by Mark Russell, Director of Spiritual Integration

I’d like to touch on two more important aspects of microfinance (MF):

1) How it can be a vehicle for the spiritual message of Christ; and
2) How a US-based church can make a real difference

For those focused on holistic missions, simply meeting temporary, “physical” needs of people in poverty is insufficient. We also seek to meet eternal, “spiritual” needs. That being said, we would be dissatisfied to engage spiritual poverty while ignoring physical needs. Holistic ministry demands care and concern for the whole person, body and spirit.

We realize that it requires a community to carry out such a holistic approach. As the Apostle Paul aptly noted in 1 Corinthians 12, God has designed us as part of a body in which no one is skilled to do the job alone. In faith-based MF, the same is true. Some are gifted to be loan officers; others are managers, and others are accountants.

Meaningful partnerships with local churches are essential to ensure that our whole message of salvation for this life and the next is brought out. One such partnership has developed between Willowdale Chapel, a non-denominational church in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and HOPE International’s program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The DRC is a challenging place for any type of work. Unemployment figures fall in an almost unfathomably high range of 90-97%. People subsist by generating income outside the formal economic sector, e.g., as street vendors. Though there are many strong churches in Congo and a majority of people call themselves Christians, animism, African traditional religions, and superstitions remain rampant. If there was ever a place that needed full engagement of physical and spiritual interventions, the DRC is it.

Willowdale wanted to make a real difference, and several business leaders in the congregation were excited about an innovative, business approach to missions. Willowdale began their community involvement project in the DRC in 2005. HOPE began providing bulletin inserts with client profiles to help the church get to know the work. HOPE Congo’s Director, Nate Hulley, and other local HOPE staff were called upon to share in services and provide updates. The Willowdale staff has regular phone calls with the HOPE staff via Skype (an internet calling program), and videos are shown in worship services to connect congregants to the work.

Some time into the partnership, Willowdale made a trip to the DRC to explore how to strengthen the relationship. Greg Lafferty, lead pastor at Willowdale Chapel said:

Through regular updates, periodic visits from field staff, and firsthand exposure through HOPE Trips, we have seen that God is using HOPE and Willowdale to release thousands of people from the grip of physical and spiritual poverty.

On the surface, it appears difficult for short-term volunteers to truly help a microfinance institution (MFI). For a non-faith-based MFI, it might be more trouble than it’s worth. However, these partnerships are vital in consideration of the spiritual dimensions of HOPE’s work. In reflection on the Willowdale partnership, Nate Hulley commented:

I feel that the relationship has been mutually beneficial. First, more important than any funding relationship, is a prayer relationship. Members of Willowdale, and Willowdale as a corporate body, pray regularly for our ministry. This coverage of the ministry in prayer is essential. Second, I would say that we are both gaining from the exchange of ideas. Third, at Willowdale I find brothers and sisters in Christ who are interested in all aspects of our ministry, from reaching out with the Word of God to the more technical aspects of the micro-enterprise development work. Their interest in our work is motivating, and their questions and ideas push us to improve what we do.
In the last year an estimated 1.5 million Americans went overseas on short-term mission trips. Hopefully, more and more of these trips will be taken with long-range solutions to deeply embedded physical and spiritual problems in mind.

On the other hand, we hope that for Willowdale, our work provides a direct connection for them to the work of Jesus, bringing about justice and being peacemakers through economic empowerment and testimony. It’s a challenge to reach across cultures and try to communicate … [but ultimately it] causes us to remember why we do this work and to re-dedicate ourselves to serving the Lord in Congo.

Actively sharing forces us to consider our approach to ministry. It’s interesting, sometimes when you need to explain your approach to a problem or even a victory, it gives you a gut-check to say, “Are we being Christ-like in how we’re doing this?” … I believe that with HOPE and Willowdale, there is a sense of iron sharpening iron.

by Mark Russell, Director of Spiritual Integration

My previous post argued that microfinance (MF) is an effective development strategy that:
1) provides more permanent solutions to poverty, not temporary hand-outs,
2) empowers individuals within their local contexts instead of creating dependency, and
3) significantly engages the economy.

These are no small assertions, and some explanation is necessary. First, let me give the layman’s view of what MF is. At its core, MF is a development intervention that targets people in poverty who are shut out of traditional banking services. MF is generally conceptualized and described as small business loans to entrepreneurs living in poverty. This is a key component of MF; however, MF has expanded to include several other important services such as savings and insurance.

People in poverty generally have no collateral and oftentimes have debt. This prevents them from accessing traditional bank loans. They also live in areas of high unemployment, where the scarcity of income-generating activities prevents them from acquiring collateral or paying off debt. They’re stuck in a vicious, negative cycle. Since they lack basic necessities, the first aid that compassionate, well-intentioned people often provide is the delivery of material goods such as food, clothing, or shelter. This is admirable and frequently absolutely necessary. However, the provision is temporary. Once they have consumed the goods provided, the beneficiaries of the aid return to the same position. Alternatively, a small business loan enables these entrepreneurs to work their way into financial sustainability and security.

I do not know where I would be today if I had never had access to financial credit or provision that I did not earn. How many of us in the USA take out loans for university studies, a car, or a home? Imagine a world in which you could never take out a loan and there was no benevolent person with sufficient financial resources to help you. This is the world of many of the poor.

The second problem that MF solves is dependency. HOPE International was founded by Jeff Rutt, a God-fearing homebuilder in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In the early 1990s he took several trips to Ukraine with containers of goods to distribute to the poor and needy in tow. These gifts were welcome and seemingly justified considering the wealth of the donors in the US and the poverty of the people in Ukraine at that time. However, after one trip, a pastor approached Jeff and said he was doing more harm than good because he was creating dependency in the beneficiaries and robbing them of the joy of personal responsibility. In place of gifts, Jeff started an MF program. Giving loans enables people to work for themselves and not rely on foreigners to meet their needs.

Finally, globalization is bringing the world together with many positive repercussions in the lives of people around the world. But the sad truth is that a significant portion of people have been shut out of recent advances and have actually been hurt by rising fuel and food prices. For example, some people in China and India are wealthier and able to consume more goods. This drives up demand. Since supply has not been able to keep pace, prices have increased for basic food staples like rice and flour. For people in the lower economic strata, the slightest increase is devastating. Like the victim in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, they are left on the roadside while everyone else trots by. The need for MF is staggering. There are currently 100 million MF clients worldwide. An estimated 450 million other people fit the criteria for it but do not have access to it. Christian MF organizations service 1.5 million clients, or only 1.5% of the current clientele and 0.02% of the overall need. In one sense, this is appalling. However, I’m convinced the reason is that most followers of Christ are not aware of the need or how we can help.

by Mark Russell, Director of Spiritual Integration

Jesus famously summarized the law and prophets by citing the two greatest commandments: to love God and to love neighbor. To illustrate what it meant to love one’s neighbor he told the parable of the Good Samaritan, the beautiful story of a traveler who, in contrast to a priest and a Levite, cared for an injured victim of robbery by carrying him to a hotel, nursing his wounds, and covering his expenses.

For years this parable has shaped my family’s ministry. We carried gifts to people dying of AIDS and served food to the homeless. Living overseas as missionaries, we strived to serve the poor in meaningful ways whenever and however we could. But something always bothered us. Our efforts, though compassionate, well intended, and modeled after Christ’s story, never seemed to produce the results we desired. We were not irrational idealists expecting that we could single-handedly reverse years and even centuries of defective and unjust social systems. But we gradually realized that when we gave donations to people there were two crucial problems: 1) we only temporarily met their needs — they would soon grow hungry, and 2) we inadvertently created dependency — we were their source for ending their hunger.

Living overseas as the Internet took hold around the world, we became acutely aware of the growing trend toward global interconnectedness, commonly referred to as globalization. The economy is the fuel, the engine, the steering wheel, the accelerator, and the driver of globalization. The economy of globalization has advanced technology, generated wealth, and created a more interdependent world. But in its haste, the global economy has also bypassed many impoverished, abused victims who lay helpless on the roadside.

My wife and I began thinking and praying about how the Church could be the Good Samaritan in the age of globalization. We came to realize that any truly effective approach would have to seriously address the long-term nature of need and the dependency problem as well as engage the processes of the global economy.

As an undergraduate student I studied International Business at Auburn University. When I sensed God calling me into international missions, neither I nor anyone else I knew acknowledged that business might have something to do with missions. After several years of working in ministry and living overseas, I have realized that the two must go together.

To engage these issues more systematically, I enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Intercultural Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. Through this process I have grown increasingly fond of microfinance, an innovative development intervention with the potential to do everything I was looking to accomplish: 1) provide more permanent solutions to poverty, not temporary hand-outs, 2) empower individuals within their local contexts, not create dependency and 3) significantly engage the economy.

Microfinance has gained global notoriety since Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Few people are aware, however, of how the Church has used, is using, and could enhance its use of microfinance as a powerful tool to be the Good Samaritan in the age of globalization.