Results for January 2014

In January, our members invested in 21 loans worth $725. In addition, WMF received another generous donation. We will try to invest this money, along with our loan paybacks, at our February 20 meeting at 12:00 pm at Wellshire Church. We may have to schedule an additional meeting in March to complete investing these funds. Our year is off to a good start. The cumulative totals through January are 807 loans worth $21,025. Thanks to all who contributed in January. Please pray for Kiva as the organizations struggles with problems in the Middle East, South Sudan, and the Philippines.

Year in Review: Wellshire Microfinance Results 2013

A Year of Inspiration

Over 1 million people funded over 1/2 billion dollars to 1 million people through Kiva -- truly something for which to give thanks. As there were far more loan requests than Kiva could fund, Kiva has begun experimenting with new ways of funding and recruiting large corporate donors to fund more applicants.

Wellshire Microfinance Results in 2013

We started the year with 313 loans worth $8,250. By the end of November we had cumulative totals of 721 loans worth $18,625. In December, we invested in 65 loans. That brought our year- end cumulative totals to 786 loans worth $20,300. That is an increase of over 200% for the year. Amazing! In addition, we received over $1,000 in donations to apply to new loans. We look forward to building on these totals in 2014. A sincere thank you to everyone who contributed and committed to reducing poverty in 2013!

Looking Ahead to 2014

We hope to reach 1,000 loans this year. If we all reinvest our loan paybacks, this should happen in the near future. Also, we would like to add new members; please talk to people you know about joining Wellshire Microfinance. Our first meeting in 2014 will be Thursday, January 16 at 12:00 pm.

November 2013 results

Our group made investments consistently throughout the month. Whenever we have a pattern of investing from start to finish, we usually have a very good month. November was no exception. We finished the month with 46 loans worth $1175. Our cumulative totals are now 721 loans worth $18,625. In addition, we received two generous donations from our members. We are grateful for the participation of so many of our members. We look forward to strong participation in 2014.

May you experience the blessings of the Christmas season in the weeks ahead!

Recap of November 2013 meeting

At our regularly scheduled meeting this past Thursday, our group was able to make 21 new loans. Ten of the loans were made using loan paybacks. Eleven loans were made using two recent generous donations. We are grateful to the two people who contributed the funds. The extra loans we were able to make put our cumulative total over 700 loans.

We received notice on Friday that loans to the Philippines will probably show on our accounts as delinquent because many of the loan recipients were totally wiped out and the Field Partner has no way to communicate with Kiva. I think it's likely that loans to the Philippines will go into default. Fortunately, we don't have many loans outstanding in the Philippines. You may want to check your portfolio to see if you have any loans there. We simply had no way of predicting that this would happen. Natural disasters of this magnitude affect every area of life. Pray for those affected by this horrible tragedy.

October 2013 Recap

This month, our members made 28 loans worth $700. We had some donors make multiple loans, which always makes our totals grow faster. Our cumulative totals through the end of October are 675 loans worth $17,450. Our members continue to invest regularly, including using up their loan paybacks.

Since the start of November, we have added 11 more loans which will be counted in the November totals. In addition, we will be able to invest our loan paybacks, which will add 10 - 12 more loans for November.

November is also the time for the Alternative Christmas Market. We hope to add new members at that time. If any of you would be willing to sit at our table for the ACM, please contact Wes Smits.

Thanks to everyone who participated in October. Your dedication to microfinance is so important to the success of our organization.

September 2013 Report

Two Years of Kiva Lending

Wellshire Microfinance (WMF) once again added over 40 loans in September. The totals for the month were 41 loans worth $1,025. For the past three months, we've averaged over 40 loans per month. Our cumulative totals for the past two years are 646 loans worth $16,725. During this time, we have averaged 27 loans per month from both loan paybacks and new funds. Our hope is that the past results will continue over the next year.

Watching Out for Loan Paybacks

In the past year, our totals have been greatly increased because our members reinvested their loan paybacks. We will continue to grow WMF if we continue to reinvest the loan paybacks.

The Alternative Christmas Market

We have always recruited new members at the Alternative Christmas Market. We hope this year will continue that trend. Anyone who can help man our table at this event on Sunday, November 24 would be appreciated.

Wellshire Microfinance Report for August 2013

One Year and Eleven Months Later...

Back on September 28, 2011, we held our first meeting of Wellshire Microfinance with $500 seed money. We had no idea if anyone would show up or how long we could sustain interest or growth. We were pleasantly surprised that people were interested and excited about the concept. As we went along, we were always surprised and thankful that our members came through for us whenever our coffers were rather empty.

On August 31, 2013, Wellshire Microfinance made our 600th loan. In 23 months. Our totals are now 605 loans worth $15,700. For the month of August, our members made 39 loans. For the last two months, we've made 80 loans. Wellshire Microfinance ranks 70th out of 1,049 religious congregations with Kiva. The temptation is to say WOW! and pat ourselves on the back, but after reflection we remember that God has given us so much and enabled us to use our resources to help others. For that we are humbly thankful.

A Month of Celebration

Since September is our two year anniversary, we would like to publicize our involvement with Kiva. If anyone has ideas how we might do this, please let me know. We could hold a registration drive the last Sunday of September. We could do a M4M. Other ideas? Please let me know soon if you can come up with something new. Any volunteers to carry out our plans?

Many Thanks!

We owe thanks to many people. I would like to recognize them at this time:

• Glen MacCallum and Dan Zuchegno for helping us get off the ground
• Rev. Dr. Pattie Kitchen who was the driving force to get us moving
• Steve Cearley for helping us with computer issues
• Curtis Roe for operating the computer and projector
• All of the great people who took a chance on WMF when we were starting out.
• Sonya Merriam for her invaluable computer graphics skills and her enthusiasm for WMF and Kiva
• All the generous people who donated money to keep us "in business"
• All the kind and generous people who made loans whenever they were able
• All the investors whose faithful and generous investments extended our reach to so many poor and needy people in this world beyond what we thought possible

Most of all, thanks to our merciful Savior, who "came that we may have life and have it abundantly."

Wes Smits