I know some if you are curious as to the work I am doing while in Nairobi this summer. I have been placed in Microfinance where I will be assisting my coworkers in various ways.
What is microfinance?
Microfinance is one section of ministry that Missions of Hope International has where they are reaching out to those of Mathare. They enable people in the community to get together in groups and they provide loans for them. Most of the clients have students at one of MoHI's schools which is how we get connected with them. I'm not certain of how the beginning of the process looks, but I have had the opportunity to sit in on about 10 of the group meetings. I have been with two coworkers for each of the meetings, Priscilla and Josef. Meetings are held in churches, homes, or random shacks. Each group meets once a week to pay back a portion of their loan and to put some money into savings. Similar to committees and groups in the US, they have a chair person, a treasurer, and members. Clients take out a small loan and they have between 3-9 months to pay it back depending on the size of the loan. Once they have paid the loan back in full, then they have the opportunity to take out another loan. They are able to generate money to continue providing loans because of the money they have been saving and with assistance from group members. All of the meetings are conducted in Kiswahili which makes it very hard to understand and learn when I don't know the language. One of the meetings was in English which was very convenient. One of the group members asked me if I would rather deal with an active group member or a stubborn group member and I told him an active one. I then continued to ask him if he was stubborn and if we needed to kick him out of the group. Everyone was laughing. :) Later, that same guy stated that he was Barack Obama's cousin and he was telling me about their family. Oops. Haha
My job this summer is not going to include going to the meetings every day. Instead, I will be working in the office with data entry. Being behind a computer for 7 hours a day is not what I had dreamed my summer in Nairobi would be like. God has something to teach me with being in microfinance and I know He is going to use me in big ways there. My first day in microfinance I shared my testimony to one of my coworkers and we were both able to encourage and lift up each other.
I will be getting a break from data entry on Thursdays. My team leaders know that my heart is evangelism so they have asked the outreach leader if I could join their team on Thursdays. On Thursday's all of the social work team and community outreach team go into one of the villages (there are ten villages that make up Mathare) and share the gospel openly. Today is Thursday, but I did not go out because there are a couple short term teams here and they did evangelism yesterday.
Please be in prayer for my heart as I take on the task of using my major with ministry. Also, pray for the health of my teammates and myself (6 people stayed back on Wednesday due to sickness). Pray for safety as we are traveling throughout Nairobi.
Thanks in advance for your prayers. Please let me know if there are any ways which I can be praying for you. God bless.
In Christ,
Brandi :)
What is microfinance?
Microfinance is one section of ministry that Missions of Hope International has where they are reaching out to those of Mathare. They enable people in the community to get together in groups and they provide loans for them. Most of the clients have students at one of MoHI's schools which is how we get connected with them. I'm not certain of how the beginning of the process looks, but I have had the opportunity to sit in on about 10 of the group meetings. I have been with two coworkers for each of the meetings, Priscilla and Josef. Meetings are held in churches, homes, or random shacks. Each group meets once a week to pay back a portion of their loan and to put some money into savings. Similar to committees and groups in the US, they have a chair person, a treasurer, and members. Clients take out a small loan and they have between 3-9 months to pay it back depending on the size of the loan. Once they have paid the loan back in full, then they have the opportunity to take out another loan. They are able to generate money to continue providing loans because of the money they have been saving and with assistance from group members. All of the meetings are conducted in Kiswahili which makes it very hard to understand and learn when I don't know the language. One of the meetings was in English which was very convenient. One of the group members asked me if I would rather deal with an active group member or a stubborn group member and I told him an active one. I then continued to ask him if he was stubborn and if we needed to kick him out of the group. Everyone was laughing. :) Later, that same guy stated that he was Barack Obama's cousin and he was telling me about their family. Oops. Haha
My job this summer is not going to include going to the meetings every day. Instead, I will be working in the office with data entry. Being behind a computer for 7 hours a day is not what I had dreamed my summer in Nairobi would be like. God has something to teach me with being in microfinance and I know He is going to use me in big ways there. My first day in microfinance I shared my testimony to one of my coworkers and we were both able to encourage and lift up each other.
I will be getting a break from data entry on Thursdays. My team leaders know that my heart is evangelism so they have asked the outreach leader if I could join their team on Thursdays. On Thursday's all of the social work team and community outreach team go into one of the villages (there are ten villages that make up Mathare) and share the gospel openly. Today is Thursday, but I did not go out because there are a couple short term teams here and they did evangelism yesterday.
Please be in prayer for my heart as I take on the task of using my major with ministry. Also, pray for the health of my teammates and myself (6 people stayed back on Wednesday due to sickness). Pray for safety as we are traveling throughout Nairobi.
Thanks in advance for your prayers. Please let me know if there are any ways which I can be praying for you. God bless.
In Christ,
Brandi :)
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