Sir James explained how they came to decide the matter. "Our children at the time were 6 years and 9 years old, respectively. Our son was the elder, and he was called upon to do any reading during family worship. Our daughter was a little bit jealous of this because she was never asked—because we didn't think she could read. During one of our worship sessions, she exclaimed, 'Look, I can read!' And she then proceeded to read Jeremiah 1:19: 'And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.' We were all surprised at the flawless manner in which she read the text, and it was obvious that the text had a message for us. And on the basis of this, we decided to accept the position."

Sir James's knighthood entitled him to a family coat of arms, and he chose as his motto a portion of the passage his daughter had read: "They shall not prevail"—in Latin: "et non praevalebunt." And throughout the almost 12 years that he's been in office, he says, "We've faced many challenges. At times some of them seemed as if they'd overwhelm us. But we were always reminded, 'They shall not prevail.' And thank God, He has not let us down once.

"A coat of arms is really a synopsis (in pictures) of a person's life," Sir James explained—not as mysterious as we often think of it. "So if you look at my coat of arms, there is a symbol representing the number 7, showing I'm a Seventh-day Adventist. There are symbols that indicate how many children I have; symbols that tell you that I was born in rather poor circumstances, and that I was able to climb out of poverty and difficulty and ignorance with the help of God.

"So when people ask me about my coat of arms, I'm able to witness about my faith. There are people who, if you approach them directly about what you believe, would immediately put their defenses up. But when someone takes the time to ask you the meaning of your coat of arms, they've got to listen. And I find it a very useful witnessing tool."