Moldova, India...

Todd: October starts travel season for me! Often through at least the middle part of the year, the fall looks like a heavy travel season. In most years, one or two of the trips get postponed and a reasonable travel schedule results. Not so in 2010! Over a 6 week period, I'll be in Moldova, India, SL, and the Philippines. And betwixt those trips is our Annual Board Meeting!

Now that we're to the end of October, I can write from South Asia and look back at wonderful trips to Moldova and India.

A team of eight PEER Servants volunteers were part of the Moldova trip. They included our board chair, Dave Ryder, his wife, Betsy, and three of our Team Moldova members -- Gary Nielsen (his wife, Peggy), Scott Purcell (his wife, Jill), and Leanne Horgan. We were blessed with great hospitality by Ghena and Alina Russ in Moldova. Ghena is the very capable and visionary Executive Director of Invest Credit, our Moldovan microfinance partner. What a privilege it's been to see Invest Credit mature from the day they opened their doors more than 10 years ago to become one of the leading Moldovan microfinance institutions. We have seen God raise up Ghena to position this organization such that it can really bless the nation, and especially the Christians, of Moldova. You have probably heard me tell the story of Vasile the sausage maker or Victor the construction worker/pastor -- there are now hundreds of businesses established through Invest Credit that are providing for Moldovan families, churches, and communities.

This trip was an exposure trip for new PEER Servants volunteers to see Moldova and Invest Credit for the first time, a relationship-building trip for the staff at Invest Credit to get to know the volunteers serving them at PEER Servants, and a strategic planning trip to discuss the bright future of Invest Credit. It was very successful on all three fronts and we look forward to increasing our support of Invest Credit. One highlight of the trip was being able to step into their new mobile office. The Invest Credit team turned a used van into a "branch for the rural poor" complete with computer, printer, internet access, and even a sofa to sit on! The mobile office will go from village to village once a week and offer microfinance services to those who would otherwise not have access given the high cost of establishing a bricks and mortar branch. This is just one example of the bright ideas Ghena and his team have come up with as a means of empowering the materially poor of Moldova in the name of Jesus.

Less than a week after flying west over the Atlantic returning from Moldova, I was flying back east over the Atlantic through Amsterdam and Dubai en route to Kolkata, India. This was an exploratory trip to meet the staff and board of Christian Service Society (CSS), a new prospective microfinance partner. CSS serves 10,000+ of the materially poor in the outskirts of Kolkata. They start with a loan of less than $25. I was extremely impressed with the vision, dedication, and effectiveness of CSS Executive Director Himadri Munshi and his team. CSS represents the "new" potential microfinance partner for PEER Servants. Historically, our partner has been more like an Invest Credit - an indigenous, Christian organization that is a micofinance start-up. The global microfinance landscape has now changed - many parts of the world have a sufficient number of MFIs already. What they need is for the MFIs that are there to be sustainable and capable of offering expended services. So, our new partner focus will transition from start ups to existing indigenous Christian MFIs that show promise of being able to have significantly more impact with the value added by a PEER Servants partnership. This trip suggests CSS is such an organization. I'll bring them before our Board of Directors for vote as a new microfinance partner in January.