Lee students wearing Missions Week T-shirts
Lee University’s annual “Dee Lavender Mission Week” will take place Oct. 1-5 to raise funds for the Smoky Mountain Children’s Home in Sevierville, Tn. In honor of Lee’s Centennial year, the university will observe its roots and early connection with Sevierville and SMCH with the theme of “Going Home.”
Missions Week will include special chapel services, the first being the Missions Week Celebration with Professor of Music Dr. Brad Moffett speaking in the Conn Center on Tuesday, Oct. 2. Also on Tuesday, Dr. Mava Wilson, professor of computer information systems at Lee, will speak in Dixon Center on growing up on the mission field and her journey to Lee. On Thursday, Dr. Mauldin will speak in Conn Center chapel.
A special offering will be taken for SMCH in each chapel service.
Exhibitors from over 24 local, national, and international missions organizations will be on campus in the Paul Conn Student Union and School of Religion to meet with students and will also speak in classes across campus throughout the week.
Plans are being made for Lee students to participate in a day of service for SMCH.
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.
SMCH is a private, faith-based, not-for-profit agency that has been serving children for over 90 years. It exists to provide care, love, and healing to children and youth who have no one else to advocate or care for them. The money raised during Missions Week 2018 will go directly toward remodeling the Alpha Educational Learning Center at the home for children.
According to Dr. Walt Mauldin, director of SMCH and a former vice president at Lee, many young people come to SMCH with academic deficiencies and need tutoring. SMCH is required by the State of Tennessee to offer a school for youth who need to recover high school credits and graduate on time. There are approximately 40 high school students attending the Alpha school, which fulfills this requirement. The school serves as a catalyst for many of its youth to experience their dreams of attending college.
Missions Week T-shirts are available in Lee’s Campus Ministries Office for a $15 donation to the project.
For more information or to make a donation, visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/missions-week/ or contact Campus Ministries at 614-8420.