So what exactly does a PEER Servants volunteer do?  This newsletter's limited space and your limited time don't allow a complete answer to that question, but here are three recent examples.

Scott Purcell, a CFO living in Eugene, Oregon, traveled with seven other PEER Servants volunteers to Moldova to visit Invest Credit in October 2010.  Scott reviews the monthly financial reports submitted by Invest Credit and has monthly calls with key staff to review the reports and discuss the general financial position of the microfinance institution.  His October trip was his first to Moldova, so meeting the staff in person, further discussing Invest Credit's current and future financial position, and visiting the entrepreneurs served by Invest Credit were very important.  In addition, Scott led the PEER Servants team in hosting a staff retreat for all of Invest Credit geared to encourage and strengthen each staff member.  He used a layover in Munich, Germany on his way to Moldova to purchase the remaining parts needed to make Invest Credit's new mobile office (a van that works as an office, complete with computer, printer, internet access, and comfortable seats)  operational.  Now Invest Credit can use their new mobile office to serve hundreds of the rural materially poor in Moldova.

Dave Leach, an IT Consultant living in Maynard, Massachusetts, traveled to South Asia to visit our local partner in early November 2010.  The South Asian partner held their first ever countrywide staff retreat, something now possible given the end of the 25+-year civil war, and Dave was the main speaker.  He led the staff in mapping out what they do and identifying how they can do it better, especially as it relates to gathering and sharing information.  He also completed a demo of microfinance loan tracking software that was very attractive to the South Asian microfinance institution.  He is now taking the next steps to help our South Asian partner implement the software that will allow them to more efficiently reach thousands of additional clients.

Julie Dillard of Ipswich, Massachusetts just completed her Masters at Gordon-Conwell Seminary.  In mid-November 2010, she traveled with eight other PEER Servants volunteers to the Philippines to see the amazing work of The Center for Community Transformation (CCT).  While there, she completed the research phase of a case study on how CCT integrates a strong and effective spiritual component into virtually everything they do.  Now back in New England, Julie will write the case study and it will be used by PEER Servants' much smaller microfinance partners to learn of new ways they can more effectively combine word and deed through Christian microfinance.

Every PEER Servants volunteer prays and raises funds for our microfinance partners, but hopefully through the stories of Scott, Dave, and Julie, you have come to a better understanding of what additional functions PEER Servants volunteers do, and perhaps envisioned a place for you to join us as a volunteer in 2011!

As impressive as microfinance is at empowering the recipient of an income generating loan, what impresses me even more is what happens next.  In other words, what happens through the micro-entrepreneur to bless the community in which they live, or what happens through the microfinance institution to bless those who may never receive a micro-loan.
 

2010 was a year full of travel for me and on virtually every trip I saw evidence of community transformation taking place through the micro-entrepreneurs or the microfinance institutions.  There are children in an urban slum in Nigeria receiving a high-quality Christian education because a young woman took a micro-loan and succeeded at business.  There are villagers in a war-torn nation in South Asia that have their first paved side street because a young woman took a micro-loan and succeeded at business.  There are former street dwellers in the Philippines who now have housing and are receiving excellent education because a Christian MFI generated profit that is redeeming the lives of the poorest of the poor.

This is all really, really exciting and it's why I am investing my life in Christian microfinance.  I know nothing more powerful at really empowering the materially poor.  If we can help the materially poor generate their own income, they can address the myriad other challenges they face - be it education, health care, clean water, housing, or human trafficking.  At PEER Servants we are privileged to partner with nine indigenous Christian microfinance institutions that all want to grow and have a much greater impact on their respective communities.  We are committed to continuing to partner with them and become a more significant source of funding and technical support on their path to having greater impact.

We need you to join us through your prayers and financial support.  Thank you for how you are already doing that.  As you consider your year-end 2010 giving, please be assured that we will use your funding to the best of our ability in 2011 to partner with the Holy Spirit in effecting even greater evidence of transformation in the individual lives of the materially poor and their respective communities.