Look with the Heart

When you let God do the work, amazing things can happen

BY TERI R. WILLIAMS PHOTOS BY RUTH ENGLISH

“When we were looking for a place to start a daycare, people said this area would be too dangerous,” said Leah Lee. “Through the years, the buildings on the property, which were little more than shacks, had been everything you can imagine. I was standing there looking at this place when I heard a child call out, ‘Miss Leah!’”

It was Niya Wright, one of the children she and her late husband, Jim Watkins, picked up every Sunday for church. “She was coming one way, and her brother was running toward us from the other way. Both were barefoot and smiling. Until that moment, I’d been seeing everything with my natural eyes. But when I saw those children, God spoke to me and said, ‘They’re running around barefoot and playing. They are perfectly fine and healthy. I’m taking care of them. I can certainly take care of you and your daycare.”

The idea of turning the place into a daycare took no more courage than leaving their home in Douglas, Georgia, to come to Toombs County in the first place. They had no family here. Leah had never met Bill Vansant, the man who called and asked the couple to come to visit. Her husband had not seen the minister since going to church with his mother in South Florida as a little boy. “Pastor Vansant told Jim, ‘I’ve been praying for the both of you.’”

Leah’s recent encounter with Jesus had changed her life. “I just felt like God had something for me to do. So, I called all the churches in Douglas,” where they lived, “and asked if any of them needed help with anything. They all said, ‘No thanks.’” She smiled.

“Pastor Vansant asked us to come to Vidalia to visit. As crazy as that seemed, it felt right,” said Leah. “He and his wife were so kind to us. They took us out for lunch and asked what we had been doing through the years. We were shocked when Pastor Vansant said, ‘We need a couple to pastor our youth if you’re interested.’” So, they decided to take the job.

When Vansant left to pastor another church, Leah and Jim felt it was time for a transition of their own. “While we were youth pastors, Jim worked part-time for Ms. Carolyn Calhoun at the Vidalia Fish and Ice House,” said Leah. Jim mentioned to his employer and friend that he and Leah hoped to open their own daycare one day. “She said, ‘I’ve got some rental property if you want to look at it.’”

After looking at several places, “Ms. Carolyn mentioned a building in Lyons, but she said it would need a lot of work,” said Leah. “We had been youth pastors and homeschooling our children. No bank was going to loan us money,” said Leah. But Ms. Carolyn graciously loaned the couple the money.

“Many people helped,” said Leah, “including Ms. Carolyn’s son, Matt. He worked right beside us that entire year.” Leah and Jim just painted over the building’s stucco walls, not wanting to spend money unnecessarily. “I’ll never forget painting over some bad language someone had carved into the building,” said Leah. “You can still see it if you know where to look. It always reminds me that when God covers us, the worst of us can become something good and usable.”

While they worked on the building, Leah took the required classes to become certified as a daycare director. By December 2012, they were ready to open the Chapel Christian Academy. “We started with four children,” said Leah. “The youngest was just an infant. I was still homeschooling, so I also had my two girls there doing schoolwork. We couldn’t yet afford to hire anyone, so it was just me working from 5:00 a.m. until we closed at 7:00 p.m.”

At the end of that first year, her husband joined her in the work at the daycare. “With both of us working together, the daycare went from four children to seventy in one year. The first month we made more than it cost us to cover our expenses, I literally cried.” As the daycare grew, the couple added on to the buildings. Everyone who passed by took note of the transformation. The work on the outside spoke of the couple's value for the work inside.

Tragically, Jim died of cancer in 2019, and Leah became a widow. She was only thirty-eight-years-old at the time. With a capacity of 106, the daycare was nearly full at the time. Thankfully, her oldest daughter, Zoe, and Zoe's husband, Adrian, moved from Texas to help Leah.

Sometime later, Leah met Chris Lee, a former physical therapist in Millen, Georgia. They have since married and he has joined in the work at the daycare. Chris also began his own ministry in the community. Pointing to a big tree across the road where locals often congregated near a couple of run down buildings, Leah said, “People told us we would get shot if we went over there.” Instead, her husband found a receptiveness to the gospel.

“Pastor Vansant loaned us chairs to set out on Sundays, and we began to share messages from the Bible with the locals. They turned down their music to listen. When it rained a few weeks ago, Chris invited them to come into the Chapel to hear the Word. We’ve been meeting in there ever since. We have donuts and coffee with our neighbors before church, and we usually pick up something to share with them for lunch after the meeting. But they never expect or ask for anything.” They called their ministry Chapel Christian Church.

“Most are older men. Some are homeless,” said Leah. “They park their cars and sleep in them at night,” said Leah pointing across the way. “Some rent rooms in shacks without running water or electricity.” She pointed to the run-down buildings across the road. “We could turn places like that into homes for them. Not a homeless shelter,” she clarified. “Homes.” And why not?

This December, Chapel Christian Academy celebrate its 10th Anniversary. All those years ago, when Leah first saw the old shack, she admitted that it was difficult to see its potential. But then, she realized, “I’d been looking with my natural eyes.” When God opened her heart to see, Leah saw the fulfillment of the dream of a daycare.

It wasn’t until I met with Leah that I remembered a creative writing piece I’d written about this place years earlier for a creative writing college class. Looking for inspiration on my way to Georgia Southern that day, I’d noticed a woman standing in the door of what was now Chapel Christian Academy. Finding it among my files later that day, I was surprised by how relevant it now seemed. Even now, some will always see the brokenness of the past when they pass by this building. A curse word carved long ago into a stucco wall. But once you see with the eyes of the heart, the wildest of dreams can become a reality.