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Pastor Donnie McClurkin’s latest Periscope video titled “Jesus Loves You” is touching.
The GRAMMY® Award-winning gospel artist and Freeport, NY-based pastor detailed his recent
missions trip to Jamaica.
What he experienced there was both heartbreaking and beautiful.
The 56-year-old “We Fall Down” singer, along with other pastors, medical staff and volunteers,
shared the gospel—not just in word, but also in deed—with the poor, abandoned and forgotten.
At St. Ann Infirmary in Ocho Rios, nurses and volunteers from McClurkin’s church, Perfecting Faith
Church, as well as Faith Care staff, lent a hand.
“There are so many [residents] and all of them have been left and destitute and the infirmary cares
for them,” said McClurkin.
“They have no family. Some of them are grossly deformed. Some are mentally retarded. All of them
are in a bad state, urinating and defecating on themselves and just [in] need of love,” he continued.
“And the staff there works very hard, but there’s only a little they can do. So we brought in supplies,
some medical supplies and we came in and washed them down and changed linens, and I gave some
haircuts and just loved on the people."
To help the less fortunate in Port Maria, McClurkin’s church reportedly shipped a boat carrying more
than $100,000 worth of medical supplies, school supplies, toiletries and clothing. They distributed the
items at St. Mary Parish, where the over-worked, under-staffed infirmary does the best it can.
According to McClurkin, there are 98 residents, only three matrons and no washing machine. So the
trio spends hours washing all the clothes and bedding for 98 residents with only a scrub board and a
scrub brush.
Linens are hung in the backyard to dry.
While there, McClurkin and the crew assisted with the feeding, medical, supplies and care.
“We didn’t want to leave the infirmaries,” said McClurkin, though he admits “It was off-setting when we
got there.”
He explained that it was a lot to take upon first encountering “the smells, the sights and the
deformities of the people and the gross mental, and physical state.”
Initially, he said, it was “turning your stomach. But after you stayed there for a half hour working, you
just start to fall in love with the residents.”
One resident named Ricardo, who was around 21 years old, was tied to a wheelchair. According to
McClurkin, he was screaming and verbalizing something the American gospel musician could not
understand because it was spoken in very thick Patois (or Patwah)—which is Jamaican Creole, an
English-based creole language with West African influences spoken primarily in Jamaica.
Finally, McClurkin asked what the hysterical young man was saying.
“I’m not a cow,” was the translation. Ricardo didn’t want to be tied up and treated like livestock.
“He sat on the ground and was throwing a fit. And one of the sisters and myself, we sat down there
with him and we calmed him down and then, before you knew it, he was loving on us,” said McClurkin.
“He just kept saying, ‘Don’t go.’”
But McClurkin had to leave, despite how difficult it was.
“It was real moving, but our thing is we couldn’t let our emotions get the best of us. We had to bring
Jesus to the people. We had to bring the love of God in action,” he said.
In the middle of recounting some of the things he witnessed, McClurkin gave a quick lesson on what it
really means to be charitable.
“Charity is not just giving people stuff. Charity is love in action. People can hate folk and still give them
stuff. That’s not charity. People can hate people or not know people and give to an organization and
call it charitable,” he said.
“That’s not charity. Charity is when your love drives you to action, when your love drives you to give of
your own, when your love for people, and your love for life, and your love for Jesus causes you to
sacrifice and to bless other people because you love them.”
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