Olivia Jenkins

Olivia Eve Jenkins

"Nana"

Olivia Eve Jenkins, affectionately known as “Nana” was born in Richmond, Virginia December 24, 1919 to Mary Dinge.

Olivia was the first of five children, three girls and two boys all of which preceded her in death, Robert Reed, Clarence Reed, Jeanette Reed and Lillian Reed. She moved to New York at the age of 3 years old and was raised in Harlem, NY where she attended the New York City Public School System.

In the 1940’s Olivia fell in love and married the late Clarence Jenkins. She had two daughters that both preceded her in death; Frances Reed-McClurkin, and Ardel Jenkins-Davis.

Olivia’s early life was extremely difficult, as was many lives, during that period of history. God used her circumstances, in addition to her mother’s lifestyle of Holiness and their church family at Bethel Holy Church at Mt. Sinai, Inc. to accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior April 1946 while reading Bishop Ida Robinson’s obituary.

She became a woman of constant prayer and praise endowed with the gift of “other tongues” leading to many supernatural experiences. Once on a mission trip to Guyana the Mt. Sinai Saints became lost in the Creole section and there was a language barrier. They began to pray for direction and the Holy Ghost fell upon Nana and she began to speak the dialect fluently and the locals lead them back to their original location.

There was another time that Nana was at a street service that the church was giving in Chinatown and the Holy Ghost started dealing with her. She began speaking in tongues while walking a short distance into a storefront Chinese church. The pastor was on his knees washing the floor with a scrub brush when she began speaking in fluent Mandarin Chinese. He got up and stood behind the pulpit and interpreted everything that she was saying to the crowd that followed her into the church from the street service. She continued throughout her lifetime with supernatural displays of the hand of God on her life.

Olivia and Clarence moved their family from Harlem to Amityville, NY on Long Island in 1950 where she remained raising her children and grandchildren teaching them to follow Jesus.

Olivia Jenkins, 97, of Amityville, transitioned to glory on Sunday morning August 27, 2017 at Broadlawn Manor Nursing Home in Amityville from complications of pneumonia. She leaves to mourn eight grandchildren, thirty great grandchildren, thirty-six great-great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and a host of friends.

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