Evangelist Sophia Lewin-Saunders
Jamaicans in Ocala, Florida, bid farewell to evangelist killed in motor vehicle tragedy
NEW YORK, USA — Scores of Jamaicans packed into the World Outreach Evangelistic Church in Marion Oaks, Ocala in Florida on Saturday to bid farewell to popular evangelical preacher Sophia Lewin-Saunders, who died February 1, 2025 in a motor vehicle crash.
Clarendon-born Lewin-Saunders, a 50-year-old mother of two, was involved in a motor vehicle crash at St Pedro Boulevard and County Road 484, a busy intersection in Dunnellon near Marion Oaks in central Florida.
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Investigators said she was on her way to work when the vehicle she was driving collided head-on with another.
Both vehicles were travelling in opposite directions when, for undetermined reason or reasons, one vehicle crossed a double stretch of yellow line and crashed into the other.
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The two drivers were transported to hospital where Lewin- Saunders died shortly after.
Described as a caring, dedicated, forgiving, kind, and God-fearing woman, Lewin-Saunders was “always ready to help every and anyone with whom she came in contact”, those who paid tribute to the late evangelist told mourners.
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The mourners, many of whom were forced to stand throughout the packed service, also heard how passionate Lewin–Saunders, secretary of the World Outreach Evangelistic Church for seven years, was about her work as a Christian.
There was also a strong turnout of pastors and other religious leaders from a number of other churches in and around Marion Oaks.
Among the mourners paying final respects was a group who flew in from the Clarendon community of Summerfield in Jamaica where the deceased grew up.
In the eulogy, her sister Natalie Neita noted that Lewin-Saunders had enrolled in Charis Bible College in Orlando in her quest to become a minister. She described her sibling as “a peacemaker with a gift for resolving conflicts and bringing people together, and one who had inspired countless lives”.
The first child born to Tennyson Lewin and Lucilda Bryan, she attended Frankfield Primary and Edwin Allen High schools in the parish.
Neita said that it was while Lewin-Saunders was working in the Cayman Islands that her faith became strong, which led to her to become active in the church where she was powerfully drawn to the Christian ministry.
In his sermon, senior pastor of the World Outreach Evangelistic Church, Rev Nigel Stewart spoke of the “tremendous contribution Lewis-Saunders made to the church as she spread the gospel, even while serving as secretary, among other duties”.
“Her dedication will be hard to match,” he said, quoting from the
Bible as he reminded mourners that, “Death is never something we can come to terms with. Yet it is something we all have to face.”
Mourners who packed the thanksgiving service to pay final tribute to Evangelist Sophia Lewin-Saunders.
