The Great Commission Latin America church here in Choluteca is trying to do its part in tackling some of its country’s biggest issues. One of those issues is unemployment. Statistics are hard to come by, but church leaders say that it is obvious that at least 25% of the population is unemployed but that the actual number most likely surpasses 50%.

Four years ago, the church began a microloan program. Because there are few jobs available to people, one good way for them to earn money is to start their own business. Many people, however, do not have any money to help get a business going. This is where the microloan program comes in.

People fill out a loan application, and if they are accepted, they receive a small loan, anywhere from about $150-$275. The loan has a small interest rate (3 percent) and is paid back in four months. When the loan is paid back, the applicant can apply for another loan to further improve their business. Eventually, the size of a loan can reach $1,000 if they’ve shown a history of paying off their loans.

Right now, the program has given 298 loans to 126 people. Some people are on their ninth cycle of receiving a loan, improving the businesses, paying the loan back and getting a new loan to improve the business further. The program is seeing about 88-90% of its loans being paid back, which the leaders consider to be a very good rate.

The other day, I joined Leonardo Romero Carcamo, the administrator of the microloan program, as he checked in on people who had received microloans. We went to meet a couple who sells cosmetics, a couple who sells big sacks and paintings, a woman who sells spices, a man who sells firewood, a woman who sells snacks and cooks food for people and a woman who has her own little corner store (a pulperia). She was very proud to show the refrigerator and freezer she had bought with a microloan.

One of the people we spent time with was Glenda. Someone from the church met Glenda in September 2009. Her husband had abandoned her and her two young children. She did not have a job and was unable to provide food for the family. At one point, she and her children went without food for three days. She was on the verge of taking her own life and the life of her children because she didn’t see any hope for her situation.

People from the church told Glenda about the churches microloan program, and she applied. But as she was talking with Leo, Leo realized she wanted to use the loan to buy food. He explained to her that if she used the loan for food, her family would be hungry again and now she would have a loan to pay back as well.

Glenda had learned to sew with her mother and started buying old sacks that contained  rice, beans, etc. She cleaned the sacks and sewed handles on them. She then sold the sacks to people to use when they shop at the market. She was able to make enough money to pay the loan back and to have food for her family.

Glenda enjoyed working and providing for her family. When we visited her, I could see she took pride in making the sacks and figuring out ways to improve her business. I could see her excitement as she got out her sewing machine and showed me how she puts handles on the sacks.

Leo says it wasn’t an amount of money that brought Glenda joy. It was her ability to work at a craft and provide for her family. And beyond that, she had discovered the hope that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the church’s microloan program, Leo sits down with every applicant and shares with them about how God loves them and sent his Son to die for their sins. Glenda realized she had a life without hope, a life of desperation, a life where she believed the only way out was to take her own life. She decided to put her trust in Jesus Christ and accept his forgiveness for her sins. She got involved in the church and has been growing spiritually.

As I visited several people with Leo, I could see the hope that the church had brought to these people’s lives, not just in small loans but through their love and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For now, the program in Choluteca has about as many people getting loans as the program can handle. But they are looking into starting branches in other cities in Honduras and Latin America, to give more people an opportunity to work and provide for their families.

In Christ,

Ed