About Our Founders
Annette M. Eckart is an internationally known speaker and servant of the Lord. She and her husband Ed founded Bridge for Peace, a ministry of healing to the nations, in 1988. Annette preaches worldwide about God’s healing power from first-hand experience. She and her husband lead Bridge for Peace teams on short-term missions, pray for people with supernatural results, and train people in biblical healing principles. In 2012, they founded Bridge for Peace Children’s Villages, a home for Ugandan children who had been orphaned. They welcomed Dr. Silverberg leader of a surgical mission team, to become Bridge for Peace RaphaEl Medical Missions. Annette speaks about her own healing from rheumatoid arthritis, ministers at Christian conferences and retreats for pastors and ministry leaders. She hosts the Bridge for Peace television program and is a frequent guest on radio. Annette and Ed live in Wading River, New York.
Annette speaks with power and compassion, proclaiming Jesus Christ through her experience of serving the Lord on six continents. Bridge for Peace, a ministry of healing to the nations, has bases in North America, Africa, Australia, Europe and South America. Touching lives for Jesus globally, Annette leads short-term international mission teams, uniting people from various cultures under the banner of Jesus Christ our Bridge for Peace. An anointed communicator, Annette shines in every media as she glorifies Jesus Christ.
She astonishes and inspires listeners with her dramatic story of how Jesus Christ healed her from crippling rheumatoid arthritis at 34 years of age when she was an entrepreneur in a Wall Street firm and sent her to the nations. She testifies as an eyewitness to God’s power in cities and remote regions all over the world, encouraging her listeners to trust God and respond to Him. Her message always exalts Jesus Christ and brings hope.
Annette speaks in churches and schools, leads inspirational retreats, workshops, and days of renewal for diverse groups across the United States. She has led over 100 international missions addressing people from every social and economic strata on six continents. Jesus Christ stars in every presentation she makes.
In 2011, Bridge for Peace released Foundation for Healing Bible Study authored by Annette. Her stories have appeared in Guidepost books and in The Upper Room. Bridge for Peace ministry has been hilighted in books and magazines worldwide. Annette authored Foundation for Healing Bible Course, followed by the Foundation for Freedom Bible Course. Her devotional Holy Chutzpah encourages holy boldness. Spiritual Secrets About Suicide was released in October, 2017. Her many CDs and DVDs are used as resources worldwide. Mental health workers distribute her CD, Arrest that Thought. She has appeared on television shows and hosts the Bridge for Peace television program. Radio programs on three continents have invited Annette to participate in broadcasts.
Jesus Christ visited Annette in a powerful way and she has dedicated her life to the healing of the nations through the Blood of Jesus Christ. Testimonials to the power of the Holy Spirit through her have been proclaimed worldwide.
Annette says, “To God alone be glory. Jesus Christ is my Bridge for Peace. I owe Him my life and I’ve given it to Him.”
Ed Eckart heads Bridge for Peace worldwide. Ed’s story testifies to how God uses men mightily when they follow Him without regard to personal gain. After twenty years in industry, Ed left a successful career as quality control manager with an international firm to work with Christians persecuted throughout the world.
In 1991, Ed initiated a dignity through labor project that he named World Mission Crafts. Ed set up displays of the artisan’s creations in churches in the United States from Massachusetts to Florida and as far west as Kentucky. Ed has a wealth of fascinating stories about artisan ingenuity and how in some lands they are persecuted as Christians. He helps people pass through a doorway to a distant land through his vivid verbal sketches of small villages and overcrowded cities in the developing world. The sale of fairly traded crafts provides crucial income for hardworking artisans. Ed also shared craft sale proceeds with hundreds of churches who hosted World Mission Craft events.
Though God had spoken to the Eckart’s about Bridge for Peace in 1988, it had not yet come to the forefront. World Mission Crafts absorbed most of Ed’s time, but the two ministries complimented each other. For instance, in 1997 the Eckart’s traveled to Belize where Ed walked the streets in search of an artisan named Donatilla who set up a jippy joppy basket cooperative in the jungle. She carried a black plastic bag full of crafts from the remote area where the Mopan Myans lived and remained in the city until she sold all of the handcrafts. When Ed found Donatilla she said “You are the answer to my prayer”. While Ed connected with leaders of indigenous cooperatives, Annette held spiritual workshops for women at a local center.
Ed became widely known as a man who helped the poor and people started to seek him for assistance. Ed directed attention to God’s truth by reciting the scripture, “Jesus said, ‘The poor you will always have with you.’ That wasn’t to give us an excuse, but to define our responsibility.” While managing World Mission Crafts and Bridge for Peace, Ed freely invested himself as a volunteer consultant to a group dedicated to the poor, helping them establish their own fair trade craft store. He guided them, gave them contacts, and prayed for their success. That store now supports an African orphanage. God released Ed from World Mission Crafts as the demands of Bridge for Peace increased.
By this time, Ed had seen God miraculously heal Annette. He had already, through a series of extraordinary events, purchased land that he understood God would use as a center for Bridge for Peace. In 2009, God again demonstrated His faithfulness through the building of Bridge for Peace international headquarters.
Ed’s love for God, his business experience, extensive international travel, and cultural sensitivity equip him to direct Bridge for Peace worldwide.
God blessed Ed with compassion, mercy, and patience in extraordinary measure. Ed of praying for the sick, whether at a healing service or in prayer rooms packed with hundreds of desperate people in Africa or South America. God releases miracles through Ed’s hands. The deaf hear, the mute speak and the blind see, literally, when Ed prays in the Name of Jesus for people in need. Whether solving administrative problems, counseling those who need guidance, encouraging others in good works or releasing the Holy Spirit’s miraculous power, Ed demonstrates a spirit of excellence that honors Jesus Christ. God blesses the nations through Ed’s servant leadership.
Bridge for Peace is an interdenominational ministry incorporated in the United States as a Non-profit organization 501c3. Contributions to Bridge for Peace are tax-deductible in the United States.
