Links
International is a network of churches, organisations
and individuals, constituted as a Christian Charitable Trust established
in 1985. We work through the church, in its many shapes and forms,
both in the numerous nations into which we work and at home believing
that the Kingdom of God is expressed primarily through this thing
called 'Church'.*
Links exists to serve the vision of 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 constantly
developing:
1.
Primary Healthcare
Sending teams of medical specialists into rural areas of various
African and Asian nations 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 has been keen to work with us and
at the personal invitation of Nelson Mandela we sent a team to
his own village, to train 200 delegates. In the 10 years we have
been involved in Primary Healthcare, over 4,000 people have come
to faith in Christ as a direct result.
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. Ultimately
the original capital is received back so we can reinvest in someone
else. Most importantly micro-enterprise restores dignity and self-respect
and empowers people. Hugely successful, we have over 1,700 projects
established in Uganda alone, with others in Burundi, Kenya and
India, Colombia and The Philippines. New initiatives have been
started this year in Peru, The Middle East and we are currently
looking into developing a new initiative in Albania.
3. Kingdom Resources
Spiritual famine relief to pastors, church planters and other
key workers without access to christian resources. Three times
a year we send a recently published book, worship album and teaching
tape to 210 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.
4. Creative Income Generating Projects
We are gaining more and more experience in the area of self sustaining
income generating projects. This area of the ministry is a completely
mixed bag. Smaller projects with a creative/entrepreneurial twist
have proved highly successful. we have recently sent the capital
to start up an Internet Cafe in Manila Philippines which is providing
work and training for individuals living on the worlds biggest
dumpsite, 'Smoky Mountain' and also creating an income for the
organisation working with them.
In
the past projects have ranged from Lychee farms to fish farms
in Northern Thailand to Fishing boats for fisherman recovering
from the devastation of the Tsunami in Southern India. Again 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 raised £50,000 to rebuild a girls' residential accommodation
unit in Chennai, S. India.
We
alway look for a creative twist in the nature of the projects,
a past example of this was in Kenya where for just £220 we could
buy a cow which could provide enough milk for an entire school
on a rotational basis. The clever bit was that the £220 included
the cost of having the cow artificially inseminated - so we ended
up with two for the price of one!
Please
see our project policy for more details on the kind of projects
we are interested in.
Links International Creative Projects Policy
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. We believe in 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.
6. Act 4 You
Thinking
about starting or supporting a project in the developing world?
Think again as Links could be your answer!
One
growing part of Links' work lies in the area of handling accounts
and acting as a charitable umbrella for churches, individuals,
missionaries, organisations and business people, to enable them
to fulfil their vision without all the difficulty of forming their
own charitable trust.
Links
opens an account and collects all monies from donors. we collate
and apply for all gift aid tax reclaims and put them into our
client's account in full. all monies are held under a seperate
designated account and are then paid out on the specific instruction
of the client.
We
have developed considerable expertise in transferring money abroard
and can do so both regularly (i.e. monthly payments) and/or as
one-off payments as requested. A small fee is charged to the account
four times a year and statements are sent on a quarterly basis
to each client.
*
Church is derived from the greek word Ekklesia which referes to
a gathering of people around a common goal and purpose. It always
referred to a movement and was the word used for a political party.
An Ekklesia is on the move to acheive a purpose. We fundamentally
believe that the church is not the end goal but rather the vehicle
to the end goal which is the Kingdom of God, the rule and reign
of Jesus in the Earth - the end of poverty, oppression and injustice.
