Spiritual Integration Archives | Page 16 of 19

The Battle for Rwanda

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

It’s been eight months since I’ve returned home from Rwanda, and one impression from the trip keeps coming back to me: Satan has never felt more real to me than he did in Rwanda. It wasn’t because the people I met seemed evil. On the contrary, it was because they were welcoming and wonderful, and without the influence of Satan, I can’t imagine how 18 years ago, these incredible people could have spent 100 days engaged in a gruesome slaughter of their neighbors, friends, and families. Continue Reading…

Stay tuned: Spiritual Integration Blogging from Congo and Rwanda

Over the next few days, I will be sharing some thoughts and reflections from my recent visit to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo and Kigali, Rwanda. The trip was incredible for a variety of reasons. God is transforming lives in amazing ways, and the teams in each program are doing a great job of steadily improving our spiritual integration (SI) efforts. So please tune in over the coming days, as I share the most meaningful thoughts and impressions from the trip.

There is a lot that has changed at HOPE since our founding in 1997. We’ve built our team. Added 15 more countries of service. Diversified our services. But our core beliefs have remained consistent.

Charity is broken. Necessary for short-term relief, charity is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone. It doesn’t address the underlying issues of poverty—hopelessness, helplessness, and voicelessness. Instead it reinforces these mindsets long term. Our help can actually hurt those we’re attempting to serve.
Job creation is a proven way out of financial poverty. Poverty was cut in half—from 52 to 26 percent—between 1981 and 2005. What happened? Economic opportunity in China, Brazil, and India have revolutionized poverty reduction. But it’s also common sense. A job is simply superior to a handout. Consistently, we hear this when we listen to the families we serve. They don’t want to be thrown another fish, but rather given the opportunity to start a fishing business.
You can gain the whole world, yet lose your soul. Poverty is more than financial. At its heart, poverty is about relational brokenness: our separation from God and from each other. Jesus Christ calls us to restore relationships and has given us the message and the model through his life, death, and resurrection. We are fully committed to addressing not only physical poverty, but also spiritual poverty in all we do.
Do one thing – and do it well. HOPE’s model works because it’s simple. We focus on one thing: excellent Christ-centered microenterprise development. Our model includes teaching biblically based business training, sharing the Word of God, providing access to small loans and savings services to those excluded from the formal financial sector.

Fifteen years ago, HOPE offered 12 loans to people in poverty. While so much has changed since then, our core beliefs have kept us anchored.

Customer Service Servants

“Hello – My name is Fabia, how are you today?” That is all it took for my wife, Anne, to decide where she would purchase her gas once we had moved to Kigali, Rwanda. Today, we both make a real effort to return and visit Fabia. It is not because of “high performance petrol” but to enjoy and encourage the kind interaction that comes with Fabia’s consistently great customer service.

The leaders in Rwanda often publically state: “Customer service in Rwanda must improve.” This is a complaint I have heard all over the world—and very often in the USA. My belief is that customer service usually originates within the person as a sincere desire to serve and bless others, and HOPE provides clients in Rwanda training on customer service as an extension of the biblical Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). Logistically, it is much easier to provide great customer service in the developed world. Large industrial freezers with pre-cut meat and vegetables allow for quick delivery in restaurants. Fully integrated supply chains help make sure your favorite Superstore is never out of stock, and the simple swipe of credit cards ensure not coming up short on change will never be a problem Another shining example of great customer service can be seen in Emmanuel’s photography business. Continue Reading…

Dreaming What Could Be

Hey all – Bryan here. I’m currently serving as HOPE’s Asia and Eastern Europe regional director. Matthew did a great job describing the main purposes around the Summit as well as walking you through the best of what is currently happening in Eastern Europe with HOPE and beyond. It’s now my pleasure to walk you through what I considered to be my favorite part of the Summit —dreaming of what could be. In a world where we spend so much of our time addressing and confronting challenges and constraints, we as a team were challenged to intentionally free ourselves from them and to envision a much more fruitful future. Imagining that 10 years from now each microfinance institution in the region has become the organization of our dreams—having a huge impact for Christ—what would that look like? Continue Reading…

Think About These Things

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 (ESV)

Greetings from Eastern Europe! In my first post, I explained the purpose of the individual lending Spiritual Integration Summit. I also realized how hard it is to write anything in only 250 words (sorry Marketing). Today, I’d like to talk about how we started the individual lending SI Summit.

To begin, I’ll share a bit of personal confession: My personality is naturally oriented toward noticing the things in life that are incomplete or need to be fixed. This mindset can be helpful and has its place, but I’ve been learning that an overemphasis on problem-solving has a sneaky downside. Sometimes it leads me (and maybe a few others) to forget to praise God for the amazing things He does in our midst. Sometimes it leads us to become discouraged by the brokenness of the world rather than inspired by the goodness and power of our God. Continue Reading…

Archives For Spiritual Integration

Jill Heisey

By Jill Heisey

The Battle for Rwanda

Matthew Rohrs

By Matthew Rohrs

Stay tuned: Spiritual Integration Blogging from Congo and Rwanda

Peter Greer

By Peter Greer

Four Core Beliefs

HOPE Intl

By HOPE Intl