At Partners International, we strive to help our national partners not only be successful in accomplishing their own local ministry objectives, but to also find ways to benefit other national organizations around the world. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen two great examples of this.
The first one is from northern Iraq where three schools our national partner has built were celebrating their first graduating class of high school seniors. Having grown from just a dream in the mind of Yousif and Alia Matty ten years ago, the schools now boast 1800 students, 450 teachers and an annual budget of $3 million totally self supported from within that country! If that isn’t amazing enough, to further celebrate their success, the schools dedicated a $5000 gift towards the construction of a new school being built by our AIC partner in southern Sudan. How cool is that?! To think that these Iraqi friends are ready and willing to share their bounty of God’s blessing with another ministry in a “hard place” of the world is truly inspiring!
The second example comes from Brazil. Years ago, Partners International invested heavily in building up national ministries in Brazil. But as that country became more and more self-sufficient in supporting their own mission work, we backed away and put most of our focus on more unreached areas of the world. Recently, however, some of those original Brazil connections also have wanted to share their resources with others. A few months ago, we received over $20,000 from them designated for believers in Iran who are struggling under increased pressure and persecution. Now, another check is on its way from Brazil for $40,000 also to help with this same school in southern Sudan. Coupling the Iraq and Brazil gifst with a few others coming from US foundations, we should soon have enough for the Sudan school to begin construction. PTL!
These two examples are a great snapshot of the increasing global context of world missions. What an exciting day to be involved in connecting and networking together partnerships like these all around the world!
