Michelle Loubon

Mem­bers of the Je­sus the Light of This World Min­istries at the Heights of Gua­napo, Ari­ma, are invit­ing for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning to vis­it their church. Man­ning's spir­i­tu­al ad­vis­er Rev Ju­liana Pe­na, re­ferred to as the prophet­ess, is linked to the con­tentious con­struc­tion of the Light­house of the Lord Je­sus Christ church lo­cat­ed near to the Je­sus of the Light of This World Min­istries.

They al­so main­tain Man­ning was or­dained by God to lead T&T. They al­so feel there is a chance that Pe­na may have mis­guid­ed Man­ning in­to call­ing a pre­ma­ture elec­tion. A source said: "Now is a great time for him to vis­it the church...To be en­cour­aged." They feel he is suf­fer­ing from shock af­ter los­ing the gov­ern­ment to T&T's first fe­male Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bissses­sar. On the night of the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion, flanked by for­mer En­er­gy Min­is­ter Con­rad Enill and for­mer Health Min­is­ter Jer­ry Narace, Man­ning ap­peared ashen-faced when he said he ac­cept­ed full re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the par­ty's de­feat. The source added: "I looked at his face. He is suf­fer­ing from shock. He needs to know there are still peo­ple pray­ing for him. "He is still the best per­son to lead T&T. I wish to God he comes right back. The Lord is an­gry be­cause peo­ple put their ink against him."

Ju­liana Pen­aBefore and af­ter the elec­tion, ru­mours cir­cu­lat­ed that Pe­na had prompt­ed Man­ning to call an elec­tion. Some mem­bers of the con­gre­ga­tion felt there was some truth to the ru­mours. "Per­chance, Ju­liana may have led him astray...Now is a good time to come and vis­it us, just in case she led him astray," the source said. "Maybe he got the in­for­ma­tion from the prophet­ess." The source said Pe­na of­ten vis­its Africa. "Pe­na had a time when she came back from Africa and she said she wasn't sure she was hear­ing God's voice...She might have said things to him and led him astray," the source said. On the flip side, she said Man­ning's faith in the prophet­ess was not un­found­ed. "There was a time when he went to get an op­er­a­tion. He was get­ting high fever. He called her while she was in the ser­vice. She went in­to a room and she prayed for him. The fever broke. She came back and told us about it," the source added.

But the source said the "ul­ti­mate shock­er" would be if Man­ning thought she was speak­ing on be­half of the Lord and it wasn't so.

"That is a big shock. He might think she was speak­ing on be­half of the Lord and if she was not speak­ing from God, then he made the wrong de­ci­sion," the source said. Be­fore the May 24 elec­tion, in­sid­ers said Man­ning was ad­vised by some po­lit­i­cal ob­servers not to call the elec­tion, but he dis­missed them as har­bin­gers of bad news.

In 2007, mem­bers said, there was a rift with the Light­house of the Lord Je­sus Christ Min­istries and Pe­na took some mem­bers of the con­gre­ga­tion and left. The state-of-the-art church was orig­i­nal­ly be­ing built for the con­gre­ga­tion of the Je­sus the Light of This World Min­istries.

The source said: "The last time Pe­na was spot­ted was around Christ­mas 2009. She came to see how things were pro­gress­ing. She does not like all the talk about her. Right now, we don't know where she is. She likes to go to Africa." Ini­tial­ly, the source said, they claimed the build­ing for the Lord's work. "We marched around it sev­en times." But since the elec­tion, "No work is tak­ing place on the church." Be­fore, Chi­nese labour­ers were push­ing ahead its con­struc­tion, which was ini­tial­ly due for around Au­gust. The church had a word of ad­vice for Man­ning: "God is in your side. He will nev­er leave you or for­sake you. God's peo­ple are by your side, pray­ing for you. God knows best and he can turn things around. Go among peo­ple who will en­cour­age you. "Man­ning has to go easy. He can't take too much pres­sure. He could come and vis­it the church," added the source. An­oth­er source said Pe­na is be­lieved to be in Africa.