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.