October 4, 2015
On November 1, 2015, Lee Allen (elder, family man, and missionary at heart) joined the WEI staff as Director of Development and Support.
For twenty-two years, Lee worked for Tennessee Valley Authority rising in rank from Accounting Officer to Senior Manager of Accounts Payable.
All the while, Lee and his family were faithful members of the church in Maryville, Tennessee where Lee now serves as an elder.
Lee praises his wife Jan as a “godly woman, wife, and mother! She has been a great and wonderful supporter and the hub of our household.” Jan has worked as a nurse, a preschool teacher, and a teacher’s assistant. Lee says, “She has a great desire to help raise and spoil grandchildren if we are blessed to have them.”
Lee and Jan have two adult children: Joshua and Hannah. Joshua is married to Brittany and is serving as a minister with the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ in Nashville.
Hannah is a recent graduate of Freed Hardeman University and is engaged to be married in Nashville June 11, 2016.
WEI has needed someone like Lee for a long time, and when Lee retired from TVA, the WEI board jumped at the chance to bring him on board. Lee’s work experience with TVA, his leadership experience in the church, and his twenty mission trips to Albania have prepared him for such a time as this.
Lee made his first trip to Albania in July 1998 at the age of forty. He says, “Little did I know at that time that God had begun a new and exciting mission in my life. He was changing my life forever. Now, the Lord is changing him again.
I have watched Lee teach in Albania, and I can verify that he is a tireless worker. I accuse him of teaching all day and visiting his students and their families all night. He replies, “I didn’t come here to sleep. I came to teach people about Jesus.” Lee Allen is one of the most effective short-term missionaries I know.
As Director of Development and Support, Lee will talk to church leaders and mission-minded individuals about WEI, recruit teachers, raise funds, and get people involved in world evangelism. Pray for Lee as God sends him out on this new mission. (Read more about Lee in Tom Langley’s column.)
