On my first 2008 weekend, I was in the Houston area, and coincidentally met a really neat couple, Simon and Faye Lee.
Simon Lee is founder and president of EIS Office Solutions, a company that he started with a long term goal to donate 50% of their profits to local and worldwide organizations. This generosity is focused on aid to Africa, specifically Sudan, to build hospitals and schools for underprivileged children. EIS Office Solutions is based in the Houston area, with very competitive rates for office supplies and even same day delivery. EIS also has discounts for churches and non-profit organizations.
I met Simon on the last day of the conference, so we only had a few hours left. We agreed to do a power lunch along with his wife, and had much to talk about. It was so exciting for all of us to learn about the world of private family foundations. They had just started a family foundation the week before we met, as a strategic vehicle to give generously to Kingdom causes. It is a very rare occasion when I can talk about what it is that I do, and have people actually understand and appreciate the value of it.
This couple was particularly inspiring and encouraging for me! This young couple want to be a testimony of generosity as next generation Asian Americans, and recognize the latent potential we have to make a difference in the world. I pray their example would be contagious.
DJ — Thanks for sharing the Lee family’s story. As Asian Americans we live under two cultures of consumption and materialism. It is so encouraging to hear the story of a young family who is breaking free for the sake of the Kingdom — and that they made this commitment from the outset.
In many ways, their story is both more realistic and more challenging to everyday followers of Christ than, say, a call to vocational church ministry: more realistic because while church work can seem like a strange, distant thing for just the “chosen” few, many can relate to and understand a vocation like this and more challenging because it’s one thing to say that we are committed to the Kingdom, but an entirely different thing to actually redistribute our hard-earned finances.
Thanks for your comments. I've known Simon and Faye for many years, and have been on many mission trips with them. They are the real deal. Watching them for many years, I know that their family foundation is not a passing fancy for them, but a long term dream and way of life. I too pray their example spreads like a virus.