Hand-up Not Hand-out

By Nick Priggis

Brighton, UK

Work is a gift from God that originated before the Fall and provides opportunities for stewardship and creativity. The pursuit of work, within Christ’s Lordship, is a blessing but those who are poor often lack opportunity to work. The work available to them is often filled with drudgery and has little reward.

Without the hope of fulfilling, right-focused ambition many people become discouraged and fatalistic. The church can provide opportunities for people to gain skills and confidence in order to provide for themselves and their households, and can help make training and finance available.

Several Newfrontiers churches in the two-thirds world are providing skills training and the provision of credit to start small-scale entrepreneurial businesses. From their experiences some helpful general principles can be identified.

Theological training on work, finance and the kingdom of God
For this type of ministry to succeed, a clear Biblical understanding of the importance and value of work and finance within God’s perspective needs to be gained.

Character is key

Whenever loans are made, the key to whether they will be repaid lies in the character of the person receiving the loan. Will that person be diligent in using the loan and will they be trustworthy to repay? Loans should be made only to committed members of the church who have a level of maturity and who are committed to being accountable and discipled.

Clear end in mind

Before loans are given, a rigorous assessment needs to be made of how the applicant intends to invest the loan.
Will the investment reap profit?
Will the small business work?

Micro finance as a business

Some churches feel awkward about requiring people to pay back loans; there can appear to be a conflict with ‘grace’. This might be overcome by the scheme not being run through the church. Church leadership should be intimately involved but the relational differences between the pastorally-led church community and the business-orientated lending scheme need to be highlighted at the outset.

To help illustrate some of these issues and the success that is possible, let’s look at two case histories from Africa.

1. Kenya

In Kenya, the Kerith family of churches led by Edward Buria have been equipping church members to start small businesses for over ten years. Through training in how to start and run a micro enterprise, and with rigorous monitoring, they have seen a very high percentage of successful loans and repayment.

These loans are utilised predominantly towards generating income. An example is Jane’s story from Meru. She shared her hope with Fridah Buria for starting a small chicken farm, and received a loan of 20,000Ksh (£200) and further training in developing her business. With the start-up loan she received in 2001, Jane constructed a chicken coop and bought 50 chicks. With the remaining balance she bought chicken feed. Within four months of starting Jane was able to market the eggs her chickens were laying. Today, Jane has increased her business to 200 chickens with a daily production of more than 130 eggs.

Through hard work and perseverance Jane has seen her business succeed. Her neighbours have watched her success. As Jane and her family have enjoyed the fruits of her hard work, i.e. a healthier diet and more money, her neighbours have begun to copy her. In three years one of Jane’s neighbours has multiplied her chicken population from 10 to 120 chickens. In fact the neighbours have collectively been so successful that they have opened a ‘chicken savings account’. With each depositor able to use their savings to purchase new chicks every two years to replace chickens sold for meat. Jane and her neighbours have a sustainable small scale business enterprise.

Jane’s hope is to own 1,000 chicks. Today Jane is making a profit of 7000Ksh per month. In addition she is wisely making use of the manure the chickens produce to help fertilise her vegetable garden. In turn she sells part of the produce as well as selling seedlings to neighbours.

2. Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, starting businesses is often the only means of survival in such a challenging economy with hyper-inflation well in excess of 1000%. Newfrontiers churches in Zimbabwe have developed a training programme to help people to do ‘business God’s way’. The focus of the training programme is on applying Biblical principles in developing Godly character and to teach basic business skills, along with possible loan finance to kick-start businesses. The intention of the programme is to see successful businessmen and women raised up to help build local churches and extend God’s kingdom through the release of finance.

Earlier this year, Nancy Phiri completed one such training course and qualified to receive a loan to start her own tuck-shop where she lives on the outskirts of Harare. Nancy serves as part of the CEDAR ministry through River of Life Church Westgate, in Harare, a kingdom initiative where home-based care is provided to people who live with AIDS-related illnesses. Nancy is a care-giver with an evangelistic message. This ministry provides powerful opportunities for evangelism and discipleship with those who are being helped.

Being twenty years old and an orphan, Nancy was unable to support herself. In the first month of her business operation, she had unexpectedly earned enough to repay her first loan instalment. Her business has continued to grow and she has been faithful in repaying all her instalments to date. It has also been a challenge for her to manage her time between her business and her CEDAR commitments. However, she receives much support from her extended family and the church, and is still able to make the site visits required as part of her CEDAR work. Commenting on the training programme, Nancy said, ‘It has introduced a new thing to us, because it has empowered us to be independent and not dependent on places like the church all the time…from a Biblical perspective you can say we were blind but now we have gained sight…we have also learnt how to cater for inflation and that you can store your money in stock in order to cater for the market.’

Within three months of starting her business, Nancy planted a cell group at her community compound and she was soon asking for more leaders to help plant other cells in the area. The confidence, self-esteem and leadership that Nancy has displayed through planting the cell group in her community has been boosted and encouraged by the economic independence she has obtained through her business.

Nancy is due to pay off her loan in the next two months. Then she will have a self-sustaining business of her own from which she can help her family, give to the church and support her work with CEDAR. She already has plans to start another tuck-shop in a nearby area.

Conclusion

These stories emphasise the importance of work to the individual, the church and the wider community. Work provides an opportunity for discipleship as well as creative income-generation. The fruits of hard work can be shared with the church and the wider community in order to demonstrate the grace of God. Work brings dignity and hope for the individual and family where creativity can result in financial gain. The issuing of loans provides the opportunity for dreams to be realised where previously they remained just mere ideas.

Small scale businesses stand or fall depending on the quality of the entrepreneur. Character formation through discipleship provides the foundation needed for businesses to succeed. In Zimbabwe the areas for discipleship which have been emphasised and have lent themselves towards success are, avoiding waste in your business, doing things excellently, doing things on time and being joyful in what you do.

While training equips the entrepreneur to start a business, finance is also required to kick-start it. Low interest loans enable small businesses to purchase what is needed to start up. An agreed repayment schedule helps them focus on making an income in order to repay their loans. Low interest rates enable other people to benefit from being lent money by combating inflation. However, low interest rates do not drain the small business dry and compare very favourably with other more commercial lending schemes.

There are no quick-fix answers to succeeding in business. However, with confidence in the character of the entrepreneur, diligence and hard work, good training and support, and some lending of credit, many Newfrontiers churches are seeing individuals become more self-sufficient through their own hard work and more able to give generously towards the extension of the kingdom.