About Our Name - Luke's Mission   Luke, author of at least two books of the Bible, was a most vigorous champion of the outsider. An outsider himself, the only Gentile in an all Jewish cast of New Testament writers, he shows how Jesus includes those who typically were treated as outsiders by the religious establishment of the day: women, common laborers (shepherds), the racially different (Samaritans), the poor. He will not countenance religion as a club. (Eugene Peterson-The Message).   Luke shows us clearly how God’s love is for everyone. Jesus came in the world to be the Savior of all the people. In Luke’s gospel alone are there several stories showing how Jesus used common or outcast people to bring God’s love to the world-the good Samaritan, the lost sheep and the prodigal son. And only Luke tells how Jesus visited in the home of the hated tax collector and promised life in paradise to a dying criminal (The Promise).   An important part of Luke’s story is the way in which he shows the concern of Jesus for the poor-the good news is preached to them, they receive God’s blessing, they are invited to the great feast, the poor man Lazarus is taken to heaven by angels and Jesus commands his disciples to sell what they have and give the money to the poor.   As I have lived with and worked along side my brothers and sisters in Haiti over the last two years, I have felt much like Ezekiel when God sent him to the exiles in Tel Abib. It was there that he said “And I sat among them where they lived for seven days…overwhelmed” (Ezekiel 3:15). It was there he waited for the vision God would give him for the exiles. As I have dwelled among the Haitians for the last two years, having them minister to me, God has given me a vision for being a channel of His love to the poor by focusing on the basic human needs of food, water, sanitation and health care. Luke, known fondly as “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), was also an evangelist. He served with Paul on his missionary journey and accompanied him during his martyrdom. It seemed that the mission God had given me and the work He chose to use Luke in were very similar.   Given our desire to show the gospel to the poor by helping the Haitian people have more and better access to health care while making God’s love known to those who don’t know Him, we felt that the mission of Luke-the beloved physician and evangelist-was the same as ours. Thus our name-- Luke’s Mission. APRIL PERRY Chair, Board of Directors Luke's Mission