Kingdom Finance Responds to COVID-19 Challenges

Below is a fresh e-mail from the Nehemiah Center. We are blessed to have been a part of this organization for four years! Here is the actual email URL: kingdom-finance-responds-to-covid-19-challenges 

In Nicaragua a large number of people, including pastors and leaders, do not know how to manage their resources. Instead, they spend more than they have and even resort to loans which generate debt. When the Nehemiah Center saw the great need to learn how to manage finances, they began a program called Kingdom Finance. The Kingdom Finance program uses curriculum from the Good Sense Movement that promotes financial freedom based on biblical principles. In this issue of the Nehemiah Center newsletter, we look at the impact the Kingdom Finance program is having on pastors and local church leaders. We also want to give thanks for the work of Jesse Rodriguez, who has shown love and passion for the Lord's work through teaching others financial principles of God's kingdom. At the end of 2020,  he will be moving on from the Nehemiah Center to follow the Holy Spirit's leading to other assignments. We ask for your prayers that God will continue to guide him and above all the abundance of the Father will overflow into his life. We also ask for your prayers for the Kingdom Finance program as the next steps are being evaluated for next year. Kingdom Finance Program Uses Good Sense Curriculum In 2017, Jesse Rodriguez, a mentor in the area of finance, arrived in Nicaragua to support the Kingdom Business program. While training business entrepreneurs, Jesse realized that many also had problems with their personal finances. Jesse, motivated by the need to support Christian churches in financial formation, went in search of material that could be used in the Nicaraguan context.  The Good Sense curriculum was piloted, as it fit well with the context and was chosen to be used as the basis for the Kingdom Finance program.   The Good Sense curriculum is a tool that  teaches participants how to use two important resources: a budget and an expense record. The program assesses three achievements: ability to develop a spending plan, capacity to reduce debt, and implementation of a savings plan. The first course began in September 2017 with 17 people participating, pastors and leaders of churches known by the Nehemiah Center. As follow-up to the course, a mentorship group formed to discuss specific topics in more depth. This brought visible changes in the participants from creating personal savings plans and payment and reduction of debts, to creation of budgets. In 2018, the Kingdom Finance program saw results in other cities in Nicaragua, with more than 100 people benefiting from the Good Sense curriculum. Participants motivated to share the changes in their lives decide to take it to their churches, resulting in classes in Jinotepe, Diriamba, Ciudada Sandino, and León.  Kingdom Finance Responds to COVID-19 Challenges During the pandemic a project called The Church and Coronavirus was developed by the Nehemiah Center, which is made up of three modules.  One of the modules  is called "Overcoming Scarcity," which consists of three sessions focused on: generating income in a time of crisis,  generosity in times of crisis, and how to save in a time of crisis.  These practical topics have given hope to those impacted directly by the pandemic—over 250 people in the cities of León and Managua. Pastors and leaders have been blessed through this project. For example, Blanca Sirias shared that after hearing the lesson on generating income, she began to generate extra money by repairing chairs. She said: “I am the daughter of a carpenter, and I am a carpenter. Why not do something with what I know?” The day after that lesson, she started working repairing chairs. Pastor Medardo Castillo, after hearing about the topic of generosity, began to collect items for two basic food baskets per month to help families in their churches. We thank the Lord for the changes that pastors and leaders have had in their finances and especially in their mentality, even during economically challenging times.