Become a Faithful Servant Giving Partner Today!

By the end of this summer, you can change the life of a deserving entrepreneur with a monthly gift of only $20.

For less than $1 a day, you could provide a man or woman in Latin America, Africa or Asia with a small business loan in just three months!

With your recurring monthly gift, you will be partnering with Five Talents to fight poverty, create jobs and transform lives. Your investment in the future of a poor entrepreneur will help them start a small business.

It's easy to join Five Talents as a Faithful Servant Giving Partner. Just decide whether your monthly gift comes from your credit card or from your bank, and then sign up by visiting www.fivetalents.org .

These recurring gifts will provide Five Talents with the funds necessary to respond to the ravages of poverty on the world's poor by providing deserving entrepreneurs with small loans to start a business. As these loans are repaid, your contribution will be reinvested and given to other poor entrepreneurs.

Help us Fight Poverty by empowering the poor and breaking the cycle of destitution, Create Jobs through small loans and business training and Transform Lives by giving hard-working entrepreneurs the dignity of supporting their families and providing economic opportunities for their communities.

Watch our New Video Featuring Five Talents' Project in Tanzania

Check out this video and learn more about Five Talents' partnership with the Mama Bahati Foundation in Tanzania!

Craig Cole to speak at Purdue University

Tomorrow, our executive director Craig Cole will be speaking on the campus of Purdue University. He'll be part of a panel discussion, Fighting Poverty with Microcredit: Small loans, big impact. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited that Five Talents will be featured at this Big Ten school. I grew up in Indiana (my hometown is an hour and half south of the university) and have spent significant time at Purdue. So, if you're in the West Lafayette area tomorrow evening (April 23), head over to RAWLS 3082 at 6 p.m. for this microcredit event. Go Boilers!

Change a Life This Mother's Day

This Mother's Day, Five Talents International is honoring the special women in the lives of our supporters. And, with less than a month, we've got an easy way for your to honor these mothers now and on May 11.

Five Talents will list the names of the extraordinary women being honored or remembered, as well as the names of their loved ones who have given a gift, on its Web site. These gifts will support the mission of Five Talents as a tribute to the mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and friends, who have played a significant role in the lives of our supporters.

Five Talents' mission is to fight poverty, create jobs and transform lives by empowering the poor in developing countries using innovative savings and microcredit programs, business training and spiritual development.

Each woman honored will receive a Five Talents Mother's Day card, like the one pictured above.

For more information about giving a gift this Mother's Day in honor or in memory of a special woman, please email Kelli Ross at kelliross@fivetalents.org or call (703) 242-6016. (Suggested donation of $25 per card.)

Taking an Adventure with God

When I was in seventh grade, I sat next to a girl named Thea. The entire year I had a crush on her. She pretty much ignored me even though I thought she was gorgeous. Finally, in the spring we were sharing our summer vacation plans. I pointed to Honduras on a map and told her I was going there for two months on a mission trip with others my age. She looked at me with her beautiful blue eyes and said, “That is so cool.”

As my heart melted, I knew right then and there I wanted to do cool things!

Missionary work is about doing cool things. It’s about taking an adventure with God and taking a risk like Peter did when he got out of the boat and began to walk on water. Notice what happens when Peter begins to doubt and begins to sink. Jesus is right there to pick him up and make sure he didn’t drown.

When we take the risk to follow Christ, we need to know that He will always meet us at the time of our greatest need. Or, he will reveal himself in unique and profound ways.

I was recently in the Philippines and I looked up a friend of mine, Fr. George, who until recently was the priest at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Taguig, a poverty-stricken community in Metro Manila. He is a person I will never forget.

During my first visit in 2001, he was just starting out in his ministry at Holy Spirit. Taguig is a rough area where drugs, gangs and prostitution replaced several large industries that had closed. He told us he had lost his niece to the local gangs and was almost killed in the process of finding her. He also told us he had just started a daycare and had allowed children from other faiths and denominations to join. He was being criticized for this decision. However, he was committed to vision of combining both economic and spiritual development to build a stronger community

I asked him, “What’s your response to the gangs, to those who doubt you and criticize you?”

Fr. George simply responded. “When Christ died on the cross He died with his arms wide open.” And with that, he raised his arms wide open and gave a big smile. This gesture sent chills through me. I knew I had met Jesus in a new profound way at that very moment.

Since that time, his church has grown and he has become a pastor to the community. He counsels families with alcoholism, marriage problems and other issues. Meanwhile the loan program Five Talents established with his church has prospered benefiting thousands of community members.

Mission work is worth taking the risk because Jesus will show His face in so many exciting ways. And, by the way, He wants us to do cool things as well.

By Craig Cole is the executive director of Five Talents International, an Anglican microfinance nonprofit, a member of Diocese of Virginia's Mission Commission and an EGR board member.