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Mission Statement
Rural Empowerment Initiatives (REI) mission is to collaborate in the reduction of poverty through investment in rural areas and training of local people.

Vision Statement
REI's vision is to treat every created being with dignity, respect and love. We strive to work with those most in need by empowering people to recognize their God given talents, enabling them to make the world a better place and providing them hope for the future.

Our Principles
REI believes that all people are created equal.
REI will develop small to medium businesses (SMEs) as one approach to reach those most in need by creating jobs that build the economy in rural areas.
REI's partner businesses will be led, managed and majority owned by local people.
REI will always seek a triple bottom line of economic, spiritual and social transformation.
REI seeks to build sustainable community-oriented business models.
REI's focus of support is to the economically disadvantaged.
REI will seek attractive market and growth opportunities.
REI will incubate pilot projects with capable management.
REI believes in collaboration. We seek partners whose strengths complement our own in an effort to build well-rounded projects of lasting economic value for the communities in which we work.
REI is inspired by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and is therefore rooted in the Christian faith.

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Scroll down and look for people and my name Rick S.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I'll give my two cents...


International funding down by most denominations, report says.

10.26.2005 -

While support of international missions appears to strengthen religious denominations, such funding has dropped over the last 80 years, a new report says.

In 2003, denominations spent an average of 2 cents of every dollar donated by congregations on international mission projects, down from 7 cents in the 1920s, the report says.

Empty Tomb, a Christian nonprofit research group based in Champaign, Ill., surveyed 28 denominations representing about 146,000 congregations for its 2003 State of Church Giving report.

Half the denominations surveyed lost membership between 1968 and 2003, the report says, with growing denominations showing a higher level of support for international missions at 2.8 percent of donated dollars, and shrinking groups showing lower-than-average support of less than 1 percent.

Giving as a percentage of income dropped from 2002 to 2003, the report says, and the percentage of income donated to "benevolences," which include overseas missions, local outreach to shelters and support for seminaries, hit a 36-year low.

Americans donated 1.12 percent of their income to charity in 2003, with more than seven in 10 of those dollars going to religious organizations, the report says.

While evangelicals gave a greater percentage of their income to churches, that number has fallen steadily over the last several decades.

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