What is Lemuel?
WE ARE
We are:
Followers of Christ
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Haitians
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Investors in people
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Who
WE DO
OUR MISSION:
To embody the love of
Jesus Christ
by combating poverty
through holistic development
What
OUR VISION:
To see people who were once enmired in poverty,
able to produce positive change for themselves, their families, and their country
to the glory of God
Why
WE DO IT
Who We Are
Lemuel is a grassroots, Haitian organization founded by Manis Dilus in1996 to reach out with the love of Christ to the destitute of Haiti.
We further define who we are using three phrases:
1. We are followers of Christ
embodying His love by reaching out to the needs around us
in a way that empowers and maintains dignity.
First and foremost we do what we do because of our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the wellspring of all we do and therefore is the most fundamental description of who we are. However, there are two other defining truths about Lemuel that help to complete the picture...
2. We are Haitians
working hard to make our communities places we are proud to live in.​
Lemuel is a Haitian organization led by Haitians working with our fellow Haitians to improve our lives and our country. While coworkers and volunteers of other nationalities play meaningful roles within Lemuel, it is our responsibility as Haitians to lead the way and set the direction.
3. We are investors
investing in people as whole beings
because nothing changes until people change.
This final phrase depicts three aspects of our outlook on ministry:
- that we invest our lives in people because only people are eternal.
- that God created people as physical, mental, spiritual, and social beings and that for lives to change the whole person must be addressed.
- that until change happens within a person, no lasting change in external circumstances will last.
"The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
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- Timothy Keller
What We Do:​
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Embody the love of Jesus Christ
by combating poverty through holistic development.
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"To embody the love of Jesus Christ"
In trying to explain the work of Lemuel to others we have at different times explained it as "sharing" or "demonstrating" the love of Christ. Both are accurate, but we have chosen the word "embody" because we feel it most accurately describes what we feel called to do: to use our very lives as tangible manifestations of Christ's sacrificial and saving love.
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"by combating poverty"
The specific way we have been called to live out the love of Jesus Christ is through combating poverty. We fight poverty as it affects the "whole person." Poverty is not simply a lack of material possessions. It is most clearly seen as it affects people's physical lives, but there are social, psychological and spiritual implications as well. Poverty will not be defeated unless it is fought on all fronts.
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"through holistic development"
Holistic development is development that takes the whole person and, as much as possible, the whole picture into consideration. We believe that addressing one aspect of human need while ignoring the others is to ignore the way in which God created us. We believe His redemption must impact all aspects of human life.
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Why We Do It:​
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To see people who were once enmired in poverty,
able to produce positive change for themselves, their families,
and their country to the glory of God.
​
What does success look like to us? What is the picture in our minds of what we are striving for?
To put it simply, it is to see God glorified as those we have helped, help others.
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