“Not Here to Be the Hope of Jamaica”: Donnie McClurkin’s Church Returns to Build Homes in Callaloo Mews

• Pastor Donnie McClurkin’s Perfecting Faith Church mission team returned to Jamaica in September 2024
• It is working with Food For The Poor on new homes for qualifying Callaloo Mews residents
• The first home handover was scheduled during the trip
• The team also took relief to farmers hit by Hurricane Beryl

American gospel star and pastor Donnie McClurkin was back in Jamaica from September 10 to 14, 2024, with his Perfecting Faith Church missions team. Our Today reported that the trip was a follow-up to the Callaloo Mews Improvement Project, which began at a symposium in June 2023.

Housing was at the centre of the visit. Working with Food For The Poor, the team was to oversee the building of new homes for qualifying residents of Callaloo Mews in West St Andrew. The first handover was scheduled during the trip. The mission partnered with Fellowship Tabernacle and the New Testament Church of God, along with the charity and the community.

The team also brought other help. Dental and medical volunteers were to run screenings at Callaloo Mews Basic School, at Newell High School in St Elizabeth, and at Jacob’s Ladder, a Mustard Seed Communities site in Moneague, St Ann. In St Elizabeth, the group planned to give seeds, plants and chickens to farmers whose livelihoods were damaged when Hurricane Beryl struck in July 2024.

McClurkin was careful about how he described his role. “I am not here to be the hope of Jamaica, but to link arms with you, my brothers and sisters, and to provide some encouragement,” he said. He called for government, charities and the private sector to work together under the banner of Christ’s love.

The project shows a model that is becoming common: a US congregation, local Jamaican churches and an established builder of charity homes working in one community over several years. For the diaspora and overseas churches, it suggests that lasting impact comes from a sustained commitment to a single place, not one-off visits. For communities like Callaloo Mews, the test will be whether new homes come with the land security and follow-through that make them permanent.

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