how it all began

the seed, if you will, for seed effect was planted during a trip to sudan in december 2007. the goal of the trip was simple and purely spiritual. partner with the local church, share the gospel, and plant new churches.  and, well, we did just that and it was amazing. along the way, though, we couldn’t help but notice the poverty. physical poverty i mean. children with tattered clothing, bloated bellies, open wounds... you get the picture. it got us thinking. should we do something? can we do something? 

enter jesus. did you know that there are over 2000 verses in the bible that reference the injustice of poverty? and did you know that not one of them says to walk by without doing anything? a quick venture into scripture and we answered our first question. but the second question, can we do something? it took some more thought. i mean, we knew it wasn’t as simple as handing out money. we’ve all seen the effects of that. so we looked for something more, something that addressed the problem without creating more problems. that’s when we read about microfinance. small loans to the poor, big impact on poverty. it’s been tried and proven to be true. (mr. yunus can show you his peace prize to prove it.) i guess that’s when we found the answer to our second question. maybe we can be a part of addressing this whole poverty thing. 

but then there’s more. enter jesus, again. can we really address just the physical poverty? i mean, if we don’t introduce them to our maker, the one who truly gives life, have we really impacted poverty at all? then it hit us. through e3 partners, we have a direct partnership with the local church. we can meet the physical needs with a loan program, plant the seed of spiritual growth during the process, and send them to the church to grow. seed effect. planting seeds that overcome poverty- both kinds- the physical and the spiritual. 

join us? plant a seed. be a part of the seed effect.