Becky To The Rescue | Ewarton Man Who Lived In Hut Now Getting House
July 16, 2021Samuel Johnson, who was evicted from the hut where he lived for a year at Ewarton in St. Catherine, will this month become the owner of a fully furnished bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
He will also get a water tank.
Servant Rebecca Stewart, also called ‘Servant Becky’, from Come As You Are Healing And Deliverance Centre in Brooklyn, USA, is donating the plywood structure.
She noted reports that, a year after Johnson was displaced by fire, he had been receiving only empty promises.
“We decided to step in and do what Jesus would do,” Servant Becky said.
Her group learnt of Johnson’s plight after The Beacon did a live broadcast of the 58-year-old being evicted from his neighbour’s hut on Clarke’s Avenue in Ewarton.
The neighbour had given Johnson notice to vacate the property to facilitate the construction of a building where the hut is located.
Johnson had been living under sub-human condition in the hut since last year when fire destroyed the family house he shared with other relatives.
A representative of the church group, Pamella Cummings, who is based here in Jamaica, stated that Johnson’s project is being treated as an emergency.
That is partly due to the fact that Johnson, who has been diagnosed with diabetes, use crutches because he is unable to walk properly due to sores on his right foot. Since he was evicted on June 24, he has been staying with a friend.
“His condition really touched us,” Cummings said.
She added: “We saw Mr. Samuel Johnson on The Beacon, and we were moved to help. We have about five houses to be built now on our list. Mr. Johnson was not on our list, but, when we heard his situation – someone living in a hut, can you image asking for help for over a year now and no one came to his rescue? We are giving him a bathroom, kitchen and [bed]room, and we are also furnishing it. The workers on the site, they are not doing charity service; everybody is paid.”
Cummings further stated that Johnson’s house will bring to nine, the number of dwellings that Servant Becky and her team have built and furnished in Jamaica since last year.
Servant Becky, a Trinidadian living in the USA, also extensively repaired seven other houses and distributed hundreds of gift packages here in Jamaica. Most of her work on the island so far has been done in and around Linstead, St. Catherine.
In the meantime, Johnson expressed gratitude to Servant Becky and her team for their benevolence.
“I am so happy; joy is bubbling over knowing that I am going to have somewhere to call my home again, somewhere comfortable, somewhere that I can be safe and warm in, somewhere where I won’t get wet when the rain fall. I am just feeling good,” he commented. “I can’t find words to explain how I really feel about the project. It is overwhelming.”
Another person who is ecstatic about the help that Johnson is getting is Ann Henry, who initially informed The Beacon about Johnson’s plight.
“It is amazing and exciting that Johnson is getting a house,” she commented. “When I first saw the hut that he was living in, that was when I really broke down because I did not know somebody could really live in that situation.”
Johnson’s new house, which is scheduled to be completed before month end, is being build on the property where he lived before a fire left him virtually homeless.
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