TRIBUTE TO MY BROTHER STEPHEN GITTENS
I am greatly honoured to offer these few words in tribute to my very dear brother and true friend Stephen Gittens, but I am deeply saddened by the circumstances in which I am doing so.
For some days after learning of Stephen’s passing, I struggled in equal measure with shock and disbelief. When finally I accepted the fact, my first thought was that he and my wife Tranceita must be having a grand reunion of friends in the heavenly realm, for they shared a consuming passion for the things of God.
Stephen was the product of a godly father and a deeply spiritual mother, Ira Louise, both of whom must certainly be ecstatic at being reunited with their son, notwithstanding that we temporarily mourn here below. Mom Gittens was a saint to whom prayer and the study and sharing of God’s Word came as naturally as breathing, and Stephen was steeped to the gills in that noble triumvirate.
Reared with the likes of Stewart Russell, Dr. Irvine Branker and Winston Moore in the then-Pilgrim Holiness Church in which I also grew up, Stephen, with his siblings and parents drank deeply from the anointed preaching of such Gospel giants as Reverend Colin West and Superintendent I. M. Wickham, Dr. A. Wingrove Taylor and Reverend Hamilton Taitt, all of whom are, like him, in God’s heavenly presence today.
Well do I recall Stephen’s relating how, unable to land a job after leaving secondary school, every day for two years he spent hours upon hours doing nothing else but studying God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation, together with praying and fasting: in these he was truly Ira Gittens’s child, and it does no violence to the facts when one avers that Stephen, like Saint Paul, was taught by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
The cumulative effect of this exposure to the Holy Spirit’s influence was, predictably, the pastor, preacher, teacher, leader, husband, father, faithful friend, family and marriage counsellor, and, above all, evangelist and mighty warrior for Christ whom the Devil hated and God’s children loved here at home and wherever else his ministry took him.
Stephen lived for Christ and, like that early Spirit-filled evangelist after whom his parents so wisely named him, transitioned into heaven as he had lived on earth: in the midst of his earthly labours for Christ, he was called away by Christ to be with Christ.
If, according to Proverbs 11:30, “He who wins souls is wise”, then Stephen was one of the wisest in that company of the wise: soul-winning was his passion; tearing down Satan’s strongholds his specialty.
I am grateful that God allowed me to be a part of his endeavours in the earlier years of his ministry, both in accompanying him about the Island and in wreaking havoc on the purveyors of certain destructive doctrines: I am sure we all know whom I am talking about.
But Stephen was wise in material matters as well. God led him to a good and godly lady, and I am very pleased to say that I strongly encouraged him to make that lovely lady his loving wife — which he most sensibly did.
One never spent a dull moment with Stephen; he exuded energy and enthusiasm, good humour and sheer joie de vivre wherever he went; above all, his vibrant love for God and his fellowman.
To his beloved widow Laura Cecilia, his son Ramon Stephen Alexander, his siblings, family, friends and associates, I offer my sincerest condolences.
May we so live that we will one day be reunited with him in Christ’s heavenly presence.
Alfred King
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
TRIBUTE TO MY BROTHER STEPHEN GITTENS
I am greatly honoured to offer these few words in tribute to my very dear brother and true friend Stephen Gittens, but I am deeply saddened by the circumstances in which I am doing so.
For some days after learning of Stephen’s passing, I struggled in equal measure with shock and disbelief. When finally I accepted the fact, my first thought was that he and my wife Tranceita must be having a grand reunion of friends in the heavenly realm, for they shared a consuming passion for the things of God.
Stephen was the product of a godly father and a deeply spiritual mother, Ira Louise, both of whom must certainly be ecstatic at being reunited with their son, notwithstanding that we temporarily mourn here below. Mom Gittens was a saint to whom prayer and the study and sharing of God’s Word came as naturally as breathing, and Stephen was steeped to the gills in that noble triumvirate.
Reared with the likes of Stewart Russell, Dr. Irvine Branker and Winston Moore in the then-Pilgrim Holiness Church in which I also grew up, Stephen, with his siblings and parents drank deeply from the anointed preaching of such Gospel giants as Reverend Colin West and Superintendent I. M. Wickham, Dr. A. Wingrove Taylor and Reverend Hamilton Taitt, all of whom are, like him, in God’s heavenly presence today.
Well do I recall Stephen’s relating how, unable to land a job after leaving secondary school, every day for two years he spent hours upon hours doing nothing else but studying God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation, together with praying and fasting: in these he was truly Ira Gittens’s child, and it does no violence to the facts when one avers that Stephen, like Saint Paul, was taught by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
The cumulative effect of this exposure to the Holy Spirit’s influence was, predictably, the pastor, preacher, teacher, leader, husband, father, faithful friend, family and marriage counsellor, and, above all, evangelist and mighty warrior for Christ whom the Devil hated and God’s children loved here at home and wherever else his ministry took him.
Stephen lived for Christ and, like that early Spirit-filled evangelist after whom his parents so wisely named him, transitioned into heaven as he had lived on earth: in the midst of his earthly labours for Christ, he was called away by Christ to be with Christ.
If, according to Proverbs 11:30, “He who wins souls is wise”, then Stephen was one of the wisest in that company of the wise: soul-winning was his passion; tearing down Satan’s strongholds his specialty.
I am grateful that God allowed me to be a part of his endeavours in the earlier years of his ministry, both in accompanying him about the Island and in wreaking havoc on the purveyors of certain destructive doctrines: I am sure we all know whom I am talking about.
But Stephen was wise in material matters as well. God led him to a good and godly lady, and I am very pleased to say that I strongly encouraged him to make that lovely lady his loving wife — which he most sensibly did.
One never spent a dull moment with Stephen; he exuded energy and enthusiasm, good humour and sheer joie de vivre wherever he went; above all, his vibrant love for God and his fellowman.
To his beloved widow Laura Cecilia, his son Ramon Stephen Alexander, his siblings, family, friends and associates, I offer my sincerest condolences.
May we so live that we will one day be reunited with him in Christ’s heavenly presence.
Alfred King
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
