Stage 4

The story of the Microfinance Site has gone in stages.

Stage 1: I passed my days walking around the community I hoped to work with one day, mostly just observing, or better said: absorbing. I also spent time 'absorbing' how Esperanza International does MF here in the DR.

Stage 2: I went for it. My Spanish was weak, and the site only existed in my mind and on my computer, but it was time to just go for it.

Stage 3: It actually worked. People borrowed, they paid back, they heard the Gospel and responded to it.

Stage 4: Miriam came along, and the site takes a great leap forward. I started focusing on long-term needs.

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I don't think I've shared exactly how important my Dominican co-worker is to the site. She is the site. When the women are in the hospital, she's their first phone call...literally. When they need an ear to vent to, she goes and she listens.

She wears many hats: pastor, mentor, confidant, teacher, nurse, (oh, and loan officer). She wears each one well, and her investment is paying off. At least one woman has accepted Christ in every group we've started.

I realized just how powerful her ministry was last Sunday at Church. Next to me sat the coordinator of our first group, her husband, her daughter, her grand-daughter, and her grand-daugther's friend. Ramona accepted Christ at a bank meeting about 2 years ago, and now her entire family is following in her footsteps.

This has given me the opportunity to look down the road. I'm less involved in the day-to-day activity of the site. I don't go to all our bank meetings. Instead, I'm focused on the structure and order of the site. Creating an accounting system, writing policy statements, writing down how to do everything, developing a curriculum, raising loan capital, searching for supporters for Miriam. It's a blessing really, because Miriam and I both fit nicely into our 'stage 4 roles'.

Stage 5: Pass the site along. This will be a sad stage, but it's coming. The good news is that I'll be leaving it all in very good hands. More to come on this soon.