MICROFINANCE AND MICROENTERPRISE TRAINING — The “Principles and Practices of Christian Microfinance and Microenterprise Development” is a course conducted by the Chalmers Center. It gives an overview to microenterprise development and microfinance and orients you to the selection and design of a holistic intervention appropriate for your ministry context. The next email-based distance course will be offered on Sept. 28 – Nov. 16, 2007.
The prerequisite for the course is called “Foundations and Principles of Holistic Ministry.” It lays the foundation for understanding appropriate goals and strategies for Christian economic development in poor communities. The next email-based course will be offered on Aug. 20 – Sept. 15, 2007.
Both courses are guided reading programs that feature weekly reading and written (e-mail) assignments, peer-to-peer interaction with other course participants, and a lesson summary by the facilitator that reflects on the responses from the course participants. The microenterprise and microfinance course also includes the opportunity to receive individual responses from the facilitator. Because the courses are email-based, slow dial-up speed will not limit your participation. On average, you will spend 8-10 hours per week on course work. To register or to learn about group or Two-Thirds World discounts, visit
http://www.chalmers.org
When registering, use Reference Identifier BRN-05/07.
THE BACKPAGE: FINAL “COOL TOOLS” FOR TRAVEL & MISSIONS — In previous issues, we’ve listed these tools:
#1: Beat jet lag (Sleep E., Party W., Gear up to sleep, Herd your kids) #2: Get your own mosquito tent (for malaria-infested areas) #3: Insist on AC adaptors that don’t require converters/transformers #4: Rent or buy a “worldphone”, satphone, and/or sat modem #5: Pack by checklist, pack light #6: Use roller bags #7: Bring a filtered water bottle #8: Carry a thin notebook & a pen, write everything down #9: Use a money belt #10: Try a photographer’s vest #11: Stay healthy, but don’t become O.C. #12: Find a camera/kit you can truly *carry*, then *use* it #13: Pack modularly #14: Use passive noise-reducing earphones
Today we’ll add, in our final installment of “cool tools” for travel and missions, …
#15: Buy travel interruption insurance — The more complicated your itinerary, the more likely it is that there will be some kind of hiccup. You can buy travel interruption insurance from a number of sources, among which are…
http://www.missionaryhealth.net/brigada.htm
and
http://www.gninsurance.com/brigada.asp
Regardless of where you purchase it, it’s becoming more and more necessary these days. Security lines are longer, check-ins are more complicated, and connections are more harried. So do yourself a favor. It’s a small price to pay for a great reimbursement plan. Basically, no matter what you have to do, just make sure you keep your receipts and everything will be covered.
#16: Grab a camel’s hair blower-brush to get rid of the dust — …from that laptop screen while you’re on the road. Any photography store should have them. It’s one of the only ways to clean that screen without risking scratches.
#17: Carry an 8′ brown extension cord — File the widened ‘polarization tip’ off the one prong of the plug so it’ll plug into the 220 V. British (round prong) tip adaptor ok. Use the brown extension cord not only to bring the electric closer to you (in rooms that only have 1 plug for the whole room), but also to multiply the plug so you can charge your a) laptop, b) PDA, c) digital camera all from the same cord. Many rooms will have only one plug. You won’t want to have to decide which unit to charge.
#18: Find a USB-cell-phone charger — Many makes of cell phones now sell chargers that plug into your laptop’s USB port, charging the cell phone or PDA throughout the night with a slow charge that should do the trick by morning. That way you save one entire slot in the brown extension cord. :-)
#19: Take [thin] extra reading (including Bible) — It might be easy to forget in this day & age, seeing as how many of us take our laptops. But when those jets are taking off and landing, it helps to have a couple of copies of your favorite magazine for the times that they won’t let us fire up our laptops. Either way, we need access to a thin Bible or its equivalent for daily quiet time and teaching times anyway.
#20: Finally, pick up an external hard drive to take along for daily backups. I like to buy a 80-100 gig laptop-size hard drive, then pick up a USB-powered travel case. There are zillions of choices. I like the one offered by
http://www.newegg.com
Search for product HD-201U2. New Egg has suitable hard drives too. Something like their “100GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache ATA-6 Notebook Hard Drive” for $109. $19 for the enclosure + $109 for the drive gives you $128 traveling 100 gig backup system, all in a portable format that’s so small and light, you’ll barely notice it in your checked bag. If your hard drive ever fails (like mine did while traveling overseas two years ago), you’ll be glad you’ve backed up.
For now we’ll quit with those 20 tools. I’m sure you have others… but these should get you started. Besides… if we keep thinking up new tools to carry, there’ll be no space left for *you*! :-)
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