by Phil Smith, senior development ambassador
For the last decade that I’ve spent serving with HOPE International, I’ve been struck by the breadth of transformation that takes place among savings group members. I expected to see increased financial stability and economic opportunity as members built up emergency savings and accessed loans from the group. But again and again, I found something else within these groups that I wasn’t looking for: relational renewal, familial bonds with former strangers, and unwavering solidarity. It was community on a level I had only longed for—and it was drawing the lonely in, including one Rwandan woman named Pascasie.
For years after having a baby out of wedlock, Pascasie’s former church friends called her an ikizira (“abomination”). Most neighbors in her rural community avoided or complained about her, so she was naturally guarded when Gilbert, a savings group facilitator from another church, came to visit and invited her to join a savings group. “Jesus loves you and He is for all,” Gilbert shared. He went on to explain that this interdependent group, called Ubumwe (“unity”), wasn’t just willing to tolerate her; they truly wanted her to be part of their community. Pascasie finally agreed to join the group and began saving 10 cents a week, but she remained guarded, fearing judgment.
Over time, as she heard other group members share openly, she found that her difficulties were not as unlike those of the other women in the group as she had believed. She realized that circumstances may be different, but she was not alone in her struggles or her longing to belong. With time, Pascasie began to see that this was a safe place to be known. “To me, Ubumwe group is not just a savings group; it is my second family. It is a place where I feel at home,” she shared.
The group chose 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 as their guiding Scripture, emphasizing their shared identity as new creations entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation.
But this isn’t just a beautiful story unfolding in a faraway place—and this call for radical community is not for them alone. As I’ve studied Scripture, listened to stories like Pascasie’s, and learned from the global Church, I’ve grown convinced that the belonging we’re witnessing in savings groups around the world is what God created all of us to experience.
These stories became the heartbeat of a message I’ve spent the last several years thinking and writing about. I’m still pinching myself that next month InterVarsity Press will release the culmination of this journey: The Way Back to One Another: How to Live As People Created for Community. I’m praying God will use it to catalyze the kind of belonging and Christ-centered community I’ve witnessed again and again through HOPE’s savings groups. I believe more than ever that the answer to our deepest longings for more meaningful relationships and community—as well as the “loneliness epidemic” that directly affects more than half of Americans—may be more accessible than we’ve dared to imagine.
I’ve spent the last several years applying what I’ve learned to my own life. And as I’ve practiced rhythms of interdependence like recognizing our shared need for one another, risking vulnerability, and welcoming others in, I’ve begun to experience what I once only longed for. The relational transformation I’ve witnessed in savings groups has begun taking root in my home, my neighborhood, and my church.
What God is doing through groups like Ubumwe is not an exception or replicable only within savings groups—it’s a recurring theme and a compelling invitation into deeper community for all of us. My hope is that as we lean into this truth together, we’ll rediscover what Pascasie and countless other savings group members have found: that we were made for one another, and that there is so much joy to be discovered as we find the way back to one another.
Adapted from The Way Back to One Another by Jeff Galley and Phillip N. Smith. 2026 by Life Covenant Church Inc. and HOPE International. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com.
