Your Team in Action

24 Jan

Small business training in Indonesia
A Small Business Training in Bali, Indonesia, taught by Dan, Steve and Jenna

Your Team in Action

A year-end update of how we’re making a difference together

Dear Family,

Wow, what a year it’s been! With your support the Microloan Ministry has done some amazing things through the work of the Microloan Ministry. Here are just a few highlights…

Remarkable new micro-bank growth

  • Capitalized 12 new micro-banks in North Africa,
  • Capitalized 8 new micro-banks in Central Africa,
  • Capitalized 3 new micro-banks in Southeast Asia,
  • Issued loans to 514 new, first-time borrowers in 94 new God’s Love Groups (groups of borrowers that encourage each other and guarantee each other’s loan repayment),
  • Increased total loan capitalization in our existing micro-banks by 134% to a total of 1,285 borrowers,

Faithful repayment

  • Received repayment from all 62 existing micro-banks across 12 countries (not including the 23 new micro-banks from 2018 that will repay in 2019),
  • Received 97% rate of on-time repayment from our micro-banks,

More business training

  • Taught two Small Business Trainings (in Kenya and Indonesia) to around 195 students,

Travel…lots of travel!

  • Traveled to our 12 countries, spending a total of 22 weeks on the field with our Micro-bankers and their borrowers, and

Hiring new indigenous coordinators

  • Hired two indigenous, part-time Country Coordinators in Cuba and Laos to oversee those micro-banks.

Picture of African micro-bankers
At left, two North African micro-bankers (we wish we could show you their joyful faces, but we’ve had to hide them for their own safety) showing us their newly-translated GLG Discipleship Series; at right, we’re glad we can show you the smiling face of Sarah, one of our borrowers, who wants to thank you for your continued support of the Microloan Ministry, and for making her new restaurant business a reality!

Plentiful harvest and fishing boat
At left, one of the many plentiful harvests you’ve helped grow; at right, a fishing boat you helped 6 fishermen purchase via a loan from Heaven’s Family

Picture of Cambodian micro-bankers and borrowers
Steve (Microloan Ministry Regional Director for Asia) meets with micro-bankers and borrowers in Cambodia

We are also excited about how you’ll be empowering others through this ministry in 2019. We’ll be…

  • Leveraging our solid foundation of trusted partners to continue to grow new micro-banks in our 12 countries throughout North and Central Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia,
  • Growing our existing micro-banks, adding new God’s Love Groups of borrowers who will receive loans, support each other in their businesses, and disciple each other through the Discipleship Series they will receive from Heaven’s Family,
  • Sending team members to each of our 12 countries, making sure we spend one-on-one time with each of our micro-banks and visit new borrowers in our program,
  • Conducting 6 Community Small Business Trainings, two Micro-banker Summits, and roll out our module-based training, which will be taught by our micro-bankers in their communities,
  • Translating the Discipleship Series into two new languages, and
  • Funding affordable Bibles (in local languages) to borrowers who have completed a loan term in our program.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the year. Thank you for making this incredible work possible!

From all of us on the Microloan Team

Picture of Microloan team
Isaac and Sarah Shepherd, at left; Terry and Dan Steward, center; Steve Sifa and Jenna Liberati, at right (Not shown: John Strong, the newest member of our team)


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