Connecting to one another

I have three new friends from Armenia, Haiti, and Uganda that I am invested in. They don’t know me, but through Kiva’s micro-lending program, I have fronted each of them $25 to assist their small businesses and to move them out of extreme poverty. There’s a taxi driver in Armenia, whose only possession is his broken taxi, so getting it running again is critical for his livelihood. A young mother in Haiti, has a small business of selling soft drinks and snacks to beach sunbathers. She needs capital to buy more product and expand her sales. Another mother in Uganda raises goats and pigs and needs to build some pens to keep them safe. Glad I can help such practical n04eeds.

Kiva loans are different than endless charity. They allow people to create or expand small businesses providing people a living, often for very small amounts of money. Investors, like myself, can read stories and see pictures of those making the requests, then choose where to invest funds around the world. Loan recipients demonstrate extraordinarily high rates of repayment, nearly 99%. You can’t find a better investment for making practical change around the world.

Californian author Bob Harris has written an engaging book about micro-lending. Inspired by his travels around the world reviewing luxury hotels and encountering impoverished workers in the midst of opulence, he discovered the Kiva small loan process. Bob chose several people to fund, then traveled again to see how their small businesses were doing. His book, “The International Bank of Bob” has been a best seller and has been chosen by the Kern County Libraries as this year’s “One Book, One Kern” community wide reading and discussion project. On Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m ., the author Bob Harris will speak and sign books at CSUB’s Icardo Center at 9001 Stockdale Highway in Bakersfield. There are book discussion groups meeting throughout the county. Tehachapi Community Church will host one on Friday, Nov. 5th at 5 p.m. We will offer snacks and activities related to Kiva, including the opportunity for folks to select their own small online loans.

Faith traditions remind us to care for the poor - to love our neighbors as ourselves. I like the words in Micah 4:4, that tell us of God’s world dream, “Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.” Imagine everyone having their own shelter and enough food, water, and dignity, that the threat of violence didn’t exist.

Becoming a Kiva lender is one small step that connects us to our global brothers and sisters and allows us to respond to the bible’s more than 300 verses on serving the poor. Together, we can overcome. Where would you like to plant some hope?

Blessings, Pastor Nancy