Lee University Hosting Annual Missions Week
Lee University is in the midst of “Dee Lavender Missions Week” to raise funds for the Phebe Grey Orphanage in Liberia, Africa, for a third consecutive year.
The orphanage was founded in 1996 by a team of missionaries who desired to help children affected by the country’s violent civil wars. The Phebe Grey Orphanage has expanded with its own school and church, but it lacks the necessary resources to meet the high demand for shelter in the area. During the past two years, Lee’s Missions Week projects were able to fund the assembly of a computer lab, a science lab, and a library for the orphanage’s school.
“We are so excited about Lee University Missions Week for 2017-18!” said Campus Pastor Dr. Jimmy Harper. “We are focusing on Liberia once again hoping to make a long-term impact on the orphanage, the school, and the people associated with the church in the area.”
Missions Week will bring special chapel services to campus, with the first service as a time of celebration in the Conn Center on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Also on Tuesday, Lee will welcome Dr. Tena Stone of OneHope to speak in the Dixon Center chapel service. Based in Chattanooga, OneHope is a missions agency helping to spread the Gospel through digital and curriculum resources for children. On Thursday, Oct. 26, Christopher and Jennifer Mitchell Hadsell, who currently live and work in Africa, will speak in the Conn Center. They work with Iris Ministries in Mozambique, helping children in Kenya to end sex trafficking and provide education and discipleship.
Students will be informed on the Phebe Grey Orphanage and other mission opportunities during these services. Missions Week T-shirts will be on sale, with all profits and donations going directly to the orphanage. Throughout different departments on campus, students and faculty are working on special projects to contribute to the Phebe Grey Orphanage. Sigma Tau Delta, an English honor society, is collecting books to donate to the library. Lee student Makayla Jenkins developed packets of materials for each seventh grade English student at the orphanage. A nursing class developed a wellness textbook matching the goals of the curriculum of Liberia.
Several faculty members are involved in Missions Week activities and include Dr. Hermilo Jasso, professor of business, who developed a textbook for the economics classes at the high school. Dr. Jason Robinson, assistant professor of education, and Allison Sneed, lecturer in chemistry, designed a science lab and binders of experiments for physics, chemistry, and biology classes. Sneed ordered and packed all the equipment and traveled to Liberia to set up the lab. Because the school is without electricity, the lab includes solar-powered microscopes.With her computer class, Dr. Mava Wilson, associate professor of computer information systems, refurbished computers for the orphanage in addition to ordering long-life batteries and cases for them. In summer 2016, 10 computers were donated, and this year, 20 more have been supplied. And finally, Dr. Heather Quagliana, associate professor of psychology, and her class developed materials for an intensive workshop with the faculty and housing staff of the orphanage. The class provided each staff member with a bag full of materials.
Since 1991, Missions Week has been carried out in honor of Lee University student Dee Lavender, who died on a summer mission trip to Panama just before her 21st birthday. Missions Week projects have been in place for more than 20 years, and a week devoted to missions has been part of Lee programming since the ‘40s.
For more information about Missions Week or to make a donation, visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/missions-week or contact Campus Ministries
