Thursday, February 27, 2014

"The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good" now translated into Korean...

Peter Greer is the author of a book, "The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good." He is the CEO of Hope International, a network of Christian micro finance and micro enterprise development organizations operating in 15 countries. Also, he is a man of God who loves and serves God and His Kingdom through faithful ministry of serving the poor as called by Jesus.

I have been trying to live a life that is in line with God's calling to do good in my life because it is the purpose of God's creation of us. (Ephesians 2:10) But when I read this book, it has pierced my heart with a challenge to examine myself for the true motive of doing good. There were a lot of hidden and subtle self-motives that need to be examined and cleansed.

This experience and honest confession helped purify my ill-gotten motives over time.

It was too shameful to read and benefit from the book myself. I desired to share the book with many friends of mine who are Koreans. The only way to do it was to translate it into Korean. I have never translated any book into Korean, but with some help, I have decided to do it. With God's grace, this effort has come to fruition and the book has now been published in February.

It is only my prayer that many people benefit from this book. - Jeffrey

The following is the statement that I wrote for the book in Korean:

옮기고 나서

책의 저자 피터 그리어 Peter Greer 철저한 기독교 정신을 바탕으로 15 국에서 크리스천 마이크로 파이낸스 사역을 하는 호프 인터내셔널 Hope International CEO. Hope 내가 지난 5년간 CEO 섬겨온 르완다에 있는 크리스천 마이크로 파이낸스 은행 Urwego Opportunity Bank(UOB) 대주주 하나다. 피터는 UOB 전신인 마이크로 파이낸스 기관의 책임자를 맡기도 했기에 우리는 개인적으로도 아는 사이이다.

하지만 내가 책을 번역하기로 결정한 이유는 이런 조직적 관계나 개인적 친분 때문이 아니다.

책을 읽으면서 나름 선한 삶을 살려고 노력해온 나의 모습을 너무도 적나라하게 들여다볼 있었기 때문이다.
  • 내가 선한 일을 하는 진정한 동기는 무엇인가.
  • 겉으로 아름답게 보이기는 하지만 사실 위선의 가면을 쓰고 있지는 않은가.
  • 남들의 건설적 비판에 나는 얼마나 마음을 열고 받아들였는가.
  • 때문에 나는 소중한 것들을 희생하지는 않았는가.

이런 질문들이 급소를 찌르듯 나를 아프게 했다. 부피는 얇지만 읽고 읽을 밖에 없었다. 반성하고 회개하기를 여러 하면서 조금씩 맑아지는 정신을 체험하게 되었다. 나를 자성하고 돌아보게 하는 , 혼자만 읽기에 너무 아까웠다.

한국에는 참으로 모양 모양으로 선한 일을 하는 많은 사람들과 기관들이 있다. 종교적이건 아니건, 많은 모습으로 선한 열매 맺는 삶을 살고 싶어 하는 사람들에게 책을 통해 자신을 돌아보는 계기가 되었으면 하는 바람으로 책을 번역하게 되었다.

글쓰는 것이 익숙하지 않아서 실수가 있을 것이다. 하지만 책이 독자의 일그러진 작은 모습 하나라도 바르게 있다면 시간을 쪼개어 번역한 노력이 보람으로 느껴질 것이다.

2014 2 6

아프리카 르완다 키갈리에서


제프리 Jeffrey Lee     

UOB Leadership Retreat February 2014...

UOB holds a leadership retreat usually in February. In 2014, we held this retreat with almost 50 leaders participating.

This 2-night 3-day leadership retreat focuses on three R's: Rest, Reflection and Renewal.

Rest goes without saying much. Rest is not just doing nothing, but getting away from daily routines and immersing in the beauty of God's creation and fellowship with colleagues, better yet brothers and sisters in Christ. Through praise, prayer and preaching of the Word, we also find rest in God and in Him only. It is, therefore, a physical, mental and spiritual rest.

Reflection is on the reality of the past and the present. The cold reality of the challenges we have faced in our business operations, including but not limited to the decline in loan disbursements and loan client number, the rise in PAR, write-off and frauds, and the deterioration in operating sustainability. Also, we reflected on the upcoming big projects such as T24 R23 model bank migration project and GIZ EnDev program. Reflection gives us a sense of how weak and helpful we are and how much we need to trust and depend on God.

Debating on topics
Voting for the best business improvement ideas
Renewal is of the strength, the hope and dedication. We can find the true north and draw strength from the true north, Jesus Christ. This renewed strength is of Christ, by Christ and for Christ. Drawing this strength from Christ gives us a hope in that only Christ can give. The hope that eventually He will achieve what is good in His eyes. Thus, we can renew our dedication to loving Him, to responding to His calling and serving His purpose.

Group discussion for business ideas

Explaining the rules of the votes
This was the last leadership retreat for me and it was my prayer that the good and faithful Lord equip and empower them in what they do for serving the underprivileged people of Rwanda through UOB. - Jeffrey

Monday, February 24, 2014

First Truck Loan to Dukundamatungo Cooperative ...

UOB is a micro finance bank. So its primary lending activities center around micro business loans to micro entrepreneurs to help develop micro enterprises. Trust group loans are a prevalent form of lending. There are some variations to trust group loans for experienced borrowers. Also there are loans that are for those who want to graduate from trust group loans, such as new solidarity group loans and micro business loans.

Over the past few years, UOB has taken innovative approaches in loan products by introducing education finance products, agricultural finance products and energy loan products. These have been introduced in the past.

UOB has made its first truck loan to a cooperative, named Dukundamatungo Cooperative. The truck cost was Rwf19 million of which Rwf16 million was financed with UOB's loan. This cooperative is for dairy farmers. This cooperative has 170 farmers. They all raise cows for milk production. The farmers need to transport the milk that their cows produce twice a day, but they have been lacking transportation vehicles to timely send the milk to milk collection centers or MCCs and further to the buyer or milk processing centers. This 4.5-ton truck will be used effectively to make this transportation process fast and smooth.

UOB has been working with Kiva.org to create a community loan product that is designed to help not one borrower but multiple people through a loan to a community organization, such as cooperatives, like Dukundamatungo. If this works well, we can scale up to other dairy cooperatives for this type of purpose.

May we continue our efforts to advancing the benefits we can provide for many farmers and micro entrepreneurs, Lord! - Jeffrey