March 5, 2020 – Recently we shared about the forming of the Balkan Provisional Annual Conference. We stated there that with the nationals leading the churches we would now be changing our role in the work here. Up until now, we have done “Leadership Development” but we will now be changing titles to “Economic Development”
What does that mean? That is a great question, that to answer needs a bit of background. Team Balkans has worked to meet and train quality people to lead the churches. The reality is that many of these churches are in very poor areas. In one village in the winter, unemployment can be over 80% of the village. They have little money to live on and no money to give to the church (in their minds). We want the churches to grow to be self-sufficient and sustainable.
For the people to survive many members of the family find that if they want work they have to travel to another country for employment and leave their families. We do not feel that is the best way.
We have been trying on a smaller scale starting livelihood groups and offering a limited amount of loans for the start-up of new businesses.
We have had some success but are now going to see if we can crank this up a bit. We can make products but we need to figure out a distribution system both in-country and overseas. That means figuring out the systems needed to educate and draw along-side the folks who want to stay here and not go abroad.
Just like when we arrived and were not sure how to proceed we trusted God and began to serve the people that best way we could – we believe that with a servant’s heart we can learn the best way to help and empower the folks to not only support their families but also the work God is raising up here in the Balkans.
We are going to jump in all the way and although we will be still sharing about the expansion work through-out the Balkans our focus will be on helping the people and churches support themselves and the ministries God is raising up.
We have been given until the end of the year to show that this can happen so we are going to be doing all we can and trust God (if this is His plan) to make it happen.
Pray for us in transition – We plan to be at 10+ Annual Conferences and many churches in the states this spring sharing what God is doing and how we can work together economically to make a difference.
Pray for the connections to get the merchandise that we have to folks who can purchase it and use it.
Pray for investment funds for the new groups that we want to see happen so that every one of our churches has some form of an economic opportunity.
To expand the work will also require some additional working funds – if you want to invest in what we are doing you can click here to give to our development fund. (https://squareup.com/store/marketplace-mannas-around-the-world-shop/item/fundmarketplace-manna-development)