Mission Board News
The Board of Missions is excited to announce a new way for us to help people around the world empower themselves and build better lives! We will be participating in a microfinance, or micro-lending initiative. Micro-lending is the practice of lending small amounts of money - amounts as small as $25 - to people and organizations in need, typically the very poor. Poor people don't have easy access to credit and financial institutions; giving them access allows them to take advantage of economic opportunities and improve their well-being. The non-profit organization Kiva has a comprehensive program in place that puts lenders and borrowers together in an efficient and organized way. Lenders can
choose the person or organization to whom they'd like to loan money, and Kiva handles the mechanics of distributing the funds. The borrowers repay the lent money as they can, and the repaid money can then be loaned to others if desired. Lending to the very poor does involve a certain level of risk; Kiva is attentive to this, and rates the organizations and individuals involved - as well as provides background information on each - to help lenders make an informed decision. We'll be telling you more information about our initiative and how you can get involved in the near future. You can learn more information about microcredit at kiva.org.
For the month of August our special offering will be focused on local mission. Our offerings will be used to support local school programs and supplies. We are working with local schools to determine where our gifts will have maximum impact, and are planning to target those districts with higher ratios of immigrant and at-risk populations. In conjunction
with this effort, we will be coordinating a "supply drive" to gather school supplies to be given to the schools with highest need. We'll publish a list of needed supplies, and your gifts will be collected and distributed to our chosen school(s).
You'll notice a new supply of Guatemalan coffee in the church narthex; we now have ground as well as whole-bean coffee available. This coffee comes directly from the farmers of San Lucas Toliman in central Guatemala, and is therefore about as free-trade as can be! The only "intermediary", as it were, is the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, which oversees the mission there and coordinates the distribution of the coffee. All profits go to the farmers themselves. We'll also be using this coffee for our Sunday coffee hour. You can purchase bags of coffee for $10, and any amount collected over cost will be used to fund the cost of the coffee used for Sunday morning. Just write your checks out to NSUCC, put "coffee" in the memo area, and place them in the manila envelope when you take your coffee. Thanks!
Monday, August 18, at 7:00pm will be the next "Movie Night" hosted by the Board of Missions. These are always fun events that also educate us about important events in our world. Come and join us for the camaraderie and discussion! Look for the movie title to be announced in church.
Your gifts to the church and to Mission projects really do make a difference. We recently received a very nice thank-you letter from Simpson Housing Services, which we've visited and supported multiple times. They thanked us for our donation from several months back, which went to support the 171 families and over 160 long-term homeless single
adults that they serve. The mission of the church is to serve others, and your generosity and donations of time, talent, and treasure continue to represent that mission superbly. Keep up the good work!
