A vendor under divine order
Published:Saturday | October 22, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nedburn Thaffe, Gleaner Writer
MANDEVILLE, Manchester:
HORNS BLARED, drowning words from cursing taxi operators, as 41-year-old Navlet Whittaker meandered through traffic in downtown Mandeville; she is a vendor under divine order.
The vicinity of the Nashville Bus Park is where she does business, selling donuts, banana chips, and bag juice - all the time, tambourine in hand. The tambourine is not on her list of things for sale. This instrument of praise is what makes her stand out among the hundreds of persons who use the park daily.
Whittaker has been selling on the streets for nearly two decades, and except for the years of experience under her belt, seven months ago she was just an ordinary vendor.
Since January, she has gone from ordinary to extraordinary. These days, Whittaker is on a mission for God.
Beating on her tambourine, uttering a line or two from a gospel song, she moves from window to window seeking out her customers.
Juggling donuts in one hand and the tambourine in the other is a burden she cannot put down.
"Mi under divine order. This is not something I planned to come out here and do on my own, God gave me this ministry," she told The Gleaner.
Whittaker has been a Christian for the past four years. She got the calling to embark on her extraordinary ministerial journey one day in church.
"I was at a fasting service one Wednesday when a church brother started talking to me through the spirit. Same time him took the tambourine, put it in my hand and started calling out, 'Donut, donut, donut'," she said.
"Him said to me that this is what the Lord wants me to do. He wants me to use my tambourine to minister to people when mi come out here to sell a day time," Whittaker told The Gleaner recently.
Timid at first
She admitted that starting out on this special journey was not an easy task. Like the biblical Jonah, at first she was hesitant to heed to the call.
"I was afraid to do it. I used to worry about what people would say about me," she admitted.
And just as she expected, people were not too welcoming at first.
"People used to say all kind of things. Some used to look at me and asked what me a try prove. Some used to say me a work obeah, and all kind of things," she said.
But, the vendor stayed true to her calling and would not be swayed.
"When you are under the divine order, you cannot listen to what people around you are saying. I am on a mission for the Lord," she said.
While admitting that persons around her are more welcoming these days, Whittaker said there are still few sceptics.
"You will find one and two people who have a problem with it, but once your heart clean, you have nothing to worry about. If your heart dirty, mi tambourine ago bother you, but once it clean it won't trouble you," the vendor said.