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Development Fund Needed

 

I recently ran across a song called “Look What God is Doing” it is several years old but it reminded me to take a look at all God is doing as opposed to all the negative that is happening in the world.

As I take stock in the list of positive things, I am even more motivated to see what we can do next.  Fourteen years ago, Diane and I arrived in Bulgaria to start something.  We did not know what – we came to serve God in whatever way He led.  We began serving and as doors and opportunities arose we responded.  During that time, we have done many different things. We invited and saw groups come and serve. Out of those groups, God expanded the team of missionaries.  Fourteen years later God has established the Free Methodist Church here, we have a Bible School, an Agricultural program, a Safe House, Livelihood Groups, feeding programs, and lots of Church plants.

Since more and more of the work we were doing is now being done by nationals we are looking at what is next for us and we feel passionate that we are to become more and more involved with economic ministries not only here in the Balkans but stateside and other places as well.

In the Balkans, we worked with many poor and needy folks – they are poor and needy due to a lack of opportunity more than a lack of willingness.  That lead to the starting of the Livelihood groups within our churches.  There are things they can make but what do they do with what they make?  That lead to us selling the items when we did church visits but that was not enough to keep them going. 

An idea for a Kiosk at a mall for the Holiday season in 2018 lead to having an entire storefront – which lead to partnering with other groups who are serving the needy around the world.

We now have 2 physical shops in Michigan and an online store. We partner with 20+ organizations that help the poor, disenfranchised, persecuted, disabled, and unemployed in 40+ countries.

Now for some, that would seem like enough, but not for Diane and me.  I still see too many folks in our part of the world suffering and needing assistance.  I would like to see more opportunities developed to train and equip and give the folks in our churches a chance to make a better life.  We want to give them a hand up not just a handout.

We want to see more livelihood groups started with more diverse products produced.  We want to see nationals trained and equipped to take over and run these groups as they grow.  Just like everything we have done we want to give it to the nationals as soon as they are able and we can.

We have the people and have a list of projects why don’t we get started?  That is a great question and the simple reason is we are needing partners to pray specifically for the Economic Ministries we are thinking about and to give and promote this need to others.  We still need our support personally, this is new funds that will help us help the poor, needy, and persecuted all over the world.

For us to get a group started we need to purchase the equipment, initial raw materials, and salary for the workers. We pay them as they make the products not when they are sold. So, we need at least a couple of months’ salary per worker upfront until things are distributed, shipped, and sold. Then funds are reinvested back to each group. 

The best estimate for each group start-up cost is $5000. We would like to over the next year expand to 10 groups that we can help oversee. In addition, we are needing to raise some funds to cover the administration of the different groups tracking who is making what and inventory of products as well as the shipping of the goods.

We are wanting to raise $50,000 to make this new dream happen

We are looking for monthly donors of $50 - $100 or more.

We are looking for Annual donations of $1000 - $10,000

We would like you to consider being part of this team. 

Would you pray and ask God what role you can play in this new focus of our ministry?

We will be calling you in the near future to talk more with you about the work and to see if you have any questions.

If you know how you are able to help you can Click Here

Here you can make a monthly pledge and set up an automatic payment program or make an annual gift.

If you would prefer to send in a check they can be mailed to

Marketplace Manna, Inc

151 E Michigan Ave

Jackson, Mi 49201

Help us to impact many families around the world.


More than a Store!

I want to share with you what Marketplace Manna is and how we can serve you and your people.

Marketplace Mann exists to help the poor, disenfranchised, persecuted, disabled and unemployed around the world.  Out tag line is Helping people care for their Families.

MM more than a store logo
As missionaries, we started out creating Livelihood groups to assist the local churches we were part of planting.  The needed to get the items they were making to more folks evolved into Marketplace Manna. 

At the same time, fundraising and support building is a tough job for the church today.  Being a creative thinker I am always looking at ways to take something that is already happening and leveraging it for the Kingdom.

The Manna part of our name refers to what God provided His children in exodus the Marketplace refers to all that is going on in the world – We believe and are constantly looking for Manna in the Marketplace to help the kingdom by helping people.

With that said let me highlight the programs and opportunities we offer the local church to partner with them to impact their neighborhoods and regions.

  • The    Gift Card Program we sponsor. You and your friends use gift cards instead of cash, credit card, or checks to make your purchases and a percentage of what is spent is rebated back to us – and if y'all signup with your church we will send 50 percent of what you spend your church each year.  This can add up to thousands of dollars if the church really got behind this.
  • Display Tables of the fair-trade products from around 40 countries. We will ship to your church merchandise and work with your point person for this project. In the end, we will profit share with you 20% of what is sold for your local missions project
  • Church Express Shop – Like the display table but you operate it weekly year-round and profit chare just like the display table.
  • Speakers, seminars, and workshop leaders for helping to inform your folks about fair-trade issues and livelihood groups. Could be for the whole church or a segment constituency.
  • REED Workshop Partnerships is our newest program. We partner with the local church who is working with local agencies helping the needy. We set up with you (and them) a day when we come with the raw materials to make a sellable item. The workers make the item and are paid a fair wage. We want local people from the church there to encourage and get to know these folks to love on them and share the love of Jesus with them.  We then take the items made and add them to our inventory network to sell.

Marketplace Manna is more than a store selling fair-trade stuff. It is a way of kingdom thinking to help you impact your neighborhood with the love and message of Jesus Christ by starting with a real need folks know they have to the real need they may not know they need.


Why Fairtrade?

That is a great question and over time we are going to look at ways we can become better informed and smarter in how we use the resources God has given us.  We will regularly be sharing and looking at ways to make a difference in people’s lives.  We will be sharing opportunities that you can engage in right where you live to help folks out.  Why fairtrade? Because it makes a big difference in some people’s lives that have no chance otherwise.