Economy of God

February 20, 2008

Today ought to be an interesting day. We aren’t really involved in any hands on ministry today. Our purpose this Wednesday is to meet with Opportunity International and discern whether or not our missions are compatible. We were in meetings with reps from Opp. International until about 3:30 today. Today was also our wake up at 6:30 day . The level of tired I am experiencing is pretty amazing in itself. Once we got going we were joined for breakfast by their rep who is a Ghana native, but was educated and raised in England. I just thought it was funny that instead of saying “we had people signing up left and right.” She would add “left, right and center.” That made me smile. We took the bus over to their head quarters in Kumasi and sat down with some of their reps who were brought up in Ghana, some of which had rags to riches stories. They had attempted to explain everything about their business making microloans. It was important however that we meet the people and see how transactions are made and business is conducted. They always take their loans to the people and do community meetings. When we arrived in the community there seemed to be a party going on at one of the homes. There were about 50 women singing and dancing and celebrating the arrival of the Opportunity International people and the meeting. Business is conducted underneath a tent where the Opp International people sit in the center and take questions and listen to personal testimonies. All of the women we met praised the work done there and had told stories of how prosperous they had become and how much the money loaned to them had helped. The transactions were transferred in the meeting and the women who were scheduled to take out money had to thumbprint as a signature and although it was a group loan they had to sign individually and take different amounts with explanations for each. The next thing on our agenda was to visit some of the area shop owners who were receiving loans. The first woman we met had started her business selling charcoal for cooking. Thanks to the loans, she has been able to purchase and build a storage shed where she plans on selling water, an expansion of her business. The next to shops we saw were pretty similar, selling a variety of small goods and packaged food. Everyone we talked to had said that the loans had empowered them to do things that they otherwise would be unable, and they all expressed great gratitude for the assistance the loans gave them. We all said our goodbyes and had to leave for our last stop, the market. I’m not quite sure if I can properly describe what the market is like. Off of the road the land dips down and creates a kind of bowl. In this bowl is the market, and all along the sides of the bowl on the road is the market. Shops were placed one right after the other and the distance between shops that were “across” from one another couldn’t have been more than 3 feet. Where we were harassed in the Bonewire village, here was the exact opposite. There were far too many people for anybody to care about a couple of white folks. We had to walk a good distance before we actually descended into the market. The market is hot, hectic, and pungent. People are everywhere, you are constantly in contact with other people and there are so many goods in one place you can become dizzy quiet easily. We decided that we would only visit one or two people who had shops there as a result of loans because it was so hot.
Our question for the day was whether or not this was a partnership we would pursue. The lending office had also become a bank, due to request they say, so there were other aspects to now consider, such as savings plans and exactly how much this company was earning. The vision was a non-profit, and our question is if that still exists. From the looks of things it does, and the work being done is obviously good for the people here. My question is over how well this lines up with its inventor’s ideas; from Burma to Ghana. There is a long road ahead and there is much discernment to be done, but I believe that our decisions are not over whether or not our money is best spent here, but whether or not this project is in line with and economy of the least, an economy of fools, the economy of God.