Kiva--Encouraging Entrepreneurs

Kiva is a way to support microfinance--small loans at interest rates which are low for the area, to entrepreneurs in the third world who generally have little access to alternative means of finance. The result is that many people in the third world are helped.

This happens with minimal cost to the individual lender. You lend in increments of $25, and your loan is bundled with the loans of others to allow larger loans to the borrowers. You get to pick the businesses that you want to support. As they repay, you can take your money out via Paypal, or you can lend to others, watching your money roll over and support a wide range of enterprises. You don't get interest on your money (and yes, you might not get repaid--but this is rare). Still, you have a rare chance to see what your money is accomplishing.

Check it out.

Psalm 112:5 Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.

Thoughts about Geese

The Canadian geese near my home are moulting. I know because the paths are covered with feathers and goose poop. In the past, I have harvested these feathers, carrying grocery store bags to bring home quills which would be filled with the insides of Bic pens for Colonial Day, or even experimented with to make quills that could write with real ink (not as easy as it looks). As my kids got older, some feathers became paint brushes for interesting effects. But today I have no such projects, and the feathers can be left for other moms with younger kids. Or to decompose as they eventually will.

Today what caught my attention was the timing of the moult. The geese all have babies who are not yet old enough to fly. And here comes the hand of God, making it impossible for them to escape danger by flying away. They are forced to use the same strategies that are available to their children, running for the water. True, they have another defence--the parents can turn on the attackers, and several geese hissed at me while I passed too close to their little ones. But for this season they cannot take to the air to get away from it all. This surely helps the survival rate of baby geese, who do indeed face many hazards in their trip to adulthood.

So in my life, when God "clips my wings" is it to keep me tuned to the things that matter? Might I do well to ask God to treat me like the geese in some ways?

Ecclesiastes 3:1 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."

Three Cups of Tea

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10.

If you have not read this book yet, put it on your list. It will be worth the time invested. It is the story of Greg Mortenson, and how he came to be building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

What I appreciate most about the book is how clearly he was the right man for this job, and how his life prepared him to be able to do this. He is the son of missionaries, and at one point in his life he was an Emergency Room nurse with his life focused on rock climbing. It might have been easy for him or his parents to wonder if he would ever "make something" of his life. And yet the truth was that his passions and skills were exactly what he needed for a specific and very difficult path and yet very meaningful path that God had yet to open up. When it did open up, he walked out the good works that God had prepared him to be able accomplish. It took courage and resolve, but he had what it took. I read this as a reminder that we never know what may lie right around the corner to be done by us.

A poem from a while ago

I thought I'd begin with this, to introduce myself to others, and to remind myself. I wrote this years ago. I still believe it.

I am here...

To dance, to dare
to belong, to believe, to bare
my soul before my
loving Lord.

To love, to leap
for joy, and to employ
each scrap of wit and wonder,
heart and hand,
in service of my King.