During the holiday season many of us demonstrate love and appreciation for others through gift giving. We often struggle, however, to find the right gift for our mother (brother, father, uncle or aunt). What meaningful gift can we give that will last beyond the holiday season!?

Celebrate the holidays this year by giving a gift that invests in the talents and dreams of women striving to create a better future for their children. Make an impact in the lives of women in Africa who are eager for the opportunity to work their way out of poverty.

Rebeka’s Story

Rebeka is the mother of two small children. She lives in Mwanga, a rural village in northern Tanzania. She is a member of one of World Encounter’s Trust Investment Groups in our Backroads Banking program. Rebeka used her second microloan to relocate and expand her dry-goods shop (called a “Duka” in Swahili). She works long hours selling everything from soap to socks.

Rebeka is thankful for the two microloans she has received from World Encounter. With her third microloan in December Rebeka plans to open a restaurant. Microloans provide opportunities and choices – something that are often in short supply in the developing world.

You can invest in women, like Rebeka, by making a donation to help begin a business to provide for her family. With your gift to World Encounter women receive a microloan, business training, personal coaching, and participate in a peer group support program to ensure their success.

How your Gift Donation Works

You decide to make a donation in honor of your gift recipient. You can select the gift and amount that would be most meaningful. Click Select Your Gift and make your donation from our website. These are a few of the choices you can select from the Give a Gift page on our website.

• Dry goods store supplies ($25)
• Sewing machine ($150)
• Passel of pigs ($45)

Your gift recipient receives a holiday Honor Card from you describing the generous contribution you have made in their honor. Donations must be received by mail or through our website by December 14th in order to ensure free holiday delivery.

You have Two Options for the Honor Cards

#1.  World Encounter will send Honor Cards directly to you to distribute.

#2.  World Encounter will send Honor Cards directly to your gift recipient. Please call 651.484.3010 or go to the Donate page on our website at www.worldencounter.org for this option.

People want choices – not charity. They want an opportunity to better their lives and contribute to their communities. Join World Encounter as we provide the poor with tools of hope. This holiday give a gift that keeps on giving!

DONATE today toward someone’s tomorrow!

World Encounter serves the working poor in the developing world through faith-based, holistic community development. We walk along-side the poor, providing microloans to women working their way out of poverty.

World Encounter is 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Donations and contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Over 100 people attended our Tapestry of Tanzania event on October 13th to raise support for the Backroads Banking program.

Following the event one of our guests wrote about her experience:  “The location was beautiful – a large hall perched on a Mississippi river bluff with 20-foot glass windows looking to the river as the sun set. We were greeted by 6-foot tall story boards telling about some of the Tanzanian women, their lives and businesses.

Then we entered the African marketplace set up with awnings, tables, Tanzanian objects and fabric. All of us shopped, bargained and bartered with market stall vendors for the products necessary to start our ‘microloan’ business, using the small wad of Tanzanian shilling we were given on arrival. There was a lot of laughter, creativity and energy!

Esther’s tea shop was the gathering place at the end of the ‘street’ where we shared our business plan and learned more about World Encounter while sipping a cup of chai tea…I was moved and inspired by the entire experience!”

We are grateful for every person who came and for each financial gift given. We had set some goals and here is where we stand following the benefit:

• We will be able to bring 110 more Tanzanian women into the Backroads Banking three-year program because of the Tapestry of Tanzania event.
• 200 women in Tanzania have filled out their microloan applications, submitted their small business plans and are waiting to start in the program.
• That leaves 90 women who still need a sponsor by the end of 2011.

Here’s what it would take to include the remaining 90 women: 90 sponsors pledging to donate just $45 a month for a year! That’s it! For the cost of a meal and a movie for two each month, you could help a woman in Tanzania start down her path to self-sufficiency.

Join our growing team of sponsors so that none of these women will be told they have to wait for the opportunity to begin their journey to a brighter future. Click ”DONATE“ or go to our website to learn how you can make an impact:  www.worldencounter.org.

Special Thanks to our Event Sponsors:  Pat Boehland, Advantage Townhome Management; Linda Savage, Class Act Catering; Ron & Sharon Ketterling, Business Automation Specialists; Joyce Hagemann, Cartridge World; Josh Savage, Uptown Heating & Cooling; Wayne Moran, Wayne Moran Photography; Kim Bergman, Bergman Design; Scott Gulsvig, SourceNet1; Kevin & Nora Kahler

The workshop focused on how individuals and congregations can make an impact on poverty in the developing world. Through partnership with World Encounter anyone can participate, advocate, and support our work to alleviate poverty.

This workshop and others on cross-cultural ministry can be conducted in congregations throughout the midwest. Contact World Encounter for more information on how to take the next step for high-impact missions.

Ninety women in Tanzania will mark a milestone this November. Each of these women will successfully graduate from our three-year microloan program.

World Encounter is also celebrating a milestone – our 15th year of ministry! World Encounter was launched in 1996 with a mission to “help people discover a bigger world!” Our work has always focused on serving the poor in the developing world. Participants and supporters in that mission have stretched their horizons as we endeavored to serve the least – the last – the lost.

We will celebrate our 15th Anniversary on Thursday, October 13th with a special event called “Tapestry of Tanzania.” We hope you will participate with us to catch a glimpse of how your involvement makes a world of difference. (Watch for your invitation and announcements to come.) There will be terrific food; drawings for original African artwork; a fun, interactive learning experience around microlending; and a brief presentation of our work in Africa.

And, of course, we will invite you to support our mission through your financial giving. We could not do this without you!

Over 300 women are waiting for the opportunity to join the program with their first microloan. Your pledge of regular monthly support will help us meet that need. With a monthly pledge of just $100 you can help a woman every month start a micro-business and work her way out of poverty.

People want choices not charity. They want an opportunity to better their lives and contribute to their communities. Please join with World Encounter as we provide the poor with tools of hope!

Nothing Happens Unless First a Dream! —Carl Sandburg

(You can make a tax-deductable donation and sign up to attend “A Tapestry of Tanzania” on October 13th. Click here to DONATE now. Or mail your check to:  World Encounter, 2598 Rice Street, St. Paul, MN 55113)

World Encounter microloans are “tools of hope,” igniting dreams and transforming communities. We understand that people want choices not charity. They want an opportunity to better their lives and contribute to their communities.

Irene Albanse is one such woman. She is a grandmother living in Kiomboi. Irene operates a duka (small dry goods store) next to her home, raises chickens and pigs, and grows sunflowers for a cash crop.

With her third loan from World Encounter Irene purchased oxen and a plow. In the past Irene and her children hoed the fields by hand. With the oxen and plow she was able to dramatically increase her crop production and profits. When she is finished with her own fields she rents out the plow and oxen to her neighbors for work in their fields.

Irene, whose husband died last year in an accident is raising five of her grandchildren after their parents passed away. With support and encouragement from the women in her microloan group Irene continues to look to the future with hope.

Over 200 women (many in circumstances similar to Irene’s) have completed their application and business plan, waiting for the opportunity to join the program with their first microloan. We will need $13,000 by August 15th to make their hope a reality. Your pledge of regular monthly support, as well as individual donations, will help us meet that goal. Just $100 will fund an average annual loan. With a monthly pledge you can continue helping even more women work their way out of poverty.

Please join with World Encounter as we provide the poor with tools of hope!

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”   —Proverbs 13:12

(You can make a tax-deductable donation today. Click here to DONATE now. Or mail a check to:  World Encounter, 2598 Rice Street, St. Paul, MN 55113)

Usuili’s name means “faith” in Swahili — and faith is what we saw on a rainy night in late March. It was after 6 p.m. and getting dark. We arrived at Usuili’s house in Kiomboi and walked to the backyard pigpen, where her World Encounter story begins. A year ago Usuili’s life was pretty typical of those in rural Tanzania. She had a 9-year old girl in third grade and a 5-year old boy still at home. The family did basic subsistence farming with maize and sunflower seeds on one and a half acres of land. To supplement the family income, Usuili did sewing and tailoring for others in the community. Then in March 2010 the president of Tanzania came to visit the district. Amidst the excitement and increased traffic that accompanied the president’s visit, a car accident resulted in the death of Usuili’s husband.

As Usuili dealt with funeral preparations and all the adjustments of being a new widow with two young children, the village women in World Encounter’s microloan program saw how they could come alongside Usuili. A new group of ten women would be forming in November, each receiving $60 business loans. The women invited her to apply to be part of the program. Her loan came just at the time she needed it most. She has purchased 13 piglets, most of which she will sell when they are full-grown. Income from her tailoring business will help provide support until she can sell her pigs next fall. And the other nine women in her group elected her to be their chairperson!

I pray that World Encounter and the women in the program will continue to provide hope to women like Usuili in the remote villages of Tanzania.

Jill Hall
Jill was a member of the World Encounter team to Tanzania in March. Jill is a full-time missionary with the Evangelical Free Church of America.

There are 200 more women who have completed their applications and are waiting to receive their first microloan. Will you join World Encounter in offering hope to women like Usuili in the remote, rural villages of north-central Tanzania? Click here to donate now.

This “Mother’s Day” consider a gift to World Encounter in honor of your mother to help someone like Usuili provide for her children.  Contact us today and we’ll send the card!

On top of Naomi Athumani’s roof, you might be surprised to see a solar panel.  She uses it to charge cell phones for 300 Tanzanian schillings (20 cents) each, earning her family about $2.00 per day.  People will walk long distances to drop off their phones, see Naomi’s new baby boy, share a cup of chai tea, then return the next day to pick up their charged cell phone.

Naomi also raises chickens and hopes to buy more with her second year loan so she can supplement her cell phone business by selling eggs and meat. Life has improved for her family, with profits used to pay for school fees and supplies, improvements to her home, and better medical care for her newborn and other children. Village life is improved with access to a local power supply that keeps them connected with extended family and the world outside their remote village. It is exciting to see improvements like this with the small loans we provide.

Our Christian foundation calls us to love and serve the poor. We believe we can best serve by investing in the initiative of women like Naomi. Your $100 will fund an average annual loan. $1000 will support the entire group of 10 women for one year of loans. And remember, each of these loans is repaid and re-loaned so more women like Naomi can start businesses and lift themselves out of poverty.

There are 250 more women who have filled out their application and business plan, waiting to receive a first year loan. We can’t do this without the support of donors like you.

Please give today and work by our side as we serve the poor.

Jennifer Ford

P.S. Our “Tapestry of Tanzania” fundraiser was postponed until September 13th. Join us for a great night of stories, fine dining, and entertainment at the beautiful Van Dusen mansion.  Tickets available at www.worldencounter.org

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” - Sir Winston Churchill

“The loan helps me grow my tailoring business and eat better food. Now we have some vegetables and meat for our girls,” they tell us. She hopes to keep her girls in school, buy more fabric choices for her customers, and continue tithing to her village church. She attends monthly meetings with her loan group and maintains their 100% repayment so they will qualify for their 3rd year loan of $120.

We celebrate the potential of women like Angelina, who embrace the daily work of their own businesses to lift themselves out of poverty. Her business grows, her skills improve, and she creates a better life for her family.

2011 holds great hopes and dreams for World Encounter:

• Celebrating our 15th anniversary April 12 at Van Dusen Mansion
• 3 year campaign start to support our growth plans
• 1000 loans extended to women in rural Tanzania by end of 2011
• Training women in business, health, and spiritual development
• Church and non-profit partnerships to serve and grow together
• More volunteers engaged in USA and Tanzania
• USA: Cross Cultural Perspectives class starting April 11
• 3 outreach trips to Tanzania in March, August, November

There is too much to share here, so search our web site, visit our office in St. Paul, or call to learn how we can create a World Encounter for you! Maybe you’d like to visit Angelina and her family in Tanzania?

Jennifer Ford, President

“It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God.”

- Mary Daly

It is tradition, and perhaps human nature, to begin a new year by considering our hopes and dreams for the months ahead.

Meet Marylen, Comfort and their two microloan groups. I had the privilege of spending a morning with these two groups of women in a rural village in Tanzania. While sitting together on a dirt floor in a building composed of handmade mud bricks, I listened to stories about their families, businesses and dreams for the future through World Encounter’s microloan program.

I met Comfort for the first time when I was in Tanzania in 2008. She is now beginning her third year in the program and is experiencing great success. Marylen, a first year loan participant, is struggling. Marylen’s year was spent caring for her ailing sister and children. There was not enough time in the day to tend to all the needs of her immediate and extended family, her home, and the new crop of sunflowers planted with the microloan she received through World Encounter. Marylen’s crop produced poorly, and she was overwhelmed with life’s circumstances.

That is why the World Encounter microloan groups are established as communities of 10 women who meet monthly for support, training, paying their loan installment, and personal and spiritual growth. Comfort’s group has developed a strong community over the past 2+ years. Marylen’s group is still learning how to be a supportive community.

Kendra with Chaldelaco Group

As we sat together, Comfort took the initiative to share with Marylen and the other nine women in her group what it means to be a supportive community. And how this community is essential for all to be successful, especially when life’s circumstances are overwhelming.

We left that gathering encouraged, having learned that it takes hope, community and partnership to make dreams a reality.

Thank you for your partnership with World Encounter. Together, we are bringing hope, opportunity and community to women in developing areas of the World.

by Rev. Kendra Diehl, World Encounter November Outreach team participant and Board member

Join us on one of the next World Encounter teams to Tanzania in March, August or November, 2011.  Call us for more information!

You may remember Esther Boniphace from our October letter; we were eager to see her progress during our November visit to Nkungi, Tanzania with the World Encounter outreach team. Your contributions have provided two annual microloans to Esther and many like her. Her new Tea Shop is like our local Starbucks where locals gather to share the village news, enjoy Esther’s great cooking, or sip chai tea while they wait for the bus. Esther is proud of her success. Her kids are now in school, she’s purchasing mattresses, and buying tin for the roof of her new home. With her next loan, she plans to buy chickens to raise and serve eggs in her shop.

We visited women raising goats, sewing clothes, buying corn and charcoal in bulk, knitting school sweaters and charging cell phones from solar panels. Whole villages are rising out of poverty, one woman at a time, one loan at a time. Microfinance works!

As part of the outreach, we also conducted a Women’s Conference. Imagine our surprise when over 270 women showed up (we expected 100)! We scrambled for more food while we talked about leadership, working out of your passion, and the power of prayer to strengthen and sustain. The full harmonies of Swahili-singing filled the church as our team was brought to tears by the shared experience of telling stories, praying, learning and healing together.

Dollars donated here become $60 loans there, which when repaid with interest, become new, larger loans again and again and again. Like a couple loaves and fishes, these small investments can grow to feed multitudes.

Esther thanks you for your continued prayer and support for this transformational work. In this season of giving, we hope you’ll join with us to help over 500 women on the waiting list for their first loan. Together we can – and will – alleviate poverty.

“… the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.’  But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”

–– Matthew 14:15-17