Beads and Blessings

I had the wonderful experience of attending a Women's Ministry event at my church tonight. I knew that a woman would be there selling bead jewelry from Uganda, but I had no idea that the evening would change my perspective of the world.

There were actually two speakers for the evening. One was the aforementioned woman who gave her testimony of her company Bagala Beads. Please, please, please, take a moment to click on the link to her site. Read the brief story and look at the beautifully crafted beads that are, get this, made from recycled magazines and such. I bought a pair of earrings that are simpy gorgeous and incredibly lightweight. I have been to Brazil and seen extreme poverty, but when you return to the US, the memories begin to fade and you begin to fall into the slump of me, me me which is so prevalent in our country. Hearing the stories of the Uganda people tonight reminded me that there really is a difference between what I need and what I want.

The second speaker was a banker who told us about microfinancing. In a nutshell, it is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor. Simply put, a bunch of people offer up small amounts of money so someone in a 3rd world country can take out a loan to start a business. Banks don't make any money in impoverished countries, so they don't go. I learned about two sites that are terrific. The first is Opportunity International which takes your donations and invests in larger projects in impoverished countries.

The second site called Kiva is so cool because you can invest using Paypal and select who your funds are going to. Your loan is repaid over 12 months (they have a 98% repayment record - way better than the US!!), and you can reinvest the funds or request the funds be returned to your Paypal account.

You can also visit www.microfinancegateway.org to learn about lots of other legitimate companies who do this. Can you tell that I am so pumped about this? Tonight I bought a small pair of earrings that will directly help some women in Uganda stay out of prostitution and I learned about a site where I can loan a tiny amount of money to someone who more than likely lives on less than $2.00 a day (more than 3 billion people fall into this category). It's been so difficult to measure my successes lately with three children demanding my attention. I can measure this and it's like a cool drink of water. This evening was a blessing that I needed so badly. Thanks hubby!