing and so on.

Though her life as a pastor's wife is not challenging now, Palmer-Sergeant admitted that during her early days as a wife it was difficult because her husband was out preaching and had to go see persons who needed him for one reason or another.

"It did not take a long time for me to basically adapt to the whole situation and to understand his calling. I tried to be there with him as much as possible," confessed Palmer-Sergeant.

The pastor's wife's favourite Bible scripture is Proverbs 15:1. One of her favourite songs is The God of the mountain is the God in the valley.

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