Lee Residential Life staff wearing shirts for Missions Week 2014.
The students, staff, and faculty of Lee University are preparing for the 2014 Dee Lavender Missions Week to be held Oct. 6-10. Throughout the week, the campus will be focused on helping Provision de Amor, a Church of God-sponsored safe house for young girls in Colombia.
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 20 years, and a week devoted to missions has been part of Lee programming since the ‘40s.
Provision de Amor was opened as an answer to the many small girls who were orphaned as a result of death, abuse, neglect, and abandonment. The safe house provides a safe environment of love and care in rural Cota, a city in central Colombia.
Sister Rosalba Perez, the founder and director of Provision de Amor, has also started a school for neighborhood children and a church for the local community. Additionally, they have a feeding center that feeds hundreds each week. Her approach to ministry is holistic in that she wants young girls to have a well-rounded approach to life.
Sister Perez was recently nominated to be a CNN Hometown Hero and has reported “seeing the Hand of God in restoring, loving, and providing for” children over the years.
“It is such an honor to support a woman of God and her vision in Colombia through Lee University Missions Week this year,” said campus pastor Jimmy Harper. “Rosalba Perez has given her life to provide a home for neglected girls in Cota, Colombia. After she built the home, Provision de Amor, she also planted a church, developed a school, and then set up a feeding program, all for the purpose of serving the entire community.”
During Missions Week, chapel services and guest lecturers will provide students with information about Colombia and other mission opportunities.
Lee will sell Missions Week T-shirts with all profits and other donations going directly to Provision de Amor. Shirts are available for purchase in the Conn Center for a $15 donation. Funds raised from Missions Week 2014 will go to support Provision de Amor.
For more information about Missions Week or to make a donation, visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/missions-week/ or contact Campus Ministries at 614-8420.