Lee University Joins World Missions To Support Missions in Honduras

Each year, Lee University sets aside one week to emphasize missions and to invite God to show students their responsibility to the Great Commission.

Since 1992, Lee has called this event the Dee Lavender Memorial Missions Week. Dee Lavender was a 21-year-old junior intercultural studies major preparing for a life in missions. In the summer of 1991 while in Panama doing her ISP practicum, Dee died suddenly, leaving behind a legacy of total commitment to God’s work.

Lee has decided to support two projects this year, both located in Honduras. Hogar Esperanza (Hope House), under the direction of Angela McInvale, is an orphanage and a place of refuge that currently houses 18-20 children. Fifty percent of the population of Honduras is under the age of 15. Abused, abandoned and neglected children are residents of this House of Hope.

The children arrive starved for love, food, education and the knowledge of the love of God. Dormitories, classrooms and recreational areas need to be built. Food and medicine need to be supplied. The need is great!

The Logos International Ministry Center is a deaf ministry based in Honduras. Educational obstacles for the deaf in Honduras are great – the deaf are denied a public education and most never learn how to read, write or communicate. Their culture devalues and ignores them, making everyday tasks such as riding a bus or going to the store extremely difficult. “They’re isolated,” said Cheryl Humphries, missionary to the deaf community there. “They can’t even communicate with each other because their sign language is not developed.”

Cheryl and her late husband, Curt, developed Honduran sign language in an effort to communicate with the deaf, including teaching children and adults about the love of Christ.

The deaf in Honduras are eager to learn, and their need for schools, teachers and curriculum are great. Hondurans are ten times more likely to be deaf than Americans, due to the lack of medical care and immunizations. There are no public schools for the deaf and only three private schools for the estimated 70,000 Honduran deaf.

All of the proceeds given to Lee Missions Week this year will be matched by an outside donor and be divided among both projects.