PASTOR PERCIVAL SLUSHER

Elizabeth Pridgeon

Last week, Belize said goodbye to a truly remarkable nation builder: Pastor Percival Slusher, who departed this life on Sunday, 14^th February 2010, aged eighty-two years old.  Pastor “Percy” was husband to adoring wife, Guillermina (nee Baizar), father to fourteen children (eleven of whom survive him), grandfather to 34, great-grandfather to 6, leader to hundreds, more likely thousands of Evangelical followers, and an exemplary role model to every Belizean who had the privilege of knowing him.

Few would believe that Pastor Slusher’s home had not always been in Belize, for he was known as a patriotic Belizean.  However, the Pastor’s early roots lay in Honduras, where he remained until tragedy befell him at the tender age of sixteen, when his mother died (his father having abandoned the family when he was still nursing).  And so it was all change for the young Percival, who headed to Belize to find support from distant family members in Stann Creek.  However, unaccustomed to Belizean life, and struggling to find a job, Percival soon moved northwards to accept the first employment opportunity he was granted, at Salt Creek Estate on the (now Old) Northern Highway.

In late 1951, as though a symbol that his end of suffering had come, Percival met his future wife, Guillermina, who later became the ‘rock’ of stability that would hold the family together when Percival found his calling preaching the Word of God, a calling which frequently took him away from home for long stints at a time.   By 1959, Percival’s whole outlook on life – and his entire future – was changed forever when he met Teacher and Pastor Ed Blomberg and his wife, who had recently established the New Hope School at Boston Village.  The Slusher couple were both baptised in the Northern River near New Hope, joining the family of the Gospel Missionary Union (which later became the Union Evangelical Churches of Belize – UECB).  As the couple’s family grew, so too did Percival’s role at New Hope, and having started as a menial labourer, willing to undertake any job, be it chopping the yard or running errands for the Church’s leaders, he slowly grew to be one of the most trusted workers on site.  By the late 1960s, he enrolled in Bible School and by the 1970s he was officiated in his new capacity as Pastor.  His first Ministry covered the parish at New Hope and Maskall, after which he was promptly relocated to the Stann Creek district.  And so the whole family moved to Stann Creek, and just as they had completed building a house and settling into their new ‘home’, Pastor Percival felt a calling to Orange Walk.  And once again the family relocated, residing for a brief interim period at King’s College while they sourced accommodation in Orange Walk, and then being blessed with the donation of a house from an ardent admirer, Mr. Celestino Cawich.

And this ‘blessing’ was the first of many such events that would distinguish the life of this beloved Pastor, who it was often said found favour wherever he went.  His first undertaking in Orange Walk was preaching house to house to anyone who sought spiritual guidance or support.  Rapidly, his followers grew in number and he was able to create a makeshift church in a small house on Queen Victoria Avenue.  Then, the mission began its first great challenge: building the Orange Walk Bible Chapel.  All the while, Pastor Percy continued his missionary work, and travelled throughout the district’s villages preaching the Word of the Lord, returning home with stories of his adventures to tell his children: from sleeping in a stable in San Estevan, to navigating the Rio Hondo between San Roman and San Antonio in the hope of selling Bibles.  Soon afterwards, due to persecution suffered by his children in the regular schools, the mission dedicated its energies to creating a new, non-discriminatory educational establishment, Chapel School.

In the late 1970s, Pastor Percy chose to continue his studies of the Bible in Michigan, USA, but after six months his physical separation from his wife proved too much for the couple to contend with, and he returned to his family in Belize, never begrudging the personal sacrifice he made for the sake of his family.  In keeping with this kindly nature, his wife says she always considered him “another Job”, having saintly patience and an unwavering faith.

Sadly, in 2001, Reverend Percy suffered the first of many strokes, which left him partially disabled in his upper body.  Over the following nine years, his body was rippled with repeated strokes, and despite trips abroad to seek medical treatment, he was unable to reverse the downward spiral of deteriorating health.   On 14^th February 2010 his suffering ended and his family rejoice that he was at last taken by angels to the house of his Lord.

His extraordinary life – the life of a true Belizean nation builder – was celebrated by hundreds at Orange Walk Bible Chapel on Friday 19^th February, and the community of Orange Walk can only Praise the Lord that the town was blessed to be home to such a remarkable man for so many years of his life.

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