I'm happy to report that Heaven's Family is not just involved in micro-banking in this region. Today our team was invited to a meeting of about 40 people, from babies to the elderly, who all suffer from the same terrible physical affliction. I don't know how else to tell you but to just say it: due to an apparent genetic defect that is strangely common to their particular tribe, all were born without an anus.

Over the years, Heaven’s Family's Micro-Loan Ministry has evolved. We’ve come a long way since the initial $100 loans that I made to ten poor Nigerians in 2004 to help them start small businesses. When I returned one year later to collect, only three borrowers showed up for the repayment meeting, and those three came to explain why they could not repay.

Since we started Heaven’s Family 16 years ago, I have repeatedly been asking this question: “Why are people poor?” And a second question related to that one: “What is the best way to eliminate poverty?”

Micro-credit, when done properly, can be a huge blessing to very poor people who, with a small business loan, are given an opportunity they would never had otherwise to lift themselves from poverty. Heaven’s Family’s Micro-Loan Ministry, under the very capable directorship of Dan Steward, is the biggest thing Heaven’s Family is doing around the world. Dan and his team, consisting of his wife, Terry, Isaac and Sarah Smoak, and Jenna Liberati, are touching lives in 13 nations now, and one of those nations is Myanmar.