Making a small difference

Hawa, a 35-year-old mother of three, lives in the Vituka area in the city of Dar es Salaam. She sells both used and new clothes in the Vituka trading center. She also operates a restaurant alongside the shop. She received training in business and entrepreneurship from the Youth Self Employment Foundation, which has helped her expand her business.

Hawa requests a loan of $750 to purchase new and used clothing to sell in her shop.

Today I became a microfinance lender. I first heard about this organization from the speaker at Laurelville last weekend, and ever since then I have just been really intrigued by the entire idea of microfinance. I probably don't actually understand it, but here's what I think I know: People in poor countries cannot get loans from banks because they are high risk, they don't have capital to prove they can pay it back, they've never been to a bank before, etc. What microfinance is, then, is people making small loans to these people with little to no interest. There is a great website, http://www.kiva.org that connects regular people like me with regular people like Hawa Mohamed who have applied, been interviewed, and just need some money to build their business. The great thing about the whole process, though, is that there is only like a 3% chance that I won't get my money back. If I had just donated to charity I wouldn't have any real idea of where the money goes and no chance of getting it back. This way allows me to be actively involved in where I am investing my money, and there is that 97% chance that I will get my money back and be able to either withdraw it, or reinvest in someone else.

Now that I feel like I've totally confused everyone and even maybe myself, I just want to say that even though I feel like I'm over my head in college debt, I believe that God still calls us to give back. Maybe my parents who read this will think that I'm just throwing my money around and completely cut me off and I'll have to live on the street, but really it's just twenty-five dollars. There is a banner hanging up in the Pittsburgh Project that has a slogan that reads "The age of youth was made for heroic service and not for pleasure." As youth, yes I still consider myself slightly a youth, we have all this energy and potential. I want to use everything I have to create the heroic service that is needed in this world. I want to use my hands to do things for those who can't, my heart to love people who think they aren't worthy, my head to speak truth into people's lives that they can't discern themselves, and all of my assests to provide for people who cannot do it themselves. (I realize I was really close to being sued by 4H for stealing their idea, but I'll keep my "health" to myself for now...for those of you who don't understand that, go live in the country for awhile.)

I also want to finish by saying that I don't want to say these things to seem self-righteous, but more so that I can show people what I think is a great chance to make a difference. Maybe I'm wrong, but for now I'll trust that God can and will use my gifts in one way or another.

peace,
mark