‘Missionary Mannequin’ spreads gospel in Antigua as a human statue.

Residents of St. Johns were taken aback last week when they woke up to a human statue on the streets.

For a while, many people were unsure whether it was a real person or a statue.

However, it was later discovered that the statue was actually a real person who was standing stock-still on the street.

The person in question is Judith DeVerteuil, a trained pantomimist, drama and street theater performer, who has been using her talents to spread the gospel for the past 24 years.

Although this was her third visit to the twin island nation, countless passers-by took photos and videos of her throughout the city and at various other locations.

DeVerteuil, a Trinbagonian educator, believes that her mission is to preach the gospel as Matthew 24:14 states.

However, this scripture never gave the method on how it is to be done.

She, therefore, decided to stand stock-still on the street, allowing people to take pamphlets and other items which she places in her basket.

She believes that what she is doing still lines up with the scripture since she stands still when everyone else is moving, thereby standing out.

If she were to move around and hand out tracts, then she would be just like anybody else handing out tracts, and everybody does that.

Having travelled around Latin America and the Caribbean, she has amassed a large following on TikTok—partly due to her granddaughters—with one of her videos amassing over 80,000 views.

Apart from her missionary work, DeVerteuil also gives back to charity, especially by donating textbooks to underserved students in her home country.

She started a bartering book programme in 2015, where people give her textbooks, and she matches the books for the parents.

She has roughly 400 parents who come to her every year to get textbooks, and they return the books at the end of the year.