Welcome!
Welcome to Leeward Hope We'll be publishing our mission statement shortly.
posted by leeward at
8:22 AM
Leeward Hope
Discusses how theology applies to real life, and how what you believe makes a difference.
Discusses how theology applies to real life, and how what you believe makes a difference.
Welcome to Leeward Hope We'll be publishing our mission statement shortly.
posted by leeward at
8:22 AM
2 Comments:
Why Leeward Hope? It's amazing how the Lord weaves together the events of our lives, even the painful ones. For a long time I have had a dream of starting a family business or ministry by the name of Leeward. Leeward is a play on our last name (Lee). Leeward means "on the sheltered side." I thought this had profound implications for ministry. I have suffered with chronic pain for a long time. Also, over the last ten to twelve years, I have suffered from unrelenting harassment from neighbors, to the extent that it affected my health, and led almost to despair. I'll come back to this in a minute. Meanwhile, in 2004, I became a subscriber to the Voice of Martyrs ministry. In the fall, an article was published, challenging the reader to "open your tablecloth," i.e. practicing hospitality. This is a lost art in America, but is common in other parts of the world. Hospitality is not one of my strong points, but I accepted the challenge, because it is a Biblical one. As long as I practiced hospitality, the Lord provided most of the food for free. In January 2005 the Lord directed me to start a house church (underground) church. It is not yet started, but I am working on it. It is one of the facets of Leeward Hope. In the spring of 2005, the Lord directed me to write letters to local government officials about privatizing some of the services (to the poor and disabled) that were being trimmed from the state budget. I felt it was better to privatize them than to let people suffer. Now the Lord is leading me to open a hospitality center for the disabled. In other words, he wants me to practice what I preached to the government. I have worked with the disabled, both as a volunteer and as paid staff. I relate well to people with disabilities. The Lord confirmed this by giving me Luke 14:12-14 as a key verse (see sidebar). Meanwhile the harassment continued. Finally I began to understand what the Lord was getting at. I decided, "If I'm going to have to suffer this, let me at least be doing something that makes it worthwhile, i.e. doing damage to the devil's kingdom." I wanted to be able to "lay down my life" voluntarily. I began to consider prayerfully how I might best do that, and to ask, "Whom does society esteem the least?" More and more, it is people with disabilities. Also in the spring, an article about adoption (in a Christian news magazine) jumped out at me. I do not yet know what I am going to do about adoptions, perhaps facilitating the adoption of special needs children, but that is farther down the road. Stay tuned for more developments.
Enjoyed surfing your new blogsite!
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