A Far Rockaway-based pastor has obtained one of many nation’s highest civilian honors instantly from the White Home.
Reverend Marie Berbick, a Jamaican-born pastor, motivational speaker, and life coach, was awarded the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in January by the administration of then-President Joe Biden.
The award, established by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, is the very best recognition a U.S. president can bestow on a civilian for his or her lifelong dedication to volunteer service. Recipients should have accomplished a minimum of 4,000 hours of service to their neighborhood or nation.
Reverend Berbick was honored for her dedication to public service by means of her ministry and her nonprofit group, SUPHER, which focuses on empowerment and help for underserved communities.
The award celebrates people throughout fields similar to faith, philanthropy, schooling, and politics who reveal an distinctive dedication to civic engagement.
The multi-faceted pastor spoke to QNS about her journey from her island nation to being acknowledged with one of many highest civilian honors on the White Home.
Berbick mentioned she was shocked when she obtained affirmation that she would obtain the very best service award. “ I used to be like, oh my God. That is superb. Based mostly on the truth that I’ve been in the US of America solely since 2018, she mentioned. To have the ability to do work that’s acknowledged at this degree inside that quick area of time was really, really an honor. I’m nonetheless processing it, to be sincere,” Berbick mentioned.
Berbick mentioned she felt overwhelmed with honor the second she obtained the award.
“ It was completely superb. I can’t clarify. I felt so honored to be in that room with women and men from the world over who’ve completed excellent work right here in the US and their very own international locations,” she mentioned.
Earlier than migrating to the US in 2018, Berbick and different girls in her church based a girls’s help group in Jamaica referred to as SUPHER (Sisters United by means of Prayer Therapeutic, Empowerment, and Restoration) in 2013. The objective of SUPHER is to help divorcees in want.
On the time, Berbick was a journalist on the Jamaica Observer, writing an recommendation column for girls in relationships.
“I used my column to empower girls who had been going by means of abusive conditions, girls who had been at a crossroads of their lives, girls who had gone by means of divorce,” Berbick mentioned. “So all of that collectively was placing collectively a neighborhood of ladies we started to serve. So, girls started to succeed in out for recommendation,” As the ladies continued to succeed in out for recommendation, Berbick realized that there was a necessity for sensible help, therefore the formation of SUPHER.
With among the girls dealing with life-threatening conditions being in abusive relationships, Berbick and SUPHER founders started to work to take away survivors from their houses.
“So we began that in Jamaica in 2013 when the lads weren’t at residence, we might go prepare with our little group,” Berbick defined.
“We had a group of men who had expertise both within the police power or some form of safety, and so they’d help in getting these girls away from these houses as soon as the lads weren’t there. So we name that initiative Save a Sister,” she mentioned. “Other than that, we additionally offered counseling recommendation to those girls concerning authorized issues.”
The providers expanded to supply meals, clothes, and different social providers for girls in Jamaica. When Berbick got here to the US, SUPHER continued, minus the necessity for extraction; as Berbick defined, the authorized system right here was way more stringent than Jamaica’s concerning home violence.
Companies are nonetheless offered in Jamaica, together with scholarships for younger Jamaican college students in want and barrel donations of clothes, meals, college provides, and different care gadgets. The group has additionally expanded globally to the U.Ok., Canada, and international locations inside Africa.
For New Yorkers needing help, Berbick mentioned that providers within the Large Apple concentrate on coaching girls in skillsets that may assist them earn cash with no school diploma. “ Now we have been doing social media coaching with them to allow them to set up their very own social media companies, and all of that is free,” Berbick mentioned.
Most of SUPHER’s funding comes from girls who’ve come by means of the help system or are supporters of the group. Berbick mentioned she considers their generosity a full-circle second. Since its founding, a minimum of 800 girls have participated in SUPHER.
Berbick didn’t start her profession as a pastor. For over 20 years, her calling was journalism. At simply 17, she responded to a newspaper commercial looking for trainee reporters, which acquired her begin within the newsroom on the Jamaica Herald.
After working for the Jamaica Herald, Berbick ultimately transitioned to work with a newly established political occasion, and from there, she began her personal public relations enterprise.
“ I began freelancing and so forth, after which helping the Herald once more as a freelancer and several other different media entities throughout radio and newspapers again in Jamaica,” she mentioned. “So the historical past when it comes to the expertise has been wealthy. I received two Press Affiliation of Jamaica Awards. The interval. And I used to be additionally the primary journalist in Jamaica to win an award for excellence in on-line journalism.”
Berbick mentioned that lots of her life experiences led her to a non secular awakening of changing into a pastor. Regardless of coming from a household of pastors and rising up within the church, Berbick mentioned she by no means noticed herself as a minister.
It wasn’t till she began receiving prophetic messages in 2016 from others that she started to consider it. At the moment in her life, Berbick revealed that she was going by means of a tumultuous divorce and custody battle.
”When the decision got here to me about ministry. It was the furthest factor from my thoughts. I’m like, I’m trying to rebuild my life, get again the place I used to be financially and the whole lot. I’m not trying to preach to anyone,” Berbick mentioned.
Berbick mentioned she targeted on beginning two businesses- a feat that often reaped success for her once they failed; she sought solitude within the church. “ I misplaced tens of millions of {dollars}. I went broke. At the moment, I bear in mind going to church, and never solely am I damaged by the divorce, however I’m broke financially. So put these two collectively, and also you’ll see the place I used to be emotionally,” she mentioned.
Berbick mentioned that ultimately, it was revealed to her in prayer that she ought to name a bishop dwelling in Queens who was linked to her mom’s church. After she had despatched him a textual content, they constructed a non secular connection, and he or she ultimately got here to the US, the place she was ordained as a pastor in 2018.
Berbick mentioned that shortly after being ordained, the bishop handed away in 2019, leaving Berbick feeling alone in her non secular journey. She started preaching on-line that very same 12 months and, over time, amassed a following of over 100,000 supporters, with many coming ahead in the course of the begin of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, Berbick’s work as a pastor has allowed her to create a web-based platform to mentor growing pastors, ship inspiring sermons, and create prayer-focused e-courses. She’s authored 4 books, together with Younger Believer’s Information to Efficient Prayer, Come up, and the soon-to-be-released Baptism of Hearth, which speaks to the challenges she skilled upon entry into ministry and the teachings she has realized that may assist different pastors.
Berbick has additionally been a motivational speaker for over 10 years; she is a Les Brown Licensed Legendary Speaker and a member of his speaker’s academy.
