On February 1, 1988, the association “Gefährdetenhilfe e. V.” is founded in its first general meeting. Shortly thereafter, the entry in the register of associations takes place. Again a short time later the name is changed into its present form “Gefährdetenhilfe Bad Eilsen e. V.”. At that time, the foundation of the association was part of a movement, in the framework of which many different endangered persons aids were founded. Some decided to choose their location as an addition to the name “Gefährdetenhilfe” (e.g. Gefährdetenhilfe Scheideweg), others decided to add a name to further describe the work (e.g. Gefährdetenhilfe Kurswechsel). What they all had in common, however, was the name “Gefährdetenhilfe”. And this name developed in the following years into a brand, a description, where it was clear what was behind it: family living communities, strong life communities, life changes, Bible and God, hard work and intensive times of leisure together. The name Gefährdetenhilfe stands for all of this. Hundreds of people have now passed through the residential communities and experienced profound changes. The help for the endangered has left its mark.
As much as we and our friends have grown accustomed to this name, we have found in recent years that a change is needed. And there are two main reasons for this. First, the regional designation “Bad Eilsen” no longer fits. In Germany, we are still represented at the sites in Leopoldshöhe (Helpup) and Blomberg. Abroad we have residential communities in Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. If the official name “only” mentions Bad Eilsen, this no longer represents what we actually are. Secondly, the name “vulnerable assistance” is a long and complicated word. As just mentioned, we are active abroad. You can imagine that it is not exactly easy for our friends abroad to pronounce this unwieldy word. In order to continue to operate internationally, we need a name that can also be pronounced by foreign speakers.
So we set out to look for a new name. It was important to us to find a name that would both reflect our purpose and be concise and memorable. The result is the name “ZESO Life e. V.”. How did we come up with this? As we read Jesus’ words in Luke 19:10, we realized that this verse conveys exactly what we want to say: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.” To seek and to save. This is what our work should reflect. “Seeking” means consciously reaching out to those on the margins of society, pursuing them and offering the possibility of genuine friendship. Just as Jesus did. “Save” includes the idea of pointing the way out of the hopeless situation by looking to Jesus Christ. The New Testament was originally written in ancient Greek. The term for “seek” is translated as “zeteo“, “save” as “sozo“. The resulting acronym is “ZESO”. The addition of “Life” is intended to show that “search” and “rescue” lead into real life. And that is what we want to express with our new name: Search – Save – Live.
We hope that you like the name and that it will soon develop the same charisma as the name “Gefährdetenhilfe Bad Eilsen e. V.” had.
Greetings
The employees of ZESO Life e. V.
