WHEN DUSTY BREEDING WAS 19, he was introduced to Russell Lingerfelt at the World Mission Workshop at Harding University. Russell, an experienced missionary and traveller, offered Dusty an invitation to join him on a ten week mission trip to Africa the following summer. So in 2006, after Dusty's sophomore year of college, the two set off on the trip that would change their lives forever. Spending five weeks in Uganda and five weeks in Kenya, the two traveled with missionaries through the slums and remote villages of some of the most impoverished regions of Africa.
On this trip, Dusty met Mark Long, a Pepperdine University graduate who had been living in Uganda for almost ten years. Mark, a handyman, decided to use Dusty's culinary arts background by building three ovens at Camp Saaka, a Christian youth camp in the Rwenzori Mountains of Western Uganda. It was this initial trip that started Dusty dreaming about creating a food based ministry. A ministry through which Christ's love could be shown to Africa via a bakery community development project.
Back in the United States, God directed Dusty's passion towards ministry and led him to follow the call he had felt during his summer in Africa. Lifebread Incorporated came into existence on a couch in Florence, Alabama, as Dusty went page by page and step by step through a book about how to start a non-profit. On August 3, 2007, Lifebread Incorporated was officially recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization by the IRS. (donate!)
Since 2007, Dusty has returned to Africa almost ten times. Lifebread has grown from a vision and dream into a reality, with bakery projects in Uganda and Kenya. During the summer of 2009, another of Dusty's life goals came true when he had the chance to lead nine students from Pepperdine University to spend one month in Kenya building ovens (more about Kenya Bakery Projects). All of the students had life changing experiences; some are looking forward to leading future Lifebread trips.
The infrastructure behind Lifebread continues to expand as well. Jessica Barnes, an adjunct professor at Pepperdine, has recently taken on the role of Director of Development. Jessica brings a wealth of non-profit knowledge to Lifebread from her previous internships with the Make a Wish Foundation, NBC, Lionsgate Pictures, and Global Green USA. Jessica often travels for Lifebread, speaking at conferences, fundraisers, and with donors. (Interested in booking Lifebread to speak?) Cecily Small, also a Pepperdine grad, is serving as Lifebread's art department. Cecily has a gift for drawing, creating, and designing. She designs our merchandise and all other promotional materials, as well as manages our website and blog!
*Recent Developments
Lifebread has recently partnered with the Made in the Streets ministry (www.made-in-the-streets.org). Made in the Streets (MITS) was the ministry that Dusty first worked with in Africa five years ago. Breeding has since returned to this ministry a half dozen times. During the summer of 2008, Lifebread built ovens at MITS and began supporting the catering school. For Dusty, the culmination of his relationship with MITS occurred when he and Cecily were married at MITS, surrounded by over 100 students from the street ministry and others from the local village. He and Cecily then lived and worked with MITS for approximately the next year. Made in the Streets is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established by Charles and Darlene Coulston. The Coulston's have been living and ministering to street kids in Nairobi, Kenya, for the past 15 years.
Lifebread’s partnership comes out of our recognition that the MITS ministry is the most holistically effective program we’ve ever seen in action. They are doing bigger and greater things than Lifebread could accomplish on our own and we want to help.
Practically speaking, this means that Lifebread will be building no new bakeries for the foreseeable future. Our projects in Uganda and Togo will continue on as the self sustaining entities we established them to be. Our focus now, both through finances and effort, is geared towards growing and improving the MITS ministry. If you have any questions about this new partnership, please contact Dusty Breeding, dusty@lifebread.org.
