Jamaica Chinese Christian Church “God Increases – Beyond Our Expectation”
As a Chinese living in Jamaica, you may have wondered if there is a place that you could meet other Chinese in an inviting and quiet environment. You may think there is none, but we would like to introduce you to two places where you could come and worship and enjoy the company of other Chinese in Jamaica. One is in Montego Bay and the other is our church, The Jamaica Chinese Christian Church in Kingston.
All are welcome, whether you speak Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese or English, including children, and young people with activities geared for them.
Who are we, and how did we begin?
On Sunday, July 1st 1984, three families met together to worship in a home. After six months, the number gradually grew to 10 families at which point we began a Sunday school class to cater for the children of these families.
As we saw God’s blessing in sending more people to worship with us, in 1991 we
registered as a church. During this time, our numbers continued to increase and although we were still meeting in different homes, we outgrew these and began to seek a more permanent place to worship.
Further Growth
In 1992, we were given permission to move to the Sun Yat Sen Association on Trinidad Terrace in New Kingston. From there we continued to reach out to our Chinese community in various activities - our annual Easter camps, picnics, Christmas dinners, special evangelistic outreaches and teaching ministries. Visiting speakers and pastors from local and overseas churches served to help and build up a good and strong congregation. Our children’s ministries continued to grow and as we outgrew our present location once again, we knew it was time to be thinking about somewhere larger which we could call our own and become our permanent place of worship.
A Dream … and soon to be a reality
About ten years ago, we began a building fund and in faith, began to look for suitable property. God answered our prayers with a piece of property at 17 Dominica Drive, New Kingston. It is a safe and quiet environment in which to worship and to carry out our various activities.
More Space
As a growing church, we realized we needed more space until our church is built and in June 7, 2008 we moved to our present temporary location, Jamaica Theological Seminary on West Avenue.
We praise God for the move to the Jamaica Theological Seminary (JTS). We are thankful that at last, there is more space, both for the adults, young adults and children. It is a good move. JTS is located close to Oaklands Apartments where a large number of Chinese reside. It is our prayer that we will be able to reach out to them.
In God’s Time
Sunday, June 7th was a historic day for us. The ground breaking ceremony took place at our building site, Dominica Drive, New Kingston.
After much prayer and waiting upon the Lord, we decided to have Mr. Johnny Chuck to be our builder.
It was a wonderful occasion as we, with joy witnessed and participated in this ceremony.
Our brother Mr. Eli Ho, our long time advisor, preacher and friend was our guest speaker. We praise God that he was able to participate in this historic event.
In the will of the Lord, we should be in our own place of worship early next year.
Future plans
The entire church building will be around 13,500 sq. ft. It will comprise a car park in the basement, the ground floor sanctuary which can seat 250-300 people and a 2nd floor for Youth/Children’s ministries and recreation. There will also be a pastor’s and guest quarters and the church kitchen which will be called “Harry’s Kitchen”, in memory of our faithful deacon, Harry Wong whose vision of a church building to serve our Chinese community still lives on.
Our desire is to glorify God and we welcome you to worship with us on Sundays at West Avenue.
The following are the times of our services:
- 9:30 am – Adult worship – Cantonese, English (when there is an English speaker ( With translation into Cantonese, Mandarin) Junior church (children)
- 11:15 am – Sunday school – all ages
12:15 pm - 8:00 pm : Bible Study/Prayer Meeting – English ( a private home)
- 8:30 pm: Prayer Meeting (Cantonese) (a private home)
