Please read the story here and think about ways that you might build trust with others and partner to help solve the big problems of your community through the creative love of Jesus.

 Gary Edmonds

Mothers making and selling necklaces.

They raise children, tend to household chores, heal wounds, provide stability for families, educate the next generation, listen to dreams, pray for the sick, work to provide daily sustenance, laugh with the joyful, love tirelessly… I am grateful for my mother. She gave and sacrificed much for the sake of our family.

The mothers that I meet in Africa matter, too. Their lives are difficult. Yet they give and sacrifice just like our mothers do. 

From my most recent trip to Cote d’Ivoire to train people for community transformation, I met Bertine. She is a dynamic mother caring for her children and grandchildren in one of the poverty infested neighborhoods of Abidjan. Two years ago she caught a vision for transformation to come to her community.  She prayed about what she could do to make life better for all. After some searching, she learned how to start a neighborhood savings and credit association. Her conviction was that if the people pulled together to save of their meager income, they could create an investment fund.  With the pooled resources, they would be able to work to make their community better. Today, 2,000 people participate in a community credit association run by Bertine and her team of 10 others. Jobs are being created. Children are being immunized. The schools now are filled with students. Unity and trust is being fostered among the citizens. Churches are becoming self-supporting. Crime is declining. Bertine matters.

This month thank mothers for the enormous role they play to make life better. And if you are able, contribute to an organization that strengthens mothers to impact impoverished communities in ways that will never be reported in our newspapers. Mothers matter!

 Gary Edmonds

This week the local Breakthrough Partners Team, the organizers of the seminar on Christian Economic Development have been overwhelmed with the response.  There was an expectation of 150 participants from different regions of Ivory Coast and 11 other African nations.  However, there have been 207 men and women in attendance.

During the past two days we have visited some of the most sacrificial and gifted works of young Africans served by the Breakthrough Partners Ivory Coast Team that we have seen in the world.  Let me tell you of Dominique, a vibrant young Christian woman, who has established a savings and credit association for some 1,300 people.  This past year she worked with the pastor of the local church to see it have a roof for the church building and provide care for widows and orphans.  The result is that the church is growing dramatically, widows and orphans are brought out of a vulnerable and destitute state and the region is observing the creativity and love of Christ.

Thank you for walking with us to build leaders for rebuilding communities,

Yours truly, from Bingerville, Ivory Coast,

 Gary Edmonds

 [You may our work in the Ivory Coast through Breakthrough Partners by clicking here.]

Our objective is to move some 15,000 men, women and children out of vulnerable and destitute poverty to stability and self-sufficiency.  We will impart knowledge, skills, attitudes and relational connections to help them achieve this goal.  With God, this will happen in the year to come as the darkness is pushed back in the communities of these lovely people. 

 Thanks for standing with us as we build leaders to rebuild communities. 

Yours truly,

 Gary & Tricia Edmonds
Kevin and Renee Napiér

Christophe Mbonyingabo of CARSA

During the past two weeks, we hosted Christophe Mbonyingabo, Founder and Executive Director of CARSA of Rwanda. He is a courageous and Spirit-anointed leader set apart for rebuilding Rwanda out of genocide. Click here to check out the website of CARSA which is an affiliate partner of Breakthrough Partners. Christophe and his team are instrumental in the incredible healing and transformation of lives that have been traumatized by the wounds of genocide.

Again I was reminded that the rebuilding of broken communities and nations is built on the backs and from the convictions of Godly Local Leadership. Outsiders will never be able to lead a process of transformation. It takes those with moral and spiritual credibility who are relationally connected to the populous. It takes those who are in the culture of the local setting, but not of it. It takes those who are prepared to suffer and serve for the glory of God, even unto death.

This is where Christian mission, donor and development work so often goes astray. Those who come from the outside with money, messages and materials naively believe that they can bring about profound and lasting change. It simply does not work that way. And so often we let those with money, technological equipment, and educational degrees determine the priorities and strategies for the local mission. Then we wonder why there is no sustainable change.

The key for change to nations like Rwanda is to identify those who are morally credible, Holy Spirit anointed and filled with the vision of the Kingdom of God coming on earth like in heaven. Listen to them, follow them and support them. For culture change and rebuilding of nations is a job for insiders!

Gary Edmonds

[You may support Christophe and CARSA through Breakthrough Partners by clicking here.]

One of the great needs in our world is Wisdom. What should I do today that will be good for tomorrow? How do I navigate the unknown without experience? 

When Jesus was only twelve years old, Luke 2:52 affirms that he was developing in wisdom. He knew how to live in the present for long term benefit. He had a perspective on life that transcended his experience. His discernment of what was good for today was not guided by feelings, hunger for instant gratification or the latest trend. If only the same were true of our kids or, indeed, ourselves.  

How do we get wisdom? How do hungry Rwandans recovering from genocide live wisely to benefit their nation? How do unemployed Americans live with a Kingdom of God perspective? Let me offer three thoughts.

• Fear God! Remember that there is an ultimate judge of the whole of your life. Learn and apply the principles and values of the Kingdom of God that will stand the test of time. Pragmatic decisions that simply align us to modern trends and short term gains will be exposed and found wanting. In wisdom, apply a Biblical worldview.
  
  
• Seek the well-being of all! Test what you are doing by asking, “Is it good for all?” Unwise decisions are made by those thinking only of themselves or their organizational greatness. Much unwise mission activity is produced as we seek our own success rather than everyone’s benefit. We see that when one church or mission grows disproportionately larger than others in a community, the result is disastrous. The large organization consumes the community’s resources, like a cancerous cell, leading to its death. God created the world and its creatures and called them “good.” Let goodness be your desired outcome. In wisdom, realize that you may need to govern your own growth so that all may develop.
  
  
• Think multiple generations! “And the things that you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2) The apostle Paul was thinking out four generations. Changing the course of history requires that future generations take the baton and build on the leg of the race that we have run. Play your role well. In wisdom, build the next generation. Transfer a vision that will go beyond your own contributions. 

Gary Edmonds

God is doing a new thing, let’s not miss it. Isaiah 43:19 says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

Norm Edwards, the chairman of our board, just told me this story: “I heard of a professor in Burundi who asked his students if they thought that with God’s help they could change the course of Africa. He said no one raised a hand. Then at the end of the course, he asked again. This time, every student raised a hand. I believe progress is being made.” So do we!

Gary Edmonds

Breakthrough Partners works with courageous and godly leaders who are facing hardships that most of us cannot comprehend. Gas prices have soared to $8 per gallon in Rwanda. Food prices have skyrocketed and availability is scarce. People who ate one meal per day now eat one meal every three days. The result – churches are swamped with cries for help.

We are walking daily with leaders like Jacob to give them encouragement, skills, resources and tools to rebuild lives and devastated communities in the most challenging of circumstances. These leaders need to be strengthened to actually break the poverty cycle, genocide ideology, moral corruption and animistic beliefs. They need wisdom to bring sustain-able biblical solutions to change their nations. This is the work of Breakthrough Partners.

Gary Edmonds

Gary Edmonds