aga.colemusiq.org

Celebration of the life of

ALBERT T. KARRAM

1913 February 19 - 2002 September 6

1:00 p.m.

Saturday, 2002 September 14

Karram-Speid Auditorium

79 Constant Spring Road
Kingston 10, Jamaica WI.




ASSOCIATED GOSPEL ASSEMBLIES

Albert Karram in his service to education and schools, teachers and students, did so as a member and leader in the Associated Gospel Assemblies. The schools were for over forty years, his ministry to God for and through the church.

Albert Karram began with the AGA before it was what is has become today. Little did he know that those meetings he attended with his parents in a garage on Shortwood Road when he had less years than toes, would become a denomination of twenty-eight churches in Jamaica with six daughter churches in the USA and England. Little did he know as a boy when the meetings came to reside in his own home on Constant Spring Road, that so much of his life and service would be located on Constant Spring Road and its Dunrobin perpendicular. Incidentally, Rehoboth our mother church, got its name from the Bible, through the Karrams, for that is the name they gave their eight-acre property on Constant Spring Road that they bought in 1922. "Karram Church" as many called it became formally Rehoboth Mission.

Little did he know when he gave his life, in November 1925, as a twelve year old stripling, that God would make of him a giant of a leader in His church. For eighty years, the life of our church can be traced in Albert Karram; and the life of Albert Karram can be traced in our church.

His first formal role of leadership came in May 1946 when he became an Elder. When the AGA was registered through the 29th Act of Vesting by Parliament in 1959, his name as treasurer, stood with two others who are both here: Elder Stanley his younger brother, and Pastor Henry White, his close associate and working partner, as officers of the small group of churches.

He never sought one position, never sought office, but pastored four of our churches, influenced all of our churches, and was on the Executive Board of the denomination actively for forty years, serving several times as Chairman. His influence did not come from his eloquence. No! He is not known for being an orator. Rather his tremendous influence in the AGA came from the evidence of God working in his life so sweetly, even silently, but overwhelmingly and completely so much so that his possessions belonged not to himself, but to God and God's church, and God's mission through him. So he spent little on himself, very little on himself--can I say it? too little on himself--so that he could spend much for God and God's work.

He was given to giving. But he didn't give just money. No! He gave whenever there was a need, and many needs went beyond money. So he gave his time, his life.

Bethel on St. Joseph's Road had a need, and in the mid 19401s he began a twenty-year service of the pastoral need there, much of that time shared with his cousin Joe.

Light of Life in Trench Town had a need, and he helped to shepherd that flock amid prevailing economic and social conditions that would cause hearts of lesser mettle to fail.

Hope had a need, and he responded to that uptown setting in his same humble style.

Emmanuel had a need, and he stepped up to the wicket and stayed at the crease for the few years necessary to find another pastor.

He was the first one, through his Chairman's Report of 1973, to call for evaluation of our denomination, and how we were fulfilling or failing to fulfill our mission. He was the first one ready to chop the yard at Dunrobin Avenue when these premises were acquired, and were to be used as Head Office. He was the first one to jump at the opportunity of Caribbean Missions to our sister Island Haiti, going there to help establish a work. In many ways, where there was a need, he was the first one.

And for some churches, when there was a need, he was the first one called on, often to the chagrin of the denomination. Sometimes we felt that he was too accessible, and not too discerning of the presentations of need.

Today, we, the Associated Gospel Assemblies, pay tribute to this servant of the church who had major funding that we are aware of in these churches: Rehoboth, Bethel, Emmanuel, Hope, Light of Life, Duhaney Park, Lyndhurst, Arlene Gardens, Portmore, Lilyfield, Spring Village, churches in Clarendon, Manchester and St. Mary, and some of our overseas churches.

Today, we pay tribute to his service to our churches, and the wider community of Christians through: Back to the Bible (as Chairman), Gideons International, Christian Literature Crusade (funding), Source of Light, Jamaica Child Evangelism, Jamaica Theological Seminary (funding), Christian Enterprises (a philanthropic entity he founded and capitalized), Curtis Cole Foundation, Jamaica Youth For Christ, Family Life Ministries.

Today, we pay tribute to a man who had no academic letters behind his name, but through our denomination was lettered by the Government of Jamaica for his contribution to education, instrumented in five schools that he served directly, and several others that have school houses named in his honour. His real purpose for schools, by the way, in a 1987 interview in which he said"I realized that schools can be a tremendous blessing undertaken the right way. With schools you can have the children five days per week; to love, talk to, be with. . .become like brothers and sisters. Teachers should be Christians. . .and [schools] become missionary operations; [the] greatest missionary operation of the church. Children would be saved and then become missionaries in the wider world. . .done as it should be done. . . That was the purpose of schools"

We pay tribute on behalf of many pastors, teachers, church members, friends, beneficiaries who would have gladly said a public word of thanks, for unspoken, unsung, and even unknown generosity. His generosity came about from the Lord in the same way his resources did. He asked for money to be used in stewardship for God's glory and received same.

We pay tribute to a man who was so committed to God, and the teaching he received in the church, that though his early ambition was to do medicine, Stanley Harris who pastored the early flock in his home, and under whose preaching he came to know the Lord taught Divine Healing only as doctrine, so he decided on architecture.

And we all know now that he did become an architect--well not in the traditional sense, because he never got training--but he has been architect and builder of schools and churches; and they bear his trademarks in design: simple and functional. Nothing more.

We pay tribute as a denomination to a giant in our denomination, although he was staunchly against becoming a denomination and almost left the group because of the decision to formalize such. He thought we should just be brothers and sisters loving one another.

And when my father died in 1988, he told me how deeply he missed him. I didn't hear him say "I love him" but he did love him. They were more than workers together; they were friends. Love was expressed in the mutual respect, mutual concern, and spirit-kindredness they shared. And now they are together. . .with Jesus.

I return in closing to where I started. Little did he know what would become of his life.

He never knew ahead of time

Nor did he run ahead of time

But he rather followed in time

Each beat of the Master Conductor of his life

Who after great service said

"No more time. . .you've done well

and done enough. Time for rest, for eternity, for me.



Elder and pastor, friend and benefactor, architect and builder, shaper and influencer, leader and servant, Albert Temeir Karram, the people of the AGA in Jamaica, the United States, and England, the Executive Board, and President Rev. Peter Garth, Elder Statesman Henry White, my immediate and extended family, pay tribute to you today.