Walk With Rwanda- Sustainability Update

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your support of Walk With Rwanda. As you know, this initiative was born out of a deep desire to see the Anglican Church of Rwanda become financially self-sufficient and no longer depend on support from outside.

Fundraising has been difficult, but in the past year we have experienced two major breakthroughs:

1. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda was enthroned as the new Primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda. He brings significant experience in developing sustainability. In less than a decade he took Shyira Diocese from crippling debt to robust health and financial sustainability. He did this through developing a portfolio of small to medium sized projects.

2. A generous donor in the USA has pledge to match dollar for dollar all the money currently in the in the Walk With Rwanda account until March 10th and all pledged money up to $750,000 USD.

The original plan was to build a $2,000,000 office building which would generate $200,000 of net cash flow to the province once completed. This project has been stalled because the requisite funds were not raised, and the church did not want to take on too much risk by going deeply into debt.

Archbishop Mbanda has now laid out a new, lower-risk, and potentially more profitable way forward. Borrowing from his experience in Shyira Diocese, he wants to pursue a portfolio of smaller income generating projects rather than one large one. These include a much smaller office building, a set of residential apartments and an investment in a University’s (see note below) infrastructure which will produce revenue to sustain the Church’s mission.

There are a number of benefits to this approach:

1. A portfolio of projects will diversify the overall risk. All the eggs will not be in one basket.

2. These projects can be implemented in stages, rather than having to build one large investment all at once. We will be able to begin immediately with the funds we already have.

3. Building in stages will also require far less overall debt Which will mean less money paid in interest and more money supporting ministry.

We recognize this has been a long journey, but with this generous matching gift coupled with new and experienced leadership our goal of sustainability is in reach.

Here is how you can help:

1. Pray for us.

2. If you are a donor, please see the attached form and give your consent for us to use the money donated for this new strategy to achieve sustainability.

3. If you made a pledge, please follow this link to let us know that you are still willing to give. Our matching donor is willing to give a dollar for dollar match right now for all promised gifts, even if they will come in over a longer period of time.

If you have further questions, please call one of the two of us.

In gratitude to God for you and your generosity toward the work of PEAR.

Bishop Steven A Breedlove

sbreedlove@adhope.org

919-604-3058

Bishop Quigg Lawrence

quigglawrence@gmail.com

540-529-2282

Note: Kigali Theological College, a ministry of PEAR, is being repositioned to become East Africa Christian University. This is a thrilling and dynamic vision that will transform, in time, what was a small theological college into a major university that builds leaders for the church, business, academic, and cultural worlds throughout Rwanda and beyond.