By Art Smith, Council of Twelve Apostles
with input from Leslie Pascua, former CORD executive director

Art Smith: In October, when I stepped off the jet in the Philippines, I knew I would participate in a leadership-development weekend with the mission center. President of Seventy Larry McGuire and I would travel to several congregations.

I also knew I would sit in a boardroom. The CORD (Community One Resource Development) board would break from immediate budget, staffing, and strategy concerns to consider exploring what it would mean to partner with Outreach International.

Larry and I were there to begin our orientation to Community of Christ in the Philippines. We also would witness the beginning of an exciting chapter in the mission center’s important effort to abolish poverty.

Questions have echoed through Community of Christ’s history in the Philippines. They come from Apostle Charles Neff, one of the early founders of this work. He said:

When I think of the mission of the church, I am compelled to recall the face of the poorest and most helpless person I have ever seen and ask myself: Will what we are doing restore dignity? Will it set that person free? Will it heal a broken heart?

Those questions still guide the work of Community of Christ in the Philippines. The church established CORD and continues to work through this organization.

Story Begins in 1972

With Leslie Pascua: In 1972, amid armed conflict in the Philippines, Pastor Alfredo De Guzman sought Charles Neff’s help. Eight families from a Community of Christ congregation were relocated to safety in Simimbaan, Roxas, Isabela. Church leaders did more than move families to safer ground. They asked how we could help them build a future.

That led to the creation of Community One Vocational Foundation, later renamed Community One Resource Development. From the beginning, CORD was about more than charity; it was about dignity.

The goal was empowerment, not dependence.

Farmers built a rice-storage facility with their own hands. They organized a cooperative store. They established nutrition centers. Livestock projects helped families generate income. Over time, projects expanded to include wells, roads, dairy cooperatives, and environmental initiatives.

The method was called Participatory Human Development. Instead of outsiders deciding what a village needed, the community itself identified priorities. CORD staff members helped them organize, access government programs, and advocate for themselves. The goal was empowerment, not dependence.

There were hard seasons. Funding decreased in the late 1990s, but faithful leaders found partners and kept going.

Leadership and Transition

In the Philippines, CORD has long been understood as the church’s social-development arm—an expression of our mission to Abolish Poverty, End Needless Suffering, to pursue peace, and to care for creation.

I served as CORD’s executive director for more than a decade. CORD partnered with organizations such as Heifer International and implemented dairy-development projects that served hundreds of families. Wells were built. Farmers were trained. Households were strengthened by livelihood programs.

Early this year, I stepped down as executive director to focus more fully on responsibilities as a president of seventy. Leadership transitions are never simple. They involve risk, trust, and hope.

In the middle of 2025, during World Conference, Prophet-president Stassi D. Cramm announced that CORD was one of the church’s official affiliate partners. For some, that announcement brought excitement. For others, it brought questions. What would this mean? How would CORD sustain its operations after the current funding cycle ended?

Those questions led to conversations. Conversations led to meetings. Meetings led to prophetic imagination.

And eventually, that imagination led to something new.

A Partnership

In March 2026, a partnership between CORD and Outreach International became official. The moment felt historic.

Outreach International was created in 1973 to help support CORD’s early work. Neff realized CORD would need other funding sources. Though he could have continued to ask for church funds, Neff realized that would limit him to the resources of only church members. While on a trip to Nigeria with Roy Schaefer, director of Health Ministries for the RLDS (now Community of Christ), and Bill Higdon, then president of Graceland College, Neff conceptualized creating a US nonprofit-funding wing of CORD that allowed church members and nonmembers to contribute tax-exempt donations.

Supported by Schaefer and Higdon, Neff incorporated Outreach International in the state of Missouri in February 1973. This organization then raised about $50,000 a year, most of which went to CORD.

Over the decades, both organizations developed their own paths and partnerships. They went their separate ways. Now, more than fifty years later, they are entering a new chapter together.

More than fifty years later, they are entering a new chapter together.

As a new Outreach International partner, CORD will expand operations significantly. New staff members will be hired. New villages will be served. Most importantly, the Community-led Development model will deepen in the Philippines.

Community-led Development is simple in theory but powerful in practice. Communities gather and identify their root causes of poverty. They create plans and elect volunteer leaders. They track progress. Outside staff members walk alongside—but do not control—the process.

It is slow, relational, hopeful work. And it aligns beautifully with who we are as Community of Christ.

Seeing Is Believing

As the new partnership was being enacted, delegates from around the world gathered in February in Roxas for the International Resource Summit. About seventy international delegates visited four CORD communities.

Participants walked through the villages, sat in simple meeting spaces, and listened to farmers describe how organizing helped them access government support. Participants heard mothers tell how small-income projects changed their children’s opportunities. Local leaders explained tracking goals and measuring progress.

There were no polished presentations, but there was pride.

The people were honored that international delegates had come to see them. They felt heard and supported. In turn, visiting delegates were inspired.

Many said some version of the same thing:

We talk about abolishing poverty. Here, we are seeing what that looks like.

It is one thing to read the Mission Initiatives. It is another to stand in a village where hope is visible.

What This Means for Us

Art Smith: As I read testimonies of participants in the Resource Summit, I kept finding comments about the villagers:

• A farmer explaining how his cooperative works.
• A mother describing her hopes for her children.
• A young leader confidently presenting her village action plan.

For those of us across the global church, this partnership invites a question: How will we live Abolish Poverty, End Suffering in our own contexts?

Not all of us will travel to Roxas. Not all of us will serve on boards. But all of us are invited into mission.

We can pray.

We can give.

We can tell these stories.

We can learn from Community-led Development and ask how empowerment, dignity, and participation shape our own ministries.

When I left the Philippines, I did not just carry notes from a board meeting. I carried hope.

Hope that sustainable funding will allow CORD to expand into new villages. Hope that more families will organize and lift themselves toward stability. Hope that Community of Christ’s global family will see this partnership as part of our shared mission.

Fifty-four years ago, leaders looked at eight displaced families and asked, “What will restore dignity?”

Today, we are still asking that question.

And in the villages of the province of Isabela and beyond, hope is alive.