tsunami, civil war, and now a really difficult environment where the government can make it very challenging to run a sustainable microfinance program. The 25+-year civil war ended recently, so there is a more relaxed mood within this beautiful, beautiful country. The long-term outlook is bright on many fronts. Our microfinance partner has overcome many of these challenges to be able to offer services to almost 1,000 clients in 4 branches around the country. They have a fantastic very dedicated staff who always inspire me to see more of the path of following Jesus and encourage and pray for me along that path.
Dave Leach, PEER Servants volunteer extraordinaire, joined me in Colombo. With the war now over, the organization could host its first countrywide staff training retreat. We had the privilege of being able to be a part of it. Our training focus was helping them see how they gather and share information and helping them find ways, ultimately culminating with better use of automation, that they could share that information more efficently and effectively so that the MFI could serve more of the materially poor. We were able to visit their Madampe branch and meet some impressive microentrepreneurs, like Ranjani -- a woman manufacturing and distributing spices. What started as something small selling to neighbors now has Ranjani distributing her product to 50 shops and 200 individual clients in 7 villages. Through her business proceeds, Ranjani was able to pay for their first paved road in her village! I stayed on a day after Dave's departure to meet with the organization's board, encourage them in what they have achieved already, and challenge them to reach 100% operational sustainability so that they can grow to empower more of the materially poor of this nation.The trip back to Boston brought me back through Dubai where I was able to have a great layover visit with the Gimba family - close friends of ours now living in the United Arab Emirates but having been with us in Boston for many years just prior to that. Dubai is this amazing oasis in the desert. Home to the tallest building in the world, the largest mall, and the largest outdoor water show, it really is something else. May many there come to know Jesus in a way that allows them to enjoy this great adventure of following Him.
Five days after stepping foot in Boston, it was off to the Philippines with a team of 9 PEER Servants volunteers. Most of the team was on their first PEER Servants trip, focused on
preparing a case study on some aspect of The Center for Community Transformation (CCT), our Filipino partner. I was especially pleased that my sister, Patrice, joined me on this trip - she was a great addition to the team. She and her husband, Dave, have been long-term supporters of PEER Servants and are very encouraging to Les and me. The one member of the team who had a different focus was none other than Dave Leach - the same Dave Leach who had been with me in Colombo just days earlier! Dave has been working with CCT over the past couple years to identify ways they could make better use of automation to make the operation more efficient. CCT is by far our biggest microfinance partner - serving over 100,000 of the materially poor in the Philippines. Bringing in some IT solutions to such a large organization won't be easy. If anyone is up to the consulting challenge - it's Dave!
If you see a picture of the CCT team next to the word "hospitality" in your dictionary, don't be surprised! We were just overwhelmed by the warmth and sincerity of the Filipino CCT hospitality. The only thing that impressed us more on the trip was their work -- not only in microfinance, but beyond it in empowering streetdwellers, creating places where they experience life the way God wants them to experience it. There were former streetdweller children getting a great boarding school education; former streetdweller teens learning vocations, and former streetdweller adults living sustainably by farming and building their own houses. There is no organization we have seen that empowers the materially poor as effectively as CCT. The long trip back from the Philippines to Boston gave us time to reflect on what an amazing team they are and thank God for them.As great as this fall of travel was, it was awfully nice to get back on North American soil for more than just time to pack and unpack! It was a very inspiring season in which God provided glimpses of what He was doing through these microfinance partners around the world.
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