#TurksandCaicos, May 11, 2018 – Providenciales – Community Fellowship Centre senior pastor, Rev. Bradley Handfield has seen a fervent interest in a basic standard re-ignited this year, and in addition to establishing a Book Club at his church, he has been making investments into his own personal development.

“This year started out with me reading a lot because we had the hurricane in September and during that time I had a lot of time to think and to read and I started reading and listening to Les Brown on YouTube and on Facebook.  I was extremely motivated by what I heard from him through his videos and his presentations and I found out that he was having this training in Deerfield Beach in April and I said to myself, I am not going to let this miss me.  Les Brown is the world’s #1 Motivational Speaker and I know that he has a lot of knowledge, wisdom and insight and sheer experience that he can share with those of us who are interesting in speaking to people and speaking into people’s lives and motivating people.”

Reverend Handfield, who is a professional teacher and the 16-year pastor of Community Fellowship Centre, an Assemblies of God church in Providenciales talked about his recent trip to Florida where the focus for him was on becoming a better speaker.

“The conference was a training seminar and it was focused on improving your speaking ability.  I speak every week to an audience, but I have this desire to continue learning as long as I am alive and I want to become better at whatever it is that I am doing.  And since I do speak to people every week, I want to enhance the way that I speak to people so that I am being most effective at reaching them and touching them and at meeting their needs.”

Rev. Handfield is impressed and inspired by the story of Les Brown.  A man born with his twin in a derelict building in Miami, Florida and abandoned by his birth mother.  A man who had limited prospects but who at the age of 73-years old, is now ranked in the Top 10, in fact at No. 2 of the Top 10 Global list of Motivational Speakers.  Brown is a former disc jockey, a former politician, an author and an Emmy Award winning broadcaster.  Les Brown is ultra-effective at encouraging people to pursue and possess their dreams; often using his life as a reference point.

“I know what my purpose is because my purpose was revealed when I was three-years-old, it was said clearly that my life was spared when I was about to die from pneumonia.  God miraculously healed me and prophesied over my life before healing me, saying this child would not die but live to declare the works of the Lord.  And so I know that speaking is what I live for.  God saved my life so that I could declare…”

And declare is what Bradley Handfield of North Caicos does, emphatically. The pastor is known for his frank commentary on issues ranging from politics to education to the Word of God, cultural folklore and personal development on the national and regional level.  Rev. Handfield has organized leadership conferences featuring among others, world renowned author and speaker, the late Dr. Myles Munroe.

The Pastor is also an author who recently told a children’s story in a book titled, Auntie Fannie, Mattie and the Talking Potatoes.

“One of the things I walked away from this conference is the understanding of two-dimensional story telling and three-dimensional story telling.  When I heard of about three-dimensional story telling, my ears pricked because I wanted to know what do you really mean and how much deeper can you go in story-telling.  So I learned that we can tell stories where we share a particular incident that has happened to us or someone else, it could even be a story that we have heard and we can just share it and it enhances our speech because we are able to put into the story telling, the feeling of individual at the time of the incident,” Rev. Bradley continued, “the audience can actually feel as if they are a part of that event that has already happened and actually feel those emotions as you say them and that was demonstrated (at the conference) and that was real, really powerful and really impactful.

So far for 2018, teachers of the Community Christian Academy and others have benefited from a special session to enhance teacher methodology under the guidance of husband and wife team, Murriell and Bob McCulley.  Rev. Bradley, as he often called, said “there is more to come.”

In the meantime, Pastor Bradley is hoping that his thirst for self-enhancement will be contagious and admits that while he does not expect everyone to be able to attend conferences abroad, he does pray and hope that residents will make the more financially manageable decision to invest in quality books and read them.

“So whether I am in church speaking on the Gospel of Jesus Christ or I am at some kind of seminar teaching people about leadership or something else that I have learned about in my lifetime, I am still declaring the works of the Lord.  Because whatever I am able to learn or impart is all about what God has done and what God is doing for us in the world.”