How He Loves: Alleviating Poverty one Microbusiness at a Time

By Adam Swenson

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. — Proverbs 14:31

I have a close friend in Belize who provides for his family through “catch and kill,” the Belizean term for doing day labor to meet the basic daily necessities. Some days there is work. Other days there isn’t. He and his wife and six kids need about $300 – 400 a month to cover everything — food, rent, water, electricity, and everything else. Even so, money is always tight.

We were talking about solutions to the problem when he said he could “chop lawns” for people if he had a weed whip. A lawn care business is a practical, sustainable, year-round, easy-to-start business, and the barriers to entry low: just are a weed whip, a gas can, a few business cards, and a couple gallons of fuel. Total investment for business startup and a step toward economic independence? $300.

Some of us on staff are putting the money together to fund this venture. We are praying for a big step forward for this family.

Thriving Micro-business

And so we got to thinking … this situation plays out in various ways all over Belize. There are so many struggling families whose economic situations could be turned around (or at least given a fighting chance) with a small investment and maybe some practical help with setting up their operation and distributing a few business cards.

We want to wade into that. And we want to do it with you. We have built houses and churches in Belize, we’ve done training, we’ve run VBS programs, we’ve encouraged pastors and served in almost every way imaginable … but this is a new frontier that’s on our hearts and we believe it is near to the heart of God. It’s yet another way—and a very tangible way—that a mission trip to Belize can create long-term positive change.

For every team that registers in January Thirst Missions will donate $500 to be used toward micro-business in the village the team is working in. The local pastor will be instrumental in helping to decide a good business or two to fund and the team can help get the equipment and set it up.

What Will These Businesses Look Like?

Belize is home to every form of micro-business under the sun. Here are a few we’ve seen that could work well:

• Laundry:  Buy multiple washing machines and a clothesline to dry the clothes for neighbors who don’t have washing machines. An excellent business for
  the many widows in Belize.

• Baking: Buy a couple ovens and pans.  Advertise cakes, cookies, and more for catering.

• Fruit Juice Stand: Build a stand and sell fresh fruit and fruit juice.

• Mobile Fruit Juice: Buy a cart and coolers wheel it from house to house selling cold juice and fresh fruit.

• Tortillas: Buy an oven and a few kitchen supplies and start making great tortillas to sell to vendors, stores, or customers.

• Cleaning Business: Start and run a cleaning business similar to Merry Maids.

• Rent land to grow vegetables and sell them door to door.

• Buy anything in bulk from Sam’s club in Mexico and resell the items in Belize at a nice markup.

As with many such efforts, those who give are blessed just as much as those who receive. Please join us in Belize in 2017. If you want to grow the missions program at your church, there’s really no better way forward than this. If you want to see and experience God’s heart and compassion for his people, trust Him and take steps toward building up His church and His people. Lives will be changed—yours among them.

Ready? You can register your team right here and begin your ministry adventure. Be sure to use the promo code “micro17” when you sign up.

He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. – Psalm 146