Reference was made in the piece above about how I met up with Marlon K. Allers during his fleeting visit to Bermuda for the Christmas holiday. Marlon is the award-winning, hard-working pastor of Lookout Valley Church of God in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

He has gone through some tremendous transitions since we last saw him some 30 years ago. Then he was a heavily dreadlocked Rastafarian with a demeanour that easily commanded respect in his Court Street bailiwick among contemporaries 'sitting on walls' during lapses in their casual jobs.

Firstly was his conversion at the Church of God, Hamilton in 1977. He became passionately involved in various auxiliaries of the church with a focus on the ministry. He served one term as president of the Men's Fellowship, and as a member of the church's hospital and prison ministry teams, became a radio speaker and an Island Evangelist as well as interim pastor of the Manchester Street Church of God in Somerset.

He explained how in 1978 he married the former Brenda Joy Richards. They are now parents of three sons ¿ Jesse, Jonathan and Julian ¿ all of whom are actively involved in his church work in Tennessee.

Marlon and his young family left Bermuda in 1989 so that he could further his biblical studies at Lee College, which is now Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. In May 1994, he graduated with a degree in biblical education, having earned a clutch of accolades, including the Zeno Tharp Award (named after a president of Lee), given to those deemed to be the most likely to have a profound impact in the Church of God.

Ordained as a minister in the Church of God in 1993, he worked as an associate at various churches in the US, preaching widely from Washington state and Oregon to Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky.

Rev. Allers said: "Nowadays, Sunday mornings have changed somewhat for me. As a Rastafarian teen, expelled from school, I invariably found myself slumped on a wall at the back of town, nursing a bottle of beer and a cigarette and going nowhere fast.

"Nowadays, I take a leisurely hour-long drive from my home in scenic Cleveland to the Lookout Valley Church of God, in Chattanooga. And I no longer wear dreadlocks but a clerical collar as befits the local pastor.

"It was in February of 1997 that I accepted the pastorate position at a small church in Chattanooga. It is truly amazing how the Lord can take a life that was violated, damaged and wounded and completely lift them from a horrible pit, and place their feet on a solid rock," he testified.

In June of last year Marlon graduated with honours from the Church of God Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, with a Master of Divinity degree. He is now enrolled in a PhD programme at the University of Wales in Bangor at its Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies.

He said his focus would be in Pentecostal Ecclesiology around the five-fold gospel.

Marlon was accompanied on his Bermuda visit by his wife and sons. He said he thanked God for his grace, and for his wife Brenda's painstakingly support of him every step of the way.

His heart was also full of thanks for many others, including his mother, Sheila Furbert, his sister Michele Mallory, his father Kenneth Mills and his wife Mrs. Marlene Mills, as well as Rev. and Mrs. O'Brian Cartwright, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Lister, sister-in-law Nelda Richards, the leaders and members of the New Testament Church of God, Shekinah Worship Centre and numerous others.

Before heading back to his charge in Tennessee, Marlon said he wanted to encourage and challenge the young people of Bermuda to maximise their potential.

"Please stay off the (US) stop list. Don't allow anyone to limit you, and to determine in your heart that you will be who God designed you to be. You can make it. I am a witness," he declared.

Photos show: Marion K. Allers with his wife of 31 years, the former Brenda Richards, and Marlon (right) graduating in June 2007 with honours from the Church of God Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, with a Master of Divinity degree