Tragedy, Trauma, and Triumph: Lessons from our Trip

Tragedy, Trauma, and Triumph in South Sudan from Five Talents USA on Vimeo.

Good Monday morning. This week a Five Talents team is visiting with partners in South Sudan. As we travel, we request your prayers for continued peace-building and healing in this young nation.

One of the newest elements of Five Talents ministry in South Sudan is trauma healing. Many of the families we work with have been displaced from their homes or affected by conflict. As communities come together to save and start small businesses, they are learning new tools to heal and build a brighter future.

Watch the short video above to learn more about Five Talents work in South Sudan, featuring powerful stories of the impact your partnership is making.

Thank you for walking with Five Talents,

Dale Stanton-Hoyle,
Executive Director

Twenty Years of Transformation

Your Are Making a World of Difference!

We were so grateful to celebrate our Twentieth Anniversary at events in northern Virginia with friends this last week. You all have made it possible for some of the poorest people in the world to start new businesses and to support their families.

For those of you who didn’t get to see the new videos capturing the work of our partners and celebrating the work of new entrepreneurs, check out the one minute video above. For full coverage of the events, click here.

Thank you!

Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director

Life on the Water's Edge: Reflections from Myanmar

Last week, we finished our travels in Southeast Asia, working with program leaders there and visiting entrepreneurs in the low-lying Delta region.

As we approached the homes of the savings/loan group members, we started to see small homes, like the one pictured here, hovering on stilts above dark waters that looked a bit threatening. I found myself wondering if there was disease or snakes or other things I didn’t want to know about in the waters. And I assumed that the people lived near the water because of a lack of space on dry land.

Then we met with the members of the savings/loan groups and saw how excited they were to show us their businesses. We saw how they used the nearby waters as a source of life to help their businesses thrive: fish ponds; duck farms; papaya farms and more.

I keep learning from our partners that I need to trust and remember that we are each given the talents we need to thrive and to do good work.

-Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director

P.S. Click here for more photos and facts from Myanmar.

Filling a Void - Lessons from Souheast Asia

This week, a team of three from Five Talents USA is in the midst of two weeks of meetings in Southeast Asia. What a learning experience and a blessing it has been.

It’s not easy to run micro-enterprise programs in some of these areas, but our partners are filling a void where no one else is meeting the needs of many of the poor. Our partners are working with the whole person, providing a package of services, starting with savings and loans, that helps each participant improve their lives and the lives of their families.

Perhaps most important, we see how this is not a one-way street. We enjoyed worshiping with a group of our partners this morning. And as is so often the case, we were supported more than we could support. I spoke with a priest, shown here, after the service who told us how his congregation had been praying this week for those in the US suffering the effects of Hurricane Florence.

How good it is to be able to work with our brothers and sisters around the world.

-Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director

Our Aim is Transformation

I am grateful to be traveling with a Five Talents team this week in Southeast Asia. I’ve been encouraged to see one of our partners here focusing on “the least, the last, and the lost.”

One of the local leaders said, “our major aim is not micro finance; our aim is transformation.”

He gave an example: “in addition to helping mothers start new businesses, we have tremendous opportunities to help support their children. In one area the kids collect trash from local dumps, and the FT-funded program helps those kids get tested and treatment for tuberculosis they develop at the dump.”

When you partner with Five Talents, you make a difference in the lives of families in some of the world's most difficult places. Thank you for standing with Five Talents.

-Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director

The Latest News from Five Talents

A week ago my wife, Lynn, and I had the pleasure to meet with two congregations in Western Pennsylvania. Just north of Pittsburgh we worshipped with the New Wilmington Presbyterian Church. Then in the afternoon we worshipped with the Anglican Church of the Incarnation, a ministry in downtown Pittsburgh associated with the Trinity School for Ministry.

What a blessing. We were introduced to motivated, dedicated, long-time supporters of international mission. We met missionaries, retired missionaries, children of missionaries, and modern-day followers of Jesus who do not shy away from the challenges of the poor.

We were happy to have the chance to share with them the latest news from Five Talents, as well as to explore the underpinnings of our work: that the Parable of the Talents teaches us how God has given everyone of us around the world the talents we need. And through the training and mentoring of these Five Talents programs, the cycles of dependency can be broken.

Thank you for being a friend of Five Talents. Your partnership is making a difference around the world.

Until next Monday morning,

Dale Stanton-Hoyle,
Executive Director

My Favorite Things to Do Around the World

What do you love to do?

I’ve had the privilege of traveling in many countries around the world, and one of my favorite things to do is to spend time with churches involved in community development.

Recently friends from a church here in the US visited with Five Talents partners in Kenya. Kenya is one of our fastest growing programs and has witnessed incredible developments over the past several years.

Check out this one-minute video to learn more about the newest work of Five Talents around the tea-growing region of Kericho:

Thank you for partnering with Five Talents and helping to empower success in communities around the world. Learn more about the difference your support makes.