Rev. Soard is the Executive Director of Wesley College Foundation. Until recently he and his wife Liz were working as missionaries with the United Methodist Church in Tanzania.

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They moved to Tanzania in 2010 and have worked in orphan care, church planting, community development, and education. The work resulted in 15 new churches being planted, the founding of the Emmanuel Center for Women and Children (a women and children’s advocacy center) as well as the founding of Our Father’s House, a ministry designed to reunite street children with their families. Eric also created the Community Development office for the United Methodist Church in Tanzania which helped churches to create and implement their own local development projects in over 100 villages and communities in Tanzania.

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In 2017 Eric founded Wesley College, the first United Methodist college in Tanzania. He served as the principal of the college from 2017 – 2020 when he shifted roles to work for Wesley College Foundation, a public charity dedicated to supporting Wesley College in Tanzania.

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Eric has a BA in religious studies from Lambuth University (’07), an MA in international development from Eastern University (’15), and he has done graduate work in theology at Asbury Theological Seminary. He became a deacon in the United Methodist Church in 2016.

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The Soards are now in Nashville with four beautiful boys, Derrick, Kaleb, Micah, and Elijah. “God has called me to ignite the spark of divine calling that lives in all of us and help equip those called by God to do God's work," he says. 

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