KINGSTON, Jamaica – Lee Rickman, the American tourist that died on Saturday, June13, after he received injuries when he was hit by the falling branch of a tree at an attraction in Ocho Rios, St Ann, has been described as a man who loved to serve others.

He primarily did so through the Wesleyan Christian Academy, where he taught, and on mission trips. He was reportedly on a mission trip to Jamaica when he died.

Rickman’s father, Wesleyan’s High School Principal Tim Rickman, said in a telephone interview Sunday with HpeNews.com that his son was talking with Paul Coates, the school’s chaplain, at a park near a tree when the incident occurred.

Rickman sought to put his son’s death in perspective: “It was clearly a moment that God put in motion to call him home. That’s what it was,” he said. “As a Christian, there aren’t accidents. There are times that God speaks to us, and, at that moment, God called Lee home.”

OBSERVER ONLINE reported yesterday that Rickman, who is from North Carolina in the US, was on the attraction’s compound about 11:00 am, when the branch broke from a tree and hit him in the head, according to police reports.

Head of the Wesleyan Christian Academy Dr Rob Brown in a letter posted to the Academy’s Facebook page on Sunday provided details about the incident.

“The team was at a local waterfall on their day off from ministry when a gust of wind knocked off a heavy branch. As many of you already know, the fallen branch promptly took Lee Rickman from this temporal life to his eternal home and citizenship in Heaven,” the post read. “We learned later that Pastor Paul was also hit with this branch…”

Twelve students were on the mission with Rickman, some of whom were reportedly nearby when the incident occurred.

Coates was also hospitalised “for observation and a likely concussion”, the post read.

Dr Brown said the team was scheduled to return to the USA late Monday evening and that they requested that only immediate family greet them at the airport.

The head of the Wesleyan Christian Academy said he has been in constant dialogue with Coates and reported that the children were “doing as well as can be expected and leaning on each other and the Lord during this difficult time”.

Dr Brown then called on the community to support the Rickman family.

“Their genuine, humble and deep faith and trust in the Lord, and His sovereign will, in this darkest hour is clearly evident to everyone around them. They have been receiving many visitors, friends and family in their home these past 24 hours,” the post continued. “Tim said earlier this morning, ‘I want my Wesleyan family around me so I can encourage and comfort them’.

“What an incredible testimony from an incredibly Godly family in such a sorrowful time as this,” Dr Brown wrote.

Lee Rickman was an all-state soccer player at Wesleyan and continued his athletic career at Bryan College in Tennessee, where he was an NAIA academic All-American, HpeNews.com reported.

He earned a degree in history then returned home to start teaching.

“Lee loved the Lord and he wanted everybody else to love the Lord. You weren’t around Lee very long that you didn’t see that,” his mother Patti Rickman, Wesleyan’s development and admissions assistant and alumni coordinator, told HpeNews.com.

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