Reverend Vernon Lowe stepped down from the pulpit ten years ago.

Tomorrow morning, the 88-year-old is returning to his much-beloved post.

Rev Dr Lowe will be the special guest preacher at Vernon Temple AME’s service. He’s hoping his message will inspire believers and non-believers alike.

“I want to encourage folks and share with them the importance of serving God daily and allowing Him to direct them all their life,” he said.

“I hope I can encourage people and also pray that someone would give their life to Christ — after all that’s the purpose of the ministry.”

Rev Dr Lowe first felt called by God to enter a life of ministry in the 1950s.

His father, William, died when he was a young child. His mother, Hattie, raised him as a Christian.

His teachers were also strong believers and advocated for him to learn about God.

Once he got to a “certain age”, however, he was plagued with questions about his faith.

“I got off the Island and went to play golf,” Rev Dr Lowe said. “I was a golfer and had plans of becoming a professional, but it got to the point where I had forgotten about the simplicity of the doctrine of the AME Church, where I was raised, so I came on back to Bermuda.

“My inspiration to get into the ministry came from one of the pastors I met here. He was a young man, maybe 30 years old, and I was so astounded by his education and well-rounded training that it inspired me to want to come back and be a part of the church.”

Soon after, Rev Dr Lowe heard God direct him to make another move — this time to the United States.

He had only recently married his wife, Eunice, and their family was settling down into their first home. Still, he knew he had to act.

“I was blessed to have God speak to me personally,” Rev Dr Lowe explained. “I don’t think too many people can say that, but on that day I was all by myself and I clearly heard someone say, ‘Vernon, here’s what you need to do’. The voice was so distinct and authentic.

“God said ‘I need you to sell your home’. It was the most crazy thing because I had just bought it, but He said He wanted me to settle in the United States and settle down in ministry over there. That was in 1953.”

The move was initially a source of contention between him and his wife. She didn’t want to leave and he was prepared to go without her in obedience to God.

Two months later Mrs Lowe changed her mind and was at her husband’s side.

He never regretted the decision.

Rev Dr Lowe started as an associate pastor at Allen AME Church in Jamaica, Queens, in 1958.

He went on to pastor at Mt Pleasant AME Church, Trinity AME and Bethel AME in Huntington, Long Island, before rising to the rank of Presiding Elder in four New York state districts.

Today his youngest son, Rev Robert Lowe, is the leader of Mt Moriah AME Church in Cambria Heights in Queens, New York.

“My son is now a pastor of a church with 8,000 members, so that’s why I believe God wanted me to leave the Island and make preparations for His name in the US,” he said. “Just last year on Easter Sunday, 39 people came to Christ at my son’s church. Usually people just come out on that day to show off their attire and special hats. There are often a lot of people in the church who aren’t really Christians. They are churchgoers.

“But the dynamics of my son’s preaching caused them to said ‘yes’ and give their lives to Christ.”

Those instances reassure him he did the right thing.

“If I didn’t listen to God, I would have been responsible for the lives of those people who would have never been saved,” he explained.

Dr Rev Lowe is also father to Joy Laverne Blair and Dennis and Michael.

He enjoyed 63 years of marriage with his wife, before she passed away in 2012.

All in all, he counts himself blessed to have been able to serve in God’s Kingdom.

“I am where I am today because I was obedient,” he said. “Even though we were a young couple and my wife didn’t feel called at first she came around.

“Shortly thereafter my wife gave her life to Christ as well. It was a special moment for us because I feel there’s a difference between a churchgoer and a Christian. Some people sit in the church but never really make that commitment with their heart.

“In the end I feel that life is quite simple. You just trust God to give us the direction and then go out and become His feet.”