A “revolving fund”

For years, the Brazilian missionaries have been given old computers from various sources. The national translators used these old and often unreliable systems. And because they used whatever software came with the old computers, their translation work was done in old and often incompatible programs.

Barry is a translation consultant in Brazil. When he would try to provide guidance for the national translators, he spent most of his time fixing their computers or transferring data into a usable form. More translation was lost due to these unreliable old computers than was completed.

Barry recognized the great need for computer systems for the Brazilian translators. At one point, he told Dave, “We could use 100 computers.” The dilemma was how to find affordable computers with adequate reliability.

Brazil allows computers to come into the country duty free if they cost under $500. If they cost $501 or more, there is 35% duty.

But even $500 is too much for most Brazilian missionaries to come up with at one time.

Enter the revolving fund. The concept is that seed money establishes a fund that the missionaries can borrow from to purchase computer equipment. They pay the fund back, interest free, as they can. The initial seed money came from donors, and the fund perpetuates itself as the missionaries pay back what they have borrowed.

When Arthur shared that concept with Dave years ago, Dave had no idea that he would be purchasing computers for Brazilian missionaries to buy out of a revolving fund.

Dave finds used Dell Latitudes that are coming off lease and are being auctioned off by Dell. Because these units still have warranty left, Dave is able to bring them up to almost new standards before sending them on to Brazil.

Since June 2005, Dave has sent 35 of these Dell Latitudes to Brazil – and the Brazilian translators are already using them. They could use many more.

Pray for Dave as he purchases the computers.

• Pray that he will have wisdom to bid on systems that have the quality and consistency needed. 
• Pray as he and his department staff check out the systems, bring them up to standard, and install Brazilian Portuguese on them. 
• Pray for couriers who can take the computers to Brazil.