Troy LeBlanc is on a mission: he wants to give young people the tools to pave their own future.
LeBlanc flew to Nairobi, Kenya last week and then on to nearby Eldoret for a three-day conference. The conference brought together over 300 musicians, community trailblazers and ministry and worship leaders who wanted to learn how to build music, film and video studios in their area.
LeBlanc is there to finalize the establishment of a branch of EM Records, one of the companies he owns under his label, Elyon Media Group, LLC. The completion of a community music studio in Eldoret will be facilitated by the purchase of a computer suitable to run the recording software.
For the last three months, musicians in three different cities have logged onto a Zoom call hosted by LeBlanc in anticipation of the studio’s opening. During those calls, participants have rehearsed music, shared chord sheets and asked questions about how the studio might work.
The conference in Eldoret culminated in a free concert by musicians. LeBlanc has two additional conferences in nearby cities on his itinerary. He is currently working to set up studios in Lehore, Pakistan, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Nigeria.
LeBlanc is the youth and family minister at the Blanco Methodist Church. He is a veteran of Desert Storm and Desert Shield and was a secondary educator for 10 years. In 1995, he founded a charity that has supported humanitarian aid and missionary endeavors in 22 countries.
Since returning to the United States in 2007, he has worked behind the scenes in film and music production, graphic and web design and has provided marketing and branding consultation and printing services for ministries and missionaries through Elyon Media Group. From it, he says, he takes 10% of the proceeds and pours the other 90% into funding his ministry work.
While gaining experience in ministry, he realized that he “wanted to pursue the proverbial ‘teach a man to fish’ model of missionary work.”
“By teaching people how to make a living by providing current technological platforms and teaching them the entrepreneurial skills to sustain those skills, they can create jobs where they live and not have to depend on stateside money,” LeBlanc explained. It is, he said, “a sustainable model.”
In between trips to far-flung regions of the globe, he and his mission partners make monthly trips to Piedras Negras and Reynosa, Mexico where they support ministries who help the flood of immigrants from Central and South America.
When asked how he can complete creative projects, engage in mission work throughout the globe, lead youth activities in Blanco and keep up with the ministerial alliances he pursues, he said, “I learned that I had to replicate myself or I’d burn out.” In other words, he shares what he knows so that others can take the baton and run with it.
Perhaps LeBlanc’s second gift after championing a youth-driven movement in media is his ability to build alliances.
“By building relationships, we are able to find where the needs are,” he said. “The key is to find delegates in every group who will take ownership of the project and who will go on to sustain the effort. We become a resource and not the prime mover.”
He also relies on two other skills: intentionality and being fully present in the moment, to meet the demands on his time.
A tour of the upper room of the Methodist Church on Pecan Street in Blanco reveals a large comfortable space filled with video equipment, sound boards, musical instruments, cameras, computers and other gear as well as a lounging area where young people can interact, hang out and learn from each other. Downstairs in a room for younger children, a puppet stage is set up.
The payoff to his vibrant outreach came several months ago when he found a name on Facebook that he recognized from the past. It was a Russian boy, now grown up, who had attended one of his activity camps with friends 20 years ago. Now a university graduate in the US, the young man met up with LeBlanc and credited the camp with changing all of their lives completely.
“Knowing that the camps changed the course of his life is the payoff from all of this effort and focus,” he said, choking up. “That’s the paycheck.”
For information about the Blanco Methodist Church and its youth outreach, go to blancomc. org. To learn more about the Elyon Media Group, go to elyonmedia.com.
