Links International
 
Norman Barnes Grace Barnes
 
Rich Hubbard Linda Hubbard
We partner with our good friends, Norman and Grace Barnes, and Rich and Linda Hubbard to serve the church around the world. We have worked with Norman and Grace since 1986. We met Rich in Nairobi, Kenya in 1998. Links International is based on the south coast of England and has five primary initiatives described below. You can learn more about them through their website, www.Linksinternational.org.uk.
Links International is a missions network constituted as a Christian Charitable Trust established in 1985. We work through the local church both in the field and at home believing that the Kingdom of God is expressed primarily through 'Church'.
Links exists to serve the vision of key nationals by providing practical and spiritual resources. There is a strong ethos of empowering others (whether that is people from the West or those working on the field) to achieve their own destiny. We do not want to create a large bureaucratic organisation drawing people and resources to itself. Rather we want to empower others even at the risk of losing our own identity.
We believe strongly in relationships both at home base and on the field.
The work has grown considerably over the years and by 2002 over £1,000,000 had been invested into projects in the developing world.
A summary of the work we are currently involved in and planning to develop include:
1. Primary Health Care
Sending teams of medical specialists into rural areas (principally South Africa) to train teams in basic healthcare principles, to enable them to train others also. Child mortality (up to age 10) has been drastically reduced. Regional government is keen to work with us and at the personal invitation of Nelson Mandela we have sent a team to his own village, to train 200 delegates. In the 5 years we have been running this, approximately 3,000 people have come to faith in Christ as a direct result.
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2. Micro-enterprise Development
A small loan (usually sub-£100) is given to start a small business which then generates sufficient income to take a family out of poverty. Children are fed and clothed, daily needs met, savings accounts opened, churches receive tithes from the profits. We ultimately receive the original capital back so we can reinvest in someone else. Most importantly micro-enterprise restores dignity and self-respect and empowers people. Hugely successful, we have 180 projects established in Uganda alone, with others in Burundi, Kenya and India.
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3. Books and Tapes
Spiritual famine relief to pastors, church planters and other key workers without access to any resources. We send a recently published book, worship album and teaching tape to 190 national partners in 54 nations and receive incredible feedback. These resources are a lifeline to parts of the world where if you can afford to buy a book you are amongst the top 10% of that nations wealthiest people.
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4. Creative Projects
A complete mixed bag. Smaller projects with a creative/entrepreneurial twist have proved highly successful. Eg For just £220 we can buy a cow for Kenya which will provide enough milk to provide for an entire school on a rotational basis. The clever bit is the £220 includes the cost of having the cow artificially inseminated - so we end up with two for the price of one! In Thailand we provided 600 orange trees to provide both a source of food and an income stream to a completely unreached people group, refugees from Burma. Yet, at the other end of the spectrum we have recently year raised £50,000 to rebuild a girls' residential accommodation unit in Chennai, S. India.
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5. Church Partnerships
Working across the world. Befriending the church (without personal agenda), training leaders, encouraging people on the front line. We operate on the basis of relationship on a sliding scale between 'blessing' on a one-off basis and 'building' with an apostolic edge. Partnership without ownership. We are also working closely with key business contacts in the UK and USA to bring encouragement and support to those who have a vision to see their business resource the Kingdom of God.
RH
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