Our Mission Subcommittee’s focus for January 2022 is on Burundi and our mission partner there, Five Talents. The Burundi flag will be displayed in our chancel all month.
Five Talents is a micro-enterprise development organization that helps families living in extreme poverty to save, invest, and develop small businesses.
Five Talents began in 1998 as a means for churches to respond wisely to the realities of global poverty through transformational development. Five Talents was established based on the call of Jesus to minister good news to the poor and the biblical Parable of the Talents (which teaches that we should all work to multiply the resources we are given). Born at the Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury became Five Talents’ first advocate and supporter. Encouraged by church leaders from around the world, the founders worked to guard the dignity of the poor while assisting them to create jobs and opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty.
It partners with local churches in some of the world’s poorest countries, including Burundi, to provide training in adult literacy, microfinance, business development and trauma healing. 80% of our program members are women; when you support a woman, you empower an entire community.