ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines its work in its first 25 years and discusses the way that its identity as a Christian organisation developed and changed during that period. From the beginning Tearfund sat somewhere between two different worlds – the evangelical missionary world and the new world of ‘international development’ – as it sought to encourage evangelical missionaries to carry out relief and development projects. Thus, in November of that year, Tearfund invited the leaders of several mission societies to meeting. In 1969 the Fund set up its own bank account and in 1970 it was incorporated as a company under the name of Tearfund Limited. Tearfund’s initial mode of operation was to raise funds from British supporters and to send them to missionaries working overseas in response to grant requests. Tearfund put him in touch with Richard Adams, who at the time was trying to set up a company importing craft items from the developing world on a fair basis.
