Meet Simon. Simon was among HOPE Congo’s first group of microfinance clients in Brazzaville. He sells sandals from a low table on a dusty street in the clothing district of Brazzaville’s largest and most important open-air market, Le Marche Total. He uses the modest profits from his business to help support a family of six people, including his first grandchild.
Simon has been selling sandals for quite some time now, but before working with HOPE Congo, he had never accessed a small business loan. He put his first loan to work to increase the selection and size of his inventory. Now, just a week after receiving his loan, his small stand is more eye-catching, and his stock sits a few inches off the ground on a low table. He is hopeful that he’ll be able to capitalize on what he learned through his biblically-based loan training sessions to make wiser business decisions and successfully repay his loan. One of the training elements that stood out to him most was HOPE’s emphasis on savings. “This is an advantage for clients, and it is unique,” he explains. “We are generally not encouraged to save. We spend money as we get it. I learned that if I plan and save, I will be able to do a better job with my business, and I will be able to repay, get more loans and grow.”
Simon is soft-spoken and humble, but he has ambition. He wants his business to grow and be more profitable for his family. He dreams of being able to travel and pay for his children to travel. He also has a specific goal for his business – to improve the variety of his stock and grow until the point when he can afford a boutique like those behind his small table. Now Simon is one step closer to achieving his dream.
Simon’s business reflects the stories of many Congolese entrepreneurs who are moving forward along a common procedure for scaling small market-based retail businesses. In Le Marche Total, most vendors start out with a very small inventory, and they cannot afford to pay taxes to the market to set up a table. So they start with a tarp or rice sack spread on the ground, covered with a small spread of lemons or peanuts or eggplants. After working for some time, they might be able to afford a low table (like Simon’s) that keeps their product out of the dust. Later, maybe they can upgrade to a higher, larger table. With a little luck, they might graduate to a free-standing kiosk that better displays a variety of wares and attracts customers. But the resale vendor at Le Marche Total has not truly reached his peak until he can afford to rent what Simon is also dreaming about: a boutique. With four concrete walls, shelves, padlocks, and exterior wall space that can be used to advertise, the boutique offers entrepreneurs the ability to stockpile goods and protect equipment in one central location. But more than that, the boutique is a status symbol for Congolese entrepreneurs. It is the sign of a stable, prosperous, and respectable business.
This progress, this gradual but steady development of assets, is something HOPE Congo Managing Director Simeon Havyarimana recently described - indeed, acted out - to the guests at HOPE’s Evening of Never Ending HOPE event in Lancaster PA. “This is how microfinance works: I lend you a little money,” he says as he figuratively hands money to the client, “and you use it to grow your small business.” He points to a low spot near his knees. Then he points a little higher. “Because you have grown, you can pay me back.” He pantomimes receiving the client’s first reimbursement. “Then, I lend you more money, you use it to grow your business more, and now you have more, so you can pay it back,” raising his voice a little, he repeats the same motions, but now the ‘business’ has grown chest high. “I lend to you again, and you have even more, so you can pay it back. And it keeps going.” His voice is loud with excitement, and he raises his hands higher, fingers stretched wide, until they are above his head. “Now…now look at how much you have!”
I’m telling you, there’s a huge demand for HOPE Congo’s services in Brazzaville. Loveline, HOPE Congo’s loan officer supervisor, said tome “In Congo, loans are like manna from heaven. Our clients are so happy, so thankful, so excited to repay.”
Jacinta is HOPE Congo’s Operations Manager, and last week, she shared a story about people in her own neighborhood who are looking for a “hand up.” She was telling some of her new neighbors (she recently moved to Brazzaville from Cameroon) about her job. While sharing about herself personally, she mentioned that HOPE Congo had just disbursed business loans to small-scale entrepreneurs who live in neighborhoods just like theirs.
A few days later, at 7:30 am, Jacinta’s neighbors showed up at her doorstep with a neatly hand-written list of names, addresses, phone numbers, and business activities for 25 people who want to access to microfinance loans. “We can hold the loan trainings in your house, “he said excitedly. ”We’ll each bring a chair, or we’ll buy more for you, and you can teach us how to use our loans.” She passed their info on to the loan officers’ growing waiting list.
The people of Brazzaville are ready for HOPE Congo to grow!
After receiving their loans, the clients get a one-week grace period to apply the funds to their businesses (by purchasing more inventory, diversifying stock, renting more retail space, etc). Reimbursement meetings start two weeks after the original disbursal, allowing time for the infusion of capital to bear fruit for the entrepreneur in the form of increased profits. From that point on, clients meet every week for the remainder of the four-month loan period. Community banks come together for an hour and a half to make repayments, receive business training rooted in scripture, share concerns and seek counsel, and pray and fellowship with one another.
Latest update: 100% repayment from both community banks at today’s reimbursement meetings! The day was not without its hiccups, but every franc of scheduled repayments from Ebenezer and Bonne Semence(the Good Seed) was recovered, and clients made it clear that they’re serious about repaying. HOPE Congo’s staff is breathing a collectivesigh of relief.
I’m pleased to introduce HOPE Congo’s pioneering community banks! On
May 10, HOPE Congo’s first loans went out to fifty Congolese men and
women seeking to improve and expand their small businesses. The
clients formed two community banks of 25 - one group named itself
“Ebenezer” and the second “The Good Seed.”
Each client’s business is slightly unique. HOPE Congo clients sell
fruit, sandals, salted fish, linens, used clothing, books, and basic
food staples. Others are tailors, butchers, and community grocers.
They come from a few different neighborhoods and market districts in
Brazzaville. Some are friends, some are neighbors or acquaintances,
some are even competitors, but they must all work together and rely on
each other to be successful with their HOPE loan. Unless the entire
group’s loan is repaid, the group members will not be able to access
additional loans in the future.
And believe me, with few or no other options for accessing small
business capital, all of these clients want more loans in the future.
When I ask them if they plan to take out more loans, most clients look
at me with their brows furrowed, not quite sure if they understood
what sounds like such an obvious question. One woman responded, “Do I
want more loans from HOPE? Of course I do! I’m going to work harder
than I’ve ever worked before so I can pay it all back in plenty of
time and get a bigger loan from HOPE next time! I’ve always dreamed
big, but after hearing about this, I’ve got even bigger plans.”
With the help of HOPE staff, the community bank’s elected leaders
receive and distribute the group’s loan to each client in their group
(see photo). For many clients, this is a special moment. Never
before has an institution come into their neighborhoods to seek them
out, offered products that fit their specific needs, invested in
training and coaching to improve their chances of success, and put
responsibility and power into their hands. It was an exciting day.
It was also an exciting day for the HOPE Congo staff. After months
and months of preparation and administration, this is the first day when
the rubber really hits the road. It is no small task to coordinate,
transport, and track tens of thousands of dollars as it passes into
the hands of 50 new clients. HOPE’s cashier and a loan officer give
the day a thumbs up. Disbursal #1 was a success.
But the next real test is tomorrow – the first loan repayment meeting…
* Photos are thanks to Brian Castleberry who was on site on the day of
the first disbursals.
So first things first. My name is Becky, and I work for HOPE International’s Central Service Unit as a grant writer. Part of my job is to serve as a go-between bridging the informational gap between HOPE supporters (typically in the U.S.) and HOPE’s 14 international microenterprise development programs – including the 270,000+ entrepreneurs HOPE serves. On a daily basis, I find myself doing some pretty cool things - interviewing interesting field staffers, researching living conditions, answering donors’ questions, and learning about and describing the inner mechanics of microfinance institutions and the challenges our staff and clients face. I love my job! But the thing is…I do all of these things from the gray stillness of my very American cubicle in a very American office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
So I’ve been shipped off to the Republic of Congo, and I couldn’t be more pleased! After years of planning, coordinating, and waiting patiently, HOPE recently launched its newest microfinance institution (MFI): HOPE Congo! Last Monday, our local staff successfully disbursed small business loans to 50 aspiring entrepreneurs who make a living selling products and services to the people of Brazzaville. I couldn’t think of a better place to be right now to experience the realities of how this all works. So for almost a month, I’m here to learn:
what it takes to launch an MFI
what it’s like to live and do business in a place like Congo
how our clients creatively combine ideas, skills, training, and HOPE capital to begin to pull their own families out of poverty.
I’m so excited to finally be able to write my first post from Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo! Before I left, I had originally intended to introduce myself to you over the blogosphere, provide some background on the HOPE Congo program and why I’m here, and give you a bit of a travelogue for my flights to Brazza. But honestly, right now, my mind is racing with the sights, smells and sounds of Brazzaville’s largest market, le Marche Total. Specifically, I can’t stop thinking about the entrepreneurs I met there who recently became clients of HOPE Congo, HOPE’s newest microfinance institution that launched its first loans a week ago. These clients were vivacious and confident, knowledgeable about their business, excited to be a part of HOPE Congo, and full of hope and ambition for the future. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve arrived safely, and I’ve found that HOPE Congo is already impacting families in Brazzaville in powerful ways. More to come as the adventure unfolds!
My friend, Brian, recently returned from a missions trip to Kenya. He led a group of youth as they supported their Kenyan partner church ministry for two weeks. The Kenyan ministry’s focus was HIV positive mothers in its very poor slum community. They provided food, money, prayer and helped their children—demonstrating the love of Christ in word and deed. Brian and the youth group dove in. They spread the news of the church’s ministry into the neighboring communities.
A week into the trip, Brian had a stirring, even haunting, realization. This Kenyan ministry had become “the cocaine of its community.” He shared candidly with me that these mothers were completely dependent upon the charity, and indirectly on Brian’s church which funded it. Instead of working, these capable women would sit every day at the door of the charity, waiting for the free distributions. As a result, their children saw their moms time-and-again not as providers, but as placid receivers.
The more I study, the more I discover how different the biblical prescription of charity is from my own. Consider gleaning. God’s people were not commanded to harvest the fields fully and give a tithe of their grain away, but rather to leave portions of the fields unharvested. Doing so provided the poor, the widows and the foreigners with meaningful work, sustenance and on-the-spot vocational training. And gleaning was a command for all business owners, not just the wheat farmers.
When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. (Deut 24:20-21)
I believe we have misinterpreted God’s commands to help the poor. Jewish scholars state that woven through the Torah is an understanding that “not all charity is created equal.” They cite that “the greatest level [of charity], above which there is no greater, is to support a fellow Jew by endowing him with a gift or loan, or entering into a partnership with him, or finding employment for him, in order to strengthen his hand until he need no longer be dependent upon others.”
Does this prescription align with the majority of our charitable endeavors? Brian had deep respect that this Kenyan ministry served the “least of these.” But, was this charity in alignment with the biblical model of charity? Were they helping these women…
1) To no longer need to receive charity?
2) Experience the dignity of honest work?
3) Enjoy the blessing of providing for their children?
4) Know the joy of giving charitably to others?
In fairness, there are times when the only appropriate response is to freely give things away. The Haiti earthquake and support to the disabled are examples of such. But, barring such exceptions, our long-term aim should always be to help in a way which frees recipients of the need for our charity, “so that they might help others in need” (Eph. 4:28). Well-intentioned charity devoid of this goal can lead to unhealthy dependency and even addiction.
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, read HOPE’s top five ways Christ-centered microfinance is an expression of love.
More and more people are coming to understand the financial benefits of microfinance. At HOPE, however, we believe the benefits can be more than financial. We believe the heart of microfinance is reaching out to those in need with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. If we are to model Christ, we need to embrace others with dignity and enable them to facilitate change in their own lives. In this season marked by love, we want to share five key ways Christ-centered microfinance is an expression of love.
1. Financial services are dignity-affirming opportunities.
All of us want the best for those we love, but so often poverty prevents people from fulfilling their potential and steals their dignity. In the Dominican Republic, HOPE’s partner, Esperanza International, has had the opportunity to offer small business loans, basic business training, and a support system to women who formerly worked in prostitution. One group member said her life has been changed. “Before I went out and engaged in prostitution. I feel safer now because I don’t go out. And now I can support my family by selling clothes. I knew about the love of God before, but I didn’t understand it. Now I understand that God loves me.”
2. Group members are in it together.
Members of community banks or savings groups develop a special bond. Meeting week after week, praying together, and sharing triumphs and struggles, groups grow in solidarity. One HOPE India savings group member confessed to her fellow group members that her husband beat her regularly. Instead of merely sympathizing, the other women in her group took action. They travelled to her home, and in a show of solidarity and courage, they confronted her husband. Knowing that the abuse could no longer be perpetrated in secret and that these women cared enough for his wife to hold him accountable, the man stopped beating his wife.
3. Microfinance can promote reconciliation.
In one small Rwandan village there were two feuding brothers and only one savings group. Both valued the opportunity enough to tolerate one another, but neither planned to reconcile. As the savings group began to rotate its meeting locations to various members’ homes, the first brother was forced to decide: Would he skip the meeting and forfeit this opportunity or would he enter his brother’s home? He attended the meeting. A few weeks later, his brother attended a meeting at his home. This second meeting opened with a reading from John 3:16 and a discussion of love. The brothers began to cry, pleading with one another for forgiveness. Faith, finances, and community united in such a way that two enemies became reconciled brothers.
4. Microfinance offers opportunities to share God’s love.
Again and again we hear from our loan officers that the best part of their job is sharing the love of Jesus. This was just the message one HOPE China client needed to hear. He had always been a family man, but after his wife passed away, Liu saw little meaning in his life. He became addicted to alcohol, grew distant from his daughter, and let his business slide. He wanted a change, so he sought a loan from HOPE China, but life still seemed empty. When his loan officer shared the Gospel, Liu said Jesus was exactly what he needed. His family and his community have seen the difference. Once heartbroken, Liu is now filled with joy. He sings while he works, and he says his prayers are prayers of gratitude. Seeing Liu’s genuine transformation, both his daughter and mother have come to put their faith in Christ as well.
5. Microfinance enables clients to show love to their communities.
As a mother of a special needs child, Xiomara longed to stay home with her daughter to give her the care she required - but her income was also needed to provide for her daughter. Living in a community in the Dominican Republic where many of her neighbors left their children behind and travelled to resort towns to work, Xiomara realized that she probably wasn’t the only mother facing this difficult choice. She wanted mothers and fathers to know that their children were well cared for, even while they were away at work. She opened a school and daycare center using a loan from HOPE’s partner in the Dominican Republic, Esperanza International. Parents pay Xiomara to care for their children as they are able, enabling her to provide for her own family, but Xiomara’s love for children and her community extends beyond her business interests. “I will never turn down a child because of a parent’s inability to pay,” she says.
Want to show love by supporting microfinance? Give a heart-felt Valentine’s gift of HOPE here.
Think there are other ways Christ-centered microfinance can be an expression of love? Share your thoughts!
I love online banking and e-commerce. I love the convenience of checking account balances, making transfers, and purchasing products in sweatpants from my living room. I’ve quickly become accustomed to the ease of doing business from home, although this luxury is unique to the past decade. It’s easy to forget that just ten years ago online banking was nothing but a dream.
Last month I visited HOPE’s work in the Dominican Republic. There, I had the privilege of meeting our clients, seeing their businesses and soaking in the culture of a country I have come to love. One of the questions I asked to a few of the community banks (groups of 15-30 clients) was “Why HOPE? Why did you choose to become a HOPE client?” Time and time again, in different communities throughout the country, our clients responded, “Because HOPE came to us.”
It’s hard to think back to what life was like ten years ago, when we had to drive to the bank or the store for just about everything. It’s even more challenging to imagine how extremely inconvenient it would be if we lived a few hours from the center of town, where a trip to the bank or to the store meant a day’s worth of travel. Yet, this is the reality for many of our clients. In Congo, our clients often live two or more hours away from the closest commercial banks, large stores, and even HOPE branch offices. To service these remote communities, our loan officers must travel two hours by bus on shoddy dirt roads or, during the rainy season, traipse hours by foot through the mud to reach these communities.
In that context, you understand why they list it as a primary reason for choosing HOPE. Our hardworking and diligent loan officers go into the communities where our clients live. This is about even more than convenience. That message—No, don’t come to us. We’ll come to you—speaks dignity, loud and clear, into the lives of our clients and into their communities. They matter. Their neighborhoods are not forgotten. When everyone tells them they aren’t, we tell them they are worth our time.
One client’s comments are still ringing in my ears. I asked him, “Why HOPE?” …and he responded, “When everybody else makes us come to them, you come to us.”
This past week has been encouraging regarding relationships I have with neighbors on my block. Four years ago, my husband and I intentionally (and we think, obediently) moved into a tougher inner city neighborhood. We’ve formed some really great relationships with adults and kids, but haven’t really “done” anything to write home about. No one’s professed new faith in Jesus. No one’s drastically improved in school. No one’s changed their status from unemployed to employed. And no one has gotten off of government funding. To sum it all up, no one’s really that drastically different at all…not even us.
A couple days ago, I was yelling over from my front porch to our next door neighbor, Angela (not her real name). Angela is a single mom of three. It must have been an early start, as she has a sixteen-year-old son and she isn’t much older than thirty. Her two daughters are in third grade and kindergarten, and about as sweet as can be. Angela isn’t making it very easily. She lives in Section 8 housing, which means part of her rent is paid by the government. Her ex-husband rarely shows up and neglects child support regularly. She’s a teacher, and her paycheck just isn’t enough. This week, until her check went through, their refrigerator was empty, they were running on fumes, one of her daughters got sick (which meant she couldn’t work), and she was totally stressed out. I offered to watch her sick daughter the next day. As she described her situation, most of which seemed impossible to change, she also mentioned she can’t afford after-school care. Well, on her list, that was the one thing that I felt like I could do something about . So, we’ve come up with a plan for me to pick up her girls after school once a week and take care of them until she can come home. It might turn into three times a week, but for now she’s got the other days covered with other people. I think it hurt her to admit her need (both for the one day to watch her sick daughter and for the ongoing after-school help), but it really isn’t much of an inconvenience for me and I’m happy to help.
So, why am I telling this story in a post titled: Anonymity and the Gospel? Well, because I’ve probably told this story ten times already since it happened last week. Once at Bible study, when I asked for prayer for the relationship with Angela and her kids. I think some of my request was genuine, but it was in large part an opportunity to manipulate the conversation to make people recognize what I’ve done and think well of me. Then yesterday when I was picking up the girls from school, I ran into someone whose kids go to the same school. She was surprised to see me, and while it would have been WAY faster and easier just to explain that I was doing a favor for a friend…I went into the details. Why? Because I knew the details would make me look good. Pay no attention to the dignity it stole from my friend, Angela. I was striving for attention and accolades, and I shared personal details to make myself appear kind, compassionate, and basically awesome. Last night on the phone I did it again with another friend. Here I am again today, but for a different reason.
What does the Bible tell us about doing good works for attention? Well, here’s one really clear example from Matthew 6:1-8:
Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then, your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Sometimes I think we believe that it is only the materially rich who are reaping their rewards on earth, “where moth and rust destroy.” But, friends, you and I are tempted by a different form of pre-eternal reward: man’s acclaim for our works of righteousness. Every time we strive for attention, subtly manipulate a conversation or Twitter update to communicate something we’re doing for Jesus, we are robbing ourselves of true, eternal reward. It is always interesting to me that Jesus doesn’t say we won’t get a reward if we do our ‘acts of righteousness’ this way. He simply and devastatingly says we get our reward in full; we just get it here (from man), and not here and later (from our Father.)
I’m not good with comparisons, but it would be like being eight years old and being offered a trip to Disney Land but choosing to watch Cinderella on TV instead. They’re both rewards or gifts, but the value of them isn’t even close. If we only knew what we were missing. C.S. Lewis says it this way: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Oh friends, I LONG with you that our ‘acts of righteousness’ would be radical, sacrificial, beautiful and for the most part, hidden. I long that God would receiveglory for what has been done, instead of us. I pray that we wouldn’t strive for attention for what we’ve accomplished but that we’d be pleased to stay largely obscure and less known. Francois Fenelon says it this way:
It is not surprising that you are very ambitious to advance in your spiritual life, and to find yourself in the company of those who have a reputation for being spiritual. No matter what it looks like, these things still flatter your self-love. Do not seek to fulfill your ambitions of becoming more spiritual, or to be counted in the company of those people who are honored for their spirituality. Your aim should be to die to all such ambitions by letting yourself be humbled. You must learn to accept obscurity and scornful disregard while you keep your eyes solely on God…Say little and do much—without wondering if you have been noticed or not.
I always wonder if I’ve been noticed. I remember one pitiful moment when a friend was asking me about how my work was going—was I still working part time? And I TOTALLY manipulated the conversation, very subtly, of course, to slip in the fact that we’re adopting from Rwanda. Aren’t we great? Sick. Sick. Sick. Richard Foster says:
Self-righteous service requires external rewards. It needs to know that people see and appreciate the effort. It seeks human applause—with proper religious modesty of course. True service rests in hiddenness. It does not fear the lights and blare of attention, but it does not seek them either. Since it is living out of a new Center of reference, the divine nod of approval is enough.
I like how he mentions that true service doesn’t fear the lights and blare of attention. Some of us/you are going to be in positions of God-given influence. But, we should be cautioned to not let the attention injure our souls and rob us of eternal reward. I’m not suggesting we never tell people about the work we’re doing, but I’m suggesting that we ask God to examine our motives when we’re doing it. How much of it is to encourage someone, glorify God, and obey him…and how much of it is to make myself look good?
Just because we struggle to do these things with pure motivations, does not mean we should just quit trying. God doesn’t give us that option. But, let us seek hiddenness and allow our impure motivations for service to become more pure. Foster says “nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It pulls for honor and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered.” Join me, friends, in moving towards anonymity and hiddenness, not to impress one another, but to have pride and self-love rooted out in us.
From someone who struggles deeply with this issue, who likely has done nothing anonymously in my life, please pray and ache with me that we would be people who would be content to be unknown. Content to obey God whether it brings us attention or not. Able to confess sin and admit temptation. Pray with me that these ‘acts of righteousness’ we’re all doing will be tested later and found to be gold. Suitable for eternity.
So first things first. My name is Becky, and I work for HOPE International’s Central Service Unit as a grant writer. Part of my job is to serve as a go-between bridging the informational gap between HOPE supporters (typically in the U.S.) and HOPE’s 14 international microenterprise development programs – including the 270,000+ entrepreneurs HOPE serves. On a daily basis, I find myself doing some pretty cool things - interviewing interesting field staffers, researching living conditions, answering donors’ questions, and learning about and describing the inner mechanics of microfinance institutions and the challenges our staff and clients face. I love my job! But the thing is…I do all of these things from the gray stillness of my very American cubicle in a very American office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 
