“Faith, Mission, and Housing: Lauralee’s Journey of Service and Impact”

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Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show podcast, the podcast show where we unlock potential one dream at a time. Today we have another guest whose journey is truly worth hearing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Moneyway experience.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show. The podcast that brings you stories behind the success. Today we have on the show author and missionary Laura Lee. How you doing today, Laura Lee?

I'm doing fine. How are you?

I'm doing good. Thank you for taking the time out of your day today and join me on the show. Really appreciate it.

It's good to be here. I love to talk to people anywhere.

So, Laura Lee, tell us a little bit about yourself and about your background.

Well, I grew up in California, and so did my husband, and God called both of us to be missionaries while we were children. We wanted to do that. In high school, we dated, and then we dated in college and got married. And after college, we said, "It's time to go." So we went first to Nigeria as high school teachers in a Baptist high school, and then new mission work opened up in the mountains of Ethiopia where they needed a handcraft teacher on a team with a doctor and a vet and an agriculturalist. And my husband really wanted to work out with country people who really did not know the Bible. So we went to Ethiopia. And lived in the mountains there, and it was like living in the Wild West. They beat each other up over— for example, everybody had land and they had rocks at the edge of their property, and in the night somebody would get up and move the rocks. So the other guy'd let him go ahead and plant, and then when it was time to harvest, he'd say, the rocks really belong here, and this is my— you planted for me. And so they all carried a doula and they beat each other on the head and then come to the clinic and get sewed up. Most of our medical work was sewing up injured people from them beating each other.

So that's when you say most of the injuries come from beating each other, huh? The wild, wild west. Yeah, that's right.

They were all Orthodox Christians, but they never had ever read a Bible. It was in an ancient language, Gee'ez, that they no longer spoke. It was thousands of laws to keep and little hope and joy and peace and anything like that that we associate with Christianity. So we wanted to show them a living Jesus with hope and grace and happiness and peace and get over with that feuding. So for 6 years, the doctor and the vet did their work. My husband taught deacons of the Orthodox Church to weave rugs and we taught the Bible every time we met. And nothing changed. So we said, God, if this is really the right thing to be doing, if it's your plan, show it by giving one person, one church leader who really understands and changes his ways and believes in Jesus as his Savior. And not long after, Priest Yerma came. He was the head priest of his church, and he said, I've been reading the Ten Commandments, and I know that I have broken many of these, and I want to ask God's forgiveness and change and have Jesus as the center of my life. And we said, wonderful! And he prayed, and we were happy, and we said, we have our one believer. And 2 weeks went by, and he came back again, and he said, I want to burn my magic books at the tent on Sunday. And we said, what do you mean, your magic books? And he said, I'm the head wizard of the area, didn't you know? And then he did burn his magic books, and a big battle started. And that's what my book is about, the battle. Every time God did something wonderful, Satan would counteract. And so it was warfare, but you know who won. And that's what makes the story exciting, is all the things that happened and how it's ended up today. With 350 churches all over Ethiopia.

Wow, what an accomplishment and a great feeling to know that being a part of that, you know, that what you and your husband sacrificed in your own lives and following the will of God, the call of God, to be able to go to a foreign place and be able to see the fruits of it and to still be able to see You know, these things that all your delays come to pass is something amazing and great within itself. So, Laura Lee, so after returning from Ethiopia in 1983, you started Kingdom Home Housing, providing affordable homes. Can you tell us more about this initiative and what inspired it?

Yes. We came from Ethiopia because of a communist revolution, and we were really sad to leave. We loved it there. We loved working with those people. So we came to the United States, and when we left Ethiopia, people wanted to learn the Bible all day, every day. They were so excited about it. And we came to America, and it wasn't like that. And we said, "God, what are you doing? Why are we here?" We felt like Joseph in Egypt. But my husband had to figure out a job, and he didn't want to go back into public school teaching. He tried that a little while, and that was too too difficult, right, at that time. So he— we bought two houses for very inexpensive. It was at the time of the housing crash, and he remodeled them and we sold them to people. First we rented and then we sold owner carry. That means we carried the notes like the bank. They paid us every month, and instead of renting, they were getting credit toward eventually owning their homes. We named our business Kingdom Homes, and in— we have sold 65 houses that we carry the note. We're down to 5 right now. And all of these people then have been able to get their own home for the price of paying rent. So everybody loves us. We had no problem selling our homes because every time we had another one ready, they would all say, my uncle or my cousin or my neighbor or somebody wants a home. And they would tell us who to make it available to. So it was really a good way to have a housing business, to help a lot of people and have a good business. We made over $1 million over the years and, and helped us. And when the houses appreciated in value, it didn't appreciate to us because they had a contract of a purchase price. It appreciated to them. They they earned, just like real Americans should.

Another great feat, something else that— and I know that you and your husband know that God had his hands in that, and when God has his hands in something, it's going to go well, especially when you have a heart to do things for the people. God would sow seeds and God would give you the benefits to do. And so that's a So, Loralee, you said something about, uh, you guys enjoyed your time in Ethiopia and that you really didn't want to come back. So what was it like when you suddenly had to leave Africa and return to the U.S. to live, and how did you adjust to such a significant change?

Well, it took me a long time during those years of building houses, but We finally believed that God was in control. It was according to His plan. And I became a bilingual schoolteacher so we'd have income while my husband— and insurance while my husband was remodeling houses. But when I retired from teaching school, we went back to Ethiopia to see what was there. And we found the little group of believers we had left had were now 12,000 in a number of churches spread out over Ethiopia. And they wanted to know if we would come alongside them and help them. And so we got the idea to sell on eBay. There's a lot of donated— there are a lot of books around. When people have read a book, they don't know what to do with it next. You can't sell it in a garage sale. Libraries don't really want it. So we set up a bookstore in our house. Today we have 5,000 books on the shelf. In our house, and we have an eBay store called Heart for Ethiopia. And we've sold $1,600,000 worth of donated books using volunteer labor and sent all of that money to Ethiopia to help grow the church. And that's why it's strong and thriving today. And running this bookstore is a win-win all around. When people give us books, they're happy. Because they're going to a good cause. And otherwise, just have to throw them out or they didn't know what to do with them. We're happy when we get them because I look them up to see what they're worth. And I'm happy. Yay, this will sell well. And I list the books. And the people who buy the books say, wonderful, we can buy a good book and the money's going to go to Ethiopia. And they like that. And then when we get the money, we send it to Ethiopia and they're happy. So everybody's happy every step of the way. And we meet the most interesting people and see the most amazing books. So it's a fun industry to be in. And even though we're 85 and 86 and we lost most of our volunteers in COVID, I mean, they didn't die. They just got old and retired and moved away and different things. We are still loving doing it. So for a few more years, we're going to keep on going in the bookstore. And they have gotten strong in Ethiopia. They built a 7-story office building, which we helped with, and they rent out rooms to other nonprofits. So they're getting income for their denomination to pay for their transportation needs and utilities at the office building and and training pastors and all the things they need, and with the rent they get, and it's such a good plan that they're building a second building now in another major city in the area of our work. So everything is going well with the Ariskidan Baptists in Ethiopia, and our bookstore is going well.

That's truly amazing what you guys are doing. And I say this to most of my guests about service, you know, I appreciate what you guys doing as far as putting yourselves to the side and being a servant or a servant to others. And what you and your husband are doing is just truly amazing because it's not just, you know, people that you can see, people you can reach out to and touch. You're doing something in a whole nother country, and you know, uh, as people know, has been poverty-stricken and things of that nature. So the thing that you guys are doing out here is totally, it's totally and truly commendable to you guys, and appreciate you and your husband for what you're doing. And thank God that he gave you the fortitude and the wisdom and the strength to keep moving forward, to always have that desire of that he purchased in your heart way back then. You know, kudos to you guys. That's really, really, really cool. So, Laura Lee, you also started an ESL program at your church. What motivated you to create this program and how has it impacted your community?

I taught ESL in Ethiopia. I taught people to speak English. So when I got home from Ethiopia, I got a master's degree in teaching English as a second language. And then 25 years ago, we started a program at our church where one night a week we have classes on 3 levels, and students come— adults come who want to learn English. And there's always, always many people who come to America and need to to learn better English, to get a job, to go to college, for whatever reason. And so we've been doing that a long time, and volunteers do that too. And it's going well. We're getting ready to start again on Labor Day. The Thursday after Labor Day, we'll get going again with a new batch of students. But once they get started, they usually move up through the classes and stay on for a number of years. Till they get good at English. You can't, you can't learn it all in a month or 3 or 5.

Okay.

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Understanding to keep going on the mission. You know, I'm just intrigued by you guys' resilience and your strength to just keep moving on and doing the will of God and the things for the kingdom of God. This is very touching, to say the least. So, so, Lord, on a different note, you touched on it earlier, you've written a book titled Out of the darkness into the light. Can you share with us a little bit about your book?

I'd love to. When we— I mentioned that the first believer was a priest and a wizard, and he burned his magic books. And in the New Testament, it says when people became believers, they burned their magic books. It tells that in the book of Acts. So things began to happen just like the Book of Acts, and we relived the Book of Acts. So that's what my book is about. It's the things that God did again, like he did in the Book of Acts, to show the people that he was real, that God is alive, that he cares about them, and that he can make a difference in their lives, bring them out of the darkness of feuding and fighting and ignorance into the light of education And the proof that it works is that the believers, the students who became believers, all rose to the top of their class. They didn't start out the smartest. They weren't different from everybody else. But when they became believers, God gave them a new heart, a new life, and they rose to the top of their class. And in Ethiopia, the government gives free college education to the students in the top of the class. They take a hard test, and the ones who score best get free college, free dorm, free everything, uh, an education. And so our students all got chosen because God changed their hearts and their minds, and that can't be an accident. And so they were— then the government gives them jobs after college, and they were sent all over Ethiopia. And everywhere they went, they started a new group of believers studying the Bible and soon were a church. And so we have churches all over because God sent these people in jobs all over Ethiopia.

Favor. Favor ain't fair, you know, it's not fair, but it is what it is, like you say. You know, the students that you guys had, that they was able to go off and get free education and room and board and things of that nature. Like, it's not a coincidence, you know, it's the work and it's the favor and anointing that's on you and your husband's life that are not just blessing you two but blessing others who are coming in connection with you. And that's just a marvelous, that's amazing thing. So Gloria Lee, I just have two more questions for you before I let you go. One is, what inspired you to write Out of the Darkness Into the Light? And was there a particular moment or experience that led to this creation?

Well, I wanted to tell an example of something amazing. After we had one blogger, it was a while and we didn't have any more. So we thought, what do we need to do? Well, in America they have revival meetings. So there was a community hall in the main town of Mahameda where the doctor had a clinic, and we had— the Baptists had contributed the windows and the doors to this new building, and they let us have a week-long meeting there Monday through Friday. And we invited priests and deacons from the places where the doctor and the vet went for clinic, and where my husband had rug weaving students, and 100 priests and deacons came. An evangelist came from the city as a teacher, and we taught the Bible. And they slept on the hay at one end of the room, and we paid for an ox to be killed by a priest facing the right direction, slit his throat properly. Orthodox ladies cooked the meat according to the rules. We tried to do everything right. In terms of their culture. And on the third night, Priest Irma told how he had burned his magic books, and then that night, all night long, everybody, all these priests and deacons confessed their sins, and then they sang in their ancient Gheez songs, and then found the translation in their new Bibles that we had provided and said, "These are good songs. These have good words." So they sang joyously all night, and one after the other confessed their sins, and it was amazing! And we knew God was at work. But the next day, the Orthodox Church said that they would all be excommunicated because we fed them donkey meat, which we did not do. And so they were all excommunicated from their churches, and then they accused us of stealing the Ark. Which is the holy books from several churches, which we would have had to have a helicopter to do because we were high in the mountains with big canyons between each church. In any case, they had the trial and we couldn't go. They were afraid for our safety, our friends were, and they decreed that we had to leave. So here we were, big revival, they're all excommunicated and we have to leave. Well, that sounds like an awful end of the story. But while we were gone, they took petitions all over the countryside, and everybody who'd been to a clinic or had the vet help their animal or had woven a rug and/or spun yarn and gotten paid, all the people who'd gotten help signed all this and said, "No, we want the missionaries back. They're the only people who ever helped us." And they walked 2 days to the capital city, took it to the Emperor Haile Selassie and said, "Let the missionaries come back." And so after a month, we'd gone to Kenya on vacation. We came back and we were freely allowed to go back, which was wonderful. And then several months later, they had a communist revolution and other missionaries had to leave. But we didn't have to leave because we were there at the permission of the people and all those papers. So God used that to give us permission to stay there and work. Which at the time looked horrible but turned out to be good.

Again, another sign of favor. Favor ain't fair, but it is what it is. So Laura, I appreciate you sharing your insight and your wisdom of the things that you guys are doing and the mission that you guys have been carrying on for decades, you know, doing something totally amazing again. So lastly, Laura Lee, I would just like to ask What is it like to live in a bookstore? And how has this unique living arrangement influenced your life and your work?

There are bookshelves on every room in the house, bathroom, everywhere. All full of books, all alphabetized, all in the right place. Because when someone buys one, you have to find it. And we have prayer meeting there every Monday night. Everybody comes to the bookstore. And it's fine. I like it. We have a roomy enough living room and a dining room where 16 people can fit around the table. So it's okay. It's fun to live in a bookstore.

I can only imagine. A lot of knowledge in there. A lot of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. A lot of knowledge, wisdom, understanding with your years. God bless you. Hey, so Laura Lee, Where can we find your book at? And do you have anything else on the horizon, any other endeavors that you're working on right now?

Well, you can find the book on Amazon, eBay, Barnes Noble, Trilogy Printing. It's out a number of places. The audiobook is out also on audiobooks.com. I read it myself. So you can buy the book at all those places and I hadn't thought about writing another book. My— our kids have already sent ideas and said, all these things that happened to you, like the housing business and the bookstore and everything, God's been working in amazing ways. You should write another book. So it's in the back of my mind, but I haven't started.

Okay. I look forward to doing that. I pray that he give you the wisdom and understanding to write another bestseller book. With that being said, you have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show with my new friend from Texas, Laura Lee. I can't say her last name, so I'm gonna say Laura Lee, missionary doing big things up there and over there in Ethiopia. A woman of God, a husband, a man of God, and they are servants to the kingdom of God. And so check them out. Subscribe to her channel. Go get her book, Out of Darkness Into the Light. You have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. I'm outta here. Peace.

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