|
By Vivi Wickberg
Anyone wanting to start a business in the U.S. knows how important bank financing can be. It never occurs to us who live in the U.S. that bank financing would not be available. Yet, in Chad as in many places around the world, getting a bank loan is not a possibility. But micro-finance programs provide good news to those in areas where bank loans are not available. Such a program was started in Chad with the trip Beth Rodgers and I took in April-May this year.
Micro-finance programs raise an interesting question: how do you help poor people to overcome the problem of poverty without hurting them or hurting us?
This is the subject of a book God brought my way recently. The authors state that: "God established four fundamental relationships for each person: a relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation. These relationships are the building blocks for all of life. When they are functioning properly, humans experience the fullness of life that God intended because we are being what God created us to be, and they are able to fulfill their calling of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work."*
So how could helping hurt? A person can be hurt when we do not know or understand exactly the person's situation and when we think that money is all they need. We can be hurt when those we are "helping" have not returned with thanks and when the results we were expecting do not happen because we failed to understand the whole person's situation. 
Helping the poor brings a transformation not only to the receiver but also the giver as both parties work toward God's goal of glorifying Him. It is my desire that as we help the people of Chad to develop their own businesses we transform and grow together in the four fundamental relationships that God established so we can all fulfill our callings of glorifying God.
I pray that those in this program who do not know God will come to the knowledge of Him, our Creator and Sustainer.
I thank God for the start of the pilot program in Moundou Chad. The twenty three women involved completed their first month on August 31.
Please pray that the women will succeed in their businesses, that the loan committee has wisdom in guiding them and that by the end of the first term new clients will be ready to join the program. Pray also that this program will develop into a selfsustaining one.
*"When helping hurts" by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert, see p. 57
|
