It's a small church with approximately 70 members, of which 75 percent of the congregation is comprised of children between the ages of five and 17, and it's for that reason that stewardship is one of the most preached messages on a Sunday at River of Life Ministries on Carter Street. "My main thrust with my messages is that if you want something different, you have to do something different. I'm trying to teach my members to not allow negativity to influence their output, especially with so much negativity around us," said head pastor Reverend Kigthirm Saunders. "I'm trying to get them into a positive environment so that I can change their mindset. In fact, I have to deform them to transform them. When an adult's mind is set, it's hard to change, but a young person is vulnerable, which means you can easily cultivate their mind to get that message across." In the two-and-a-half years the church has been in existence, Rev. Saunders preaches to the members to learn to appreciate what God has given them, to be thankful for what they have received, and to reciprocate. He speaks to his congregation about when God gave talents to three men. To one he gave five talents, to another he gave two talents, and he gave one talent to a third man. The man with one talent hid his talent because he was afraid of his master, while the one with five talents didn't. His message to the members was to never hide their God-given talents. "By using what you have, you can gain more, and it develops into other areas of talent that you may not know you have. And by doing so, you develop into good stewards because instead of being complacent and laid-back and mumbling and grumbling, whatever little you have you use it and God can multiply it to make you successful." As far as the school-aged members of the congregation were concerned, he said their talent must be applied in the classroom. He told them they must make the grade, and offered encouragement to them. Last summer, the church awarded student members who had a 3.0 grade point average and higher. At that time, only two members were honored. But in the Christmas term, they had 12 students that had grade point averages higher than 3.0 and six that were just under. "We had a young man whose grade point average was 1.8, but by the Christmas his grade point average was 3.27, so it was sheer motivation. I try to tell them they have the ability to do well, but they just have to want to. But it's always a part of the message," said Reverend Saunders. If they are properly promoting stewardship, he said they would then all be good managers, good caretakers and would use their abilities to advance whatever is good for humanity and society. "Development, being positive, having a clear mind and focus, consistency, plus commitment can do anything," he said. And the message is coming from a pastor who said he ran from his calling for 21 years before heeding the warning signs that came his way - advice from fellow pastors telling him to do what the Lord has called him to do, and two life-threatening car accidents. In one accident in the United States, it took almost 45 minutes to remove Rev. Saunders from the vehicle he was trapped in. In another on the airport road, he escaped from a flattened cab with a collarbone fracture. At age 54, he said he should not be alive, but that he's happy to be, so that he can spread the Lord's message to the next generation. And he's doing just that at River of Life Ministries, where he said it's the environment that makes the people. "If you give them a positive environment, it nurtures them, helps them to develop and helps them to achieve their goal," he said.

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