Leroy Joiles, who pastors the GCI congregation in Christian Penn, Jamaica, says, “Perhaps the most rewarding thing about being a pastor is bringing a person to Christ.”

Leroy and his wife, Diane, “a lady who has a heart of gold,” have been married for 16 years. “We have three wonderful children: April, Nicholas and Justin. Another son of mine was killed four years ago, just after his 30th birthday. His son was three months old when he died.”

Leroy grew up and went to school in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital city, but he spent the first few years of his life in a rural district in the Parish of St Ann, living with his father’s parents. “My mother brought me to the country to live with my grandparents because she had decided to migrate to England to join my father who himself had migrated several months earlier.” As a result, Leroy says he grew up without a lot of parental guidance or supervision.

“Both my parents were living in England and my grandparents died when I was young. Even before the death of my grandparents I was placed in situations similar to that of a foster home. I did not have good health while living at my grandparents’ home due to what now seems to have been an allergic reaction to something in the area. Whenever I got sick I would be sent to live with a relative until I got better. As a result, I have lived with most of my aunts and uncles for short periods of time. I must emphasize that it is not because I was a rude child that I had to keep going from house to house. In some cases it was due to a lack of resources on the part of the aunt or the uncle.”

Leroy didn’t meet his mother until he was 15 years old and didn’t meet his father until he was 39 years old. “What I have learned from my situation is this: Despite the difficulties that a person may have to live through from time to time, God is still able to use your life to achieve whatever purpose he wants to achieve through you. I had no idea that I would be doing what I am doing today. I did not plan it and I never saw it coming. However, I firmly believe that God directed the course of events in my life that resulted in being where I am now. It is all a part of his doing.”

God’s purposes were achieved time and again in Leroy’s life. He was drawn to WCG in the late 70s by listening to The World Tomorrow program. “I learned about the broadcast by a cousin who came to my house and told me about this man (Herbert W. Armstrong) who was saying some interesting things about world events and the military might, and achievements of some the world’s superpowers. Interestingly, my cousin was not a part of the Church, and to the best of my knowledge he showed no further interest in The World Tomorrow broadcast from that day he told me about it.”

Leroy claims he had no interest in church, but he found the broadcast to be informative and enlightening. “That was the start of a series of events that God would use over the ensuing years to get my attention.”

In 1981, Leroy was invited to attend a Plain Truth meeting. Afterwards he was invited to attend a Wednesday evening Bible Study. “After attending a few meetings, I was invited to church and I have been attending since. I was baptized in January 1983.”

Leroy became part of the pastoral team in Christian Penn in September 2000 when the pastor was laid off. It was a tough transition. “My most memorable moment is the day I first stepped into the position as a part of a pastoral team whose role was to provide leadership to a congregation that was bitterly divided because their pastor had just been laid off and he was being replaced with persons whom some of the congregation believed had conspired to get rid of their pastor. The ensuing weeks and months were tedious as we tried to serve people some of whom we knew did not trust us.”

The team worked together for a few years until Leroy was asked to pastor the congregation. He initially struggled with this role. “I don’t care much about being in the spotlight. As a matter of fact I prefer not to be. It took me a long time to accept that I was a pastor. I began to accept the role when I thought about what happened to Jonah when he tried to run away from doing what God wanted him to do. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to find myself in any situation that even remotely resembled what he went through; but there was still the thought – me a pastor, no way.”

Leroy tries to pastor in the way that GCI leadership leads the denomination. “I enjoy being part of this fellowship because the leadership is made up of people who are humble, friendly and who identify with people at the grass roots. Embodying Jesus’ servant leadership, they are simple people who do not set themselves up as demigods who lord it over those they are supposed to serve. This makes it possible for me to feel at home in our fellowship.”

Concerning the church in Christian Penn, Leroy says that “God has set for us a specific task, that when accomplished, will have a tremendous, far-reaching impact on the lives of many who live and work in the community. It is my passion to lead the church so that we can accomplish this task.”

Leroy says he feels closest to God when engaged in long and intense prayer. He prays a lot for Jamaica and the work God has called the pastors in Jamaica to do. “Being a pastor in Jamaica can be bittersweet. There are times when things are good and times when things are not so good. Being a GCI pastor is challenging because our denomination has been through significant doctrinal and structural changes. Despite the ups and downs, God has been good to us and I strongly believe that our congregations here in Jamaica have better days ahead.”