Poverty is unquestionably the single greatest challenge facing African families, communities, and churches.  Over 700 million people in Africa live on less than $2.00 per day.  Vail and I moved to Africa to establish a Christian microfinance outreach in Uganda because we believe it enables us to help people break out of poverty and experience genuine spiritual and physical transformation.  Rather than creating dependency, it empowers.  It not only teaches people to fish but helps them build a fish market!  As you know from my previous correspondence we have partnered with BANCS Microfinance here in Uganda, which was founded in 2007 and at present has over 800 active loans.   We not only provide loans for the poor, but also provide basic business training as a prerequisite for receiving a loan, followed up with on-site visits. It’s important for the loans to be repaid, but our main goal for each client is to move out of poverty spiritually and financially.

Many of you have asked if you can give directly to fund loans for the poor.  Last year we did not have the capacity for that and I had to refer many potential donors to other organizations.  But now with BANCS we do have the capacity to receive your gifts designated for microfinance!  100% of your gift will be used for loans, and like always your contributions will be tax-deductible.  We have over 200 loan applications pending and if you give at least $75.00 I will personally oversee matching your gift to a corresponding loan.  I will also email you a profile of the recipient with a photo, some information about them and their family, and the nature of their business.  I wish I could do it for all gifts regardless of size, and maybe one day we can, but we have to limit it for now.  Whatever the amount, just know that it will make a difference.  (click HERE to give)

Regardless of the size of your gift to our microfinance outreach, it will never be spent, but will remain in what is called the “loan portfolio” only being used for loans.   Think about it - over a ten year period your gift will be loaned, re-paid, loaned again, and so on for a minimum of 20 loan cycles.  If you give $100.00, that is actually like giving $2000.00 and will help at least 20 families have an opportunity to move out of poverty.

I want to also thank you for your support for me and Vail personally.  Your prayers and your giving empowers us to do what we’re doing here.  May God abundantly bless you!
 
Sincerely,

Mike Croslow

Today I recently received an appeal from a missionary working in a poor country who wanted me to consider sending a donation to support national pastors.  The missionary stated, “This country is economically devastated.  The churches do not yet have the finances to support their pastor full-time… we need to channel financial gifts to them each month.”  I can relate to this, because I too have sent out appeal letters for my African friends and ministers living in poverty.  For many years I helped train ministers and plant churches in the midst of absolute poverty and can tell you the needs are real.

However, even if every one of us sends a donation it does not solve the problem of their living in a continual state of poverty.   I assure you that unless we look for a lasting solution we are in most cases creating dependency.  To be honest, this perpetual donor-mentality, even though it is well intentioned, creates more problems than it solves.

During the nearly two decades I spent working as a missionary, it was my privilege to work alongside called and anointed Ugandan believers, nearly all of whom were living under the heavy burden of extreme poverty.   My approach was to mobilize funding from churches and concerned individuals in the States which was then used to buy land, help build buildings, support national ministers, and subsidize other activities.  This seemed to generally be the way missions worked in the 80s and the 90s, and those of us that were there know that in many if not most cases there was a dependence on funding from wealthy overseas churches.  Even though this might not have been the best way to do things, a great harvest of souls was reaped during those years. 

My wife and I were recently in a conference in Uganda with approximately 100 African ministers from five different nations.  In addition to planning and strategizing for future outreach, I wanted to hear from them.  When they shared their hearts with me, 90% of their input seemed to always revolve around the issue of financial provision and the horrible toll poverty has taken on their families and congregations.  We even found out another 100 ministers we invited were unable to attend the conference because they simply could not afford the cost of bus fare.  One Ugandan pastor said, “The poorest are the ministers of the gospel.  Many in our nation believe the church is just for poor people.”   Hearing this broke my heart.  They were poor when I first met them in the early 80’s, and most of them are still poor.  I know it’s God’s will for them to prosper, so what went wrong?

I want to begin by saying "thank you!" to everyone who helped make our recent five-day conference in Uganda a huge success.  It was truly a powerful time of minstry, fellowship, and interaction.  We had right at 100 delegates, all of whom were bishops, overseers, pastors, and senior elders who represented literally hundreds of churches.  Bishop Roman Okware, who was in charge of organizing everything did an excellent job.  He was thrilled with the leadership quality of the men and women who attended.  We had a good group from Burundi, and good groups from Rwanda and Tanzania, along with a bishop from Kenya.  So we were talking to the right people.

I spent the first day sharing vision and talking about the importance of coming together in unity as ministers and churches.  Unlike many independents in America, these Africans ministers did not seem to have an independent spirit and were very interested in building long-term relationships that would enable them to strengthen one another.  They all agreed that building a community of churches and ministers committed to working together would greatly facilitate reaching the unreached areas of Africa.  I explained that I was not returning to Africa to be the "Bwana Kubwa" (the big boss), but would make myself available to help and serve in any way that I could, and would try to network them with American churches and ministries who had a vision to do something in Africa.