Sudan & South Sudan

Five Talents is currently seeking final dollars for a matching grant that would aid its microfinance and Literacy and Financial Education Program (LFEP) in Malakal, South Sudan. (Read more about the program here.) A generous foundation has agreed to match gifts by new donors up to $45,000, doubling the impact of donations.

The Rev. Michael D. Kinman, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, Missouri, believes so much in Five Talents' work there that he challenged 20 of his friends to donate $25 for the Malakal grant.

Moreover, he promised to match their gifts by putting up $500 of his own money.

"We already had one match going on," Kinman said. "[So I thought], What if I put up $500 and contacted 20 people to give 25 dollars each? I just sat down at my computer and prayed [through] my mental Rolodex and it took me no time at all to come up with a list of people who I thought would be excited for an opportunity to give."

Kinman's friends all agreed to chip in $25, and several weeks ago Five Talents received their $1,000 donation, which will be doubled to $2,000.

On November 13, many churches around the country will read an old story that Christ once told on a Galilean hillside: Three servants received large amounts of money from their master. Two invested their stipend, doubling the return. One dug a hole and buried an opportunity to exercise his gifts.

I am talking, of course, about the Parable of the Five Talents in Matthew 25:14-30, from which our organization takes its name.

One of the key verses reads that the master gave talents to his servants "...each according to his ability." This phrase – "each according to his ability" – contains a liberating message for the poor, and also for ourselves. This Gospel reading suggests that we are made in the image of God and, therefore, all of us have value and gifts to use for ourselves, our families and our communities.

Five Talents is built on this belief. The poor have value and can be empowered to tap their own unique gifts and abilities to create a better life. When Five Talents began 11 years ago, words like sustainability, economic empowerment, and self-supporting churches were just beginning to be whispered. Now these words are being shouted from every corner of the world.

I dare say Five Talents has helped to lead that conversation as a means of growing God's Kingdom.

The Five Talents Photo Puzzle Contest is back, and now it is easier than ever to win a framed print of one of our incredible photographs!