Here is how the formation of a relationship looks in practice:

Love Must Act identifies two communities, one well-resourced materially and one, not. Most of the latter are currently overseas as potential partners. The well-resourced partner can be a congregation, a diocese, a mission group, or any other sort of group interested in a relationship with a community living in economic need overseas and responding to that need in a pro-poor way.

• We look for materially resourced communities whose principal interest is to grow in love and spiritual transformation rather than to engage in charity or altruism. Love impels us to act to do certain things – in this case, to build schools or educational projects where they are most needed – but love is the end unto itself. Our Christian spiritual tradition instructs as that, as God is Love, love is the means by which we know God. Our founder and CEO, Bishop Stacy F. Sauls, has written about this. Love for others is nothing short of love for God, for as Jesus tells his followers when speaking of the poor: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt. 25:40), although it is very important to us that the name by which one knows God or even if God is known by no name at all is not material in our work with partners.

• To identify potential overseas partners, we work through our own global network of churches, organizations, and institutions. Working with an overseas bishop when helpful, we look for communities that are interested in sharing their spiritual treasures with partners in another part of the world.

• In considering whether you would like to be part of a Love Must Act partnership, here is some of what we offer to our North American partners: the opportunity for greater spiritual health through an outward focus, the cultivation of greater generosity in one’s own community, the opportunity to engage young people thirsting for an encounter with the sacred through service, and the ability to better know God through the spiritual treasures of another community whose lives place them close to the heart of God. And here is some of what we offer to our overseas partners: the opportunity to place education at the center of a community’s struggle to overcome poverty, the confidence that a school or educational program will grow to self-sustainability rather than living in perpetual dependency, access to a network of global schools and educational partners for mutual support, and an invitation to flourishing unburdened by material struggles.

• The exact parameters of a partnership are impossible to describe in advance. Each partnership is unique and shaped by its partners. One might involve faculty exchanges in schools; another, volunteers; another, visits; another, supplies and books; and yet another, Zoom calls to communicate in person virtually.

Once two communities come together in partnership, the sharing of material and spiritual treasure begins. The end to which the partnership works is not the flow of funds exclusively. Rather, the end is mutual benefit and reciprocal engagement rooted in love. While details may vary based on the needs of the individual partners, here’s what that process might look like in practice:

• The first step of a potential partnership is always getting to know one another and experiencing the spiritual treasure each side has to bring to the relationship. Only by experiencing the gifts of another can we grow into the sort of mutual love that bears the burdens, shares the sorrows, and exults in the joys of the other. We work to facilitate the early phases of this process.

• Self-selected teams of three to five people from each community visit the other, supported by the staff of Love Must Act, and explore the opportunities for long-term relationship. This phase of the process focuses significantly on the mutual evaluation of one another’s needs and the opportunities to address those needs through the sharing of each partner’s treasure.

• After a partnership is established, we work with partnered communities to envision and develop a plan for a shared educational project and put it into action.

• As a project plan moves forward, we facilitate regular communication between all partners and encourage all  to participate as  fully as possible.

What can you expect in a school or educational program supported by Love Must Act?

• A pro-poor school in a community where the need is great.

• A commitment to the highest educational standards and the comprehensive needs of the students and their families: academic, physical, social, emotional, psychological, material, and spiritual.

• A foundational respect for our students’ indigenous cultures via classroom instruction in the language they speak at home, honor for their traditions, and trust in their own abilities to meet and exceed community expectations for educational excellence.