About a year ago, we helped finance a farmer's cooperative in the Philippines. A group of around 15 families had got together, guided by a friend who is a community developer. They decided to pool their resources and share their gifts, work together and thus break the cycle of poverty.

Their monthly earning were around $30-40. Hardly enough to live on and not enough to send their children to school. We hoped that the cooperative would lift their income to around $140 - 150 per month. They only need a little capital (around $ 2000) to start this project. They would be able to buy seed instead of borrowing money that they would have to pay back together with horrendous interest rates. They would be able to buy larger amounts of seed and fertilizer at a lower price.

The cooperative started and looked very promising. It is really a success story. The captial wasn't given to them and they began to repay this loan (interest free) and it will be used for another cooperative.

The difficulty that our friends have is that although the cooperative is succeeding, the general economic situation in Asia is going from bad to worse. The rise of fuel and food prices makes life that was already difficult almost impossible.

They have managed to maintain their standard of living but not really been able to improve it. Without the cooperative their situation would have been even worse!

There is a big challenge to ministry in Asia and it is sometimes emotionally very draining but God is on the side of the poor and the blessings and joy of helping these people... there is hope!