Pastor Jeffrey replies to a trenchant critic

Apr 05, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,
When I read the article that Mrs. Verian Mentis-Baker wrote, titled, WENDELL JEFFREY MASQUERADING FOR MAYOR, I was not at first impressed to respond for her article was riddled with falsities and innuendos. In her missive, written sometime in March this year, Mrs. Menace-Baker claimed that it was an exposure, containing “some very interesting FACTS ,” a dossier of sorts. It was meant to depict me as a lying, twisted, sleazy, crooked snake oil salesman. Rather than the Pastor, Author, Journalist, Criminologist, Prison Chaplain, father and husband that I am.
In her article Menace-Baker claimed that I “wanted to run the city of Georgetown” and that I was therefore vying as “a candidate for leadership of the nation’s capital” and that I was seeking to become the “man who would be Mayor.”  As I read the article I concluded that Mrs. Baker was either ill informed of my candidacy or she was deliberately trying to mislead her readers. I was running as an independent councilor and not as a Mayoral candidate.
She said that I was not a Criminologist nor Prison Chaplain and that I never worked with the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) and she knew that because, “(She) called. (And) The IDOC categorically denies Jeffery’s claims.” However, a simple search of my name (Wendell Jeffrey) in Youtube reveals a list of dozens of video clippings with me either teaching classes, or managing workshops, or conducting spiritual services in the Indiana Prison. This would be the first test to show that Baker was lying when she said she thoroughly investigated me. It is obvious that ‘Menace’-Baker never called anyone at the State Department. This alone proves that she is either a bender of the truth, or a very shallow researcher.
Be it known that I was never deported from the USA. Neither was I ever deported from any country in which I have lived or to which I have traveled. And while you might not be able to verify this information from the US Embassy; on whether or not I was deported, you can check with the Guyana Criminal Investigation Department (CID). They have a list of all deportees and the crimes for which they were deported. Your check would find that I was never deported from any country. Again this proves that ‘Menace’-Baker is very disingenuous.
As it relates to my being a Pastor here in Guyana, Baker says that she called, “the Seventh Day Adventist Conference, Georgetown to verify if Wendell Jeffrey was ever assigned the title Reverend or Pastor by their denomination.” She continues, “They have all confirmed that Wendell Jeffrey, even if we stick the initial ‘P’ in there, is not a Pastor, Minister or any Divinity official with the Seventh Day Adventist Church anywhere and any assertion by him that he is should be disregarded…”
Again, ‘Menace’-Baker proved to be a blatant bender of the truth. The records will reflect that on January 1, 2010, I was hired on as a Pastor of the Guyana Conference of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA). I served as the assistant to Dr. Hilton Garnett at the Central SDA Church, located at Church and Ornoque Streets, Georgetown, and I was responsible for the massive renovations that took place there during my tenure. (I am also a general contractor). The church building stands there, magnificently looking, as a direct testimony of my stewardship, talents and gifts. Mrs. ‘Menace’-Baker obviously did not speak to anyone at the Guyana Conference of SDA.
Further, it is commonsensical and elementary to know that a person does not have to be employed by an organization in order to be a pastor, much like a person does not have to be employed by an institution in order to be a doctor. Again this goes to the intellectual level and analytical prowess of Mrs. Baker.
After 18 years or volunteer work to rehabilitate prisoners, two books, my ministerial degree, the establishment of an international prisoner rehabilitation programme, dozens of research and articles, and my having travelled the world, the ‘Menace’, Baker  still thinks that I should not be allowed to function as a leader in my community. If Baker can be this vitriolic, unforgiving and malicious against someone with my proven caliber and qualifications, imagine for a moment what the ex-offender with fewer achievements would face from her and her kind.
And that’s why I work every day to provide a facility and programs for these guys because there are the Verian Mentis-Baker’s out there; who would never find it in their hardened hearts to give these guys a chance. In her summation Baker laments, “Whatever Wendell has been doing since his forced return to Guyana, finagling into areas he is neither equipped nor qualified for under the guise of service provision…” Editor, it would be informative to know that over the last 18 years, I have proven my abilities, qualifications and skills in the area of Prisoner Reentry and Rehabilitation. I challenge ‘Menace’-Baker to name for me one, single, person in Guyana with the kind of international exposure and credentials that I bring to the table. I challenge Baker to proffer up any individual who comes even close to replicating my documented body of work and the years of my service in this field.
I have been invited to Barbados, Suriname, Canada, and all across the USA, to consult with Governments, civil societies, churches and groups on how to reduce crime and recidivism. In 2015 I was invited by no less than the Inter-American Development Bank to discuss the concept of my programme for replication. Additionally, I am the most prolific and magnanimous writer on the topic of prison reform and prisoner rehabilitation, in Guyana; not only among my fellow clergymen but across the Country.  I dare ‘Menace”-Baker to challenge me on this point.
Pastor Wendell Jeffrey
Practical Christianity Ministries

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