Dichi Joseph Levi is pictured here in Uganda
Lee University’s School of Religion has finished a fundraising project for a Church of God Bible school in a refugee camp in Uganda. The fundraiser was in honor of Lee’s Centennial year which began this January.
“Lee started as a small Bible school 100 years ago, and now we can help another small Bible school get started,” said Dr. Rickie Moore, associate dean of the SOR. “We thought it would be a great way to celebrate our Centennial. Scripture reminds us in Zechariah 4:10 that ‘the Lord thinks highly of the day of small beginnings.’”
Dr. Carolyn Dirksen, director of faculty development and a distinguished professor of English at Lee, introduced the project to the SOR. In 2017, she visited Kenya where she met Dichi Joseph Levi, who later was forced to leave his home and move to Pagirinya Refugee Camp in Uganda.
“Dichi was my student in a course I taught in East Africa a couple of summers ago,” said Dr. Dirksen. “His dream is to train people in the Bible so that, when they go back home to South Sudan, they can take the message of the gospel with them. He asked for very little to start this Bible school, and I knew this project would be close to the hearts of the leaders of Lee’s School of Religion.”
Mr. Levi, who was previously a Bible school student in Kenya, recently decided to start his own Bible training school in the camp. He has already started three churches in the refugee camp.
The desire to start the Bible school came after he saw the rapid growth of the churches.
The original goal was $1,400, which Mr. Levi projected as the start-up cost for the new school. Lee faculty, staff, and students exceeded that amount with a total amount raised of $1,875.
Lee University will continue to celebrate its Centennial year for the duration of 2018. Various events will take place across campus over the year to commemorate the humble beginnings in 1918 with Nora Chambers and 12 students at the Bible Training School and celebrate the growth that has made Lee into a nationally-ranked liberal arts university with over 5,000 students enrolled.
For more information about Lee’s School of Religion, or to contribute to the fundraiser, email Dr. Moore at rmoore@leeuniversity.edu.