This isn’t an ordinary video on chaplaincy. It’s a story about how selfless love in the workplace can save a life.

Click the image below to watch the video.

For a while, microfinance was the hottest trend in global development, promising you could change a poor person’s life with a very small loan. Let them start their own business and get your money back. Then you can go on to transform someone else’s life. Though the promise was not fulfilled, new uses are being found for microloans, ideas we may be able to apply to our own favorite causes.

Though microfinance did not, in fact, solve global poverty, it wasn’t a complete failure either. Under the right circumstances, it does seem to improve conditions for some poor people.

This month, a new study affirmed that finding in an unlikely place: New Jersey.

The Grameen Bank, one of the pioneers of microfinance, which has been operating its program in Bangladesh since the 1970s, released a study on one of its programs in New Jersey. The program works like this: Low-income women apply for a microloan as part of a small group, and all members of the group are accountable for ensuring each member makes payments (that’s the approach Grameen has found does the most to increase repayment rates).

Initial results six months into the study have been positive. “The Grameen America program produced improvements in several measures of material hardship – for example, how often the respondent ran out of money in the three months preceding the survey, the respondent’s ability to afford necessities, and the respondent’s current financial situation compared with the previous year,” the report states.

Read the full story at Vox.

A one-pocket mindset dispels the notion that investment strategies seeking social returns must be separated from those seeking financial returns. Rather than a siloed approach to deploying capital, one-pocket investing puts your mission at the center of your strategy, and ultimately at the center of all of your investments.

Learn more about what one-pocket investing is, its history and why it matters today by downloading the whitepaper from Access Ventures.

This October was the fall Lion’s Den conference in Birmingham, Alabama.  This year’s event was completely sold out with standing room only during the pitches  It is truly incredible how God has blessed the growth.

With the goal to “Inspire, Educate and Mobilize” people to invest their time, talents, and other resources in the Kingdom through Business as Mission, 2018’s event had more than 300 attendees from 10 countries, 83 cities, and 25 states.

“The Pitch Event featured Chariots Investments, Recovery Tribe (aka RTribe), Turaco, and Jonas Paul Eyewear, who all presented their businesses to 300 attendees and a panel of judges.  Attendees chose R|Tribe as this year’s audience favorite by live voting during the event. Learn more about the companies and see video of the event here. www.thelionsden.us

The Keynote Lunch speaker, Daniel Jean-Louis, addressed almost 200 attendees, sharing his experience in Haiti and the need to move from “aid to trade.” which is the title of his most recent book.

Tom Sudyk, Chairman & Founder of EC Group, was honored as the  2nd recipient of the Operator of the Year Award. His life is an example for every presenter, founder, and entrepreneur who seeks to demonstrate their profession in Christ through their professionalism in the marketplace. His faithfulness has been an instrumental part of the growth of The Lion’s Den and the BAM movement itself.

The networking dinners were incredible with investors and entrepreneurs from across the planet talking about the exciting new things that God is doing in the marketplace.

The summit experience was fantastic with industry breakouts led by experts in their fields and sessions on investing, measuring the impact of Lion’s Den companies, and how business leaders can engage their local church.

We continue to thank God for His provision and allowing us to be a part of Real Businesses finding Real Investors and making Real Impact!

Listen to Henry Kaestner talk about the impact of CCA at Bandwidth.com. Henry is the Chairman of Bandwidth.com and is a Cofounder and Managing Principal of Sovereign’s Capital.