Shan and Tam... Sisters Breaking Barriers

  Leaving everything and everyone you know, love and you are familiar with after 25 years of your life is not an easy decision. Yet I, like many others, made that conscious and deliberate decision to leave my country of birth, Jamaica, and move to an unfamiliar country. Prior to this, I had only visited Canada once as a teenager. Some people are often puzzled as to why a person would choose to leave behind their family and friends, their home, job, and their independence and level of comfort for an unknown situation that could produce very negative results. However in the words of Jim Rohn, "If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." I had completed post-secondary studies, lived on my own and was working in management positions and excelling in my career, before moving to Canada.  “Why did you come?” is the first question I was asked when people heard my story.  The truth is, I came for many of the same reasons other people do.

  "Hello may I speak with Shanique?" "This is Shanique, may I ask who is speaking?" The person identified himself as a Seventh Day Adventist Pastor of a well-known church in Toronto. Imagine my  shock;  here I was in my Easter day service  not knowing why  he  was calling.  I wasn’t Adventist and had no intentions of leaving my church thus his call took me by surprise.  One week prior to this I had walked away from  a relationship where I had started  seeing  unhealthy signs. In this person’s desperate attempt to  reconcile,  he started reaching out to everyone for help . One  such  person was  a friend who attended an Adventist church with this associate pastor.  The pastor  explained  to me that  he  wanted to support this  individual  as  he  seemed devastated by my decision .  He  went on to state that he wanted to gain clarity  on the situation .  Needless to say, in speaking with  him  the lies that this person told at the beginning and throughout the relation