sabrinamari | KIVA Lending Team Invitation

Free Spirit Gathering 2009 has come and gone, leaving a wave of transformation and opportunity in its wake. This year, I was part of a panel discussion about volunteering as a spiritual practice, a workshop about making friends with Element Money and several talks about how Blue Star folks might contribute to the well-being of their communities, their greater congregation and this beautiful world.

I would like to build on this momentum by inviting you to join my lending team, Blue Star Wicca and Friends, on Kiva, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur across the globe. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay the loan, you get your money back. You may choose to withdraw it and use it as it is returned, or you can loan it out again---you decide.

You can also join the team now without making a loan, and then later, when a better opportunity presents itself, you can log in and make your first loan.

http://www.kiva.org/team/blue_star_wicca_and_friends

You may notice that this is not a traditional charity: ultimately, you will get your money back unless your loan defaults (an unlikely but possible outcome). However, I believe that the gift of your money's use is as important as any permanent contribution---just ask the 79 people to whom I have given a KIVA loan. :) And in this recession, KIVA offers a way to make your money work harder: your money can be re-loaned again and again, allowing you to "tithe" to the world with same seed money that you can ultimately reclaim when *you* have need of it.

Many spiritual traditions offer their members the opportunity to give back to the world around them: some ask for local volunteers, some spearhead community projects and some encourage tithing. I would like to invite you to join this group as we look for creative opportunities to give back a little here and there, touching the lives of people of all faiths and all walks of life.

If you join this lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty by helping motivated women and men help themselves. Once you're a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva "count" towards our team's impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments will still come to you - but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team's collective portfolio, so our team's overall impact will grow, and we can encourage each other to be the change we want to see in the world!

I want to thank you for all of the gifts you have already give to our community. If your ministry and current relationship with Element Money allow, we would love to have you on our KIVA lending team as well.

If you are interested, please leave me a post here and/or email me. Please make sure that I have your email address (you can send it to me at sabridotchase atverizondotnet).

Peace and B*B,

Sabrina Mari
Clover and Braided Stream Covens
Blue Star Wicca, New Jersey