A Widow’s New Business Changes Everything
When Parmila’s husband passed away, she was left to care for the family’s needs alone. They have a small piece of land, but unfortunately, they can only grow crops in the rainy season. And without a way to store their yield, they cannot survive the whole year on their rainy season crops.
After her husband’s passing, Parmila started working as a daily wage laborer in the dry seasons in order to provide for her family year-round. However, she earned meager wages and didn’t have sufficient funds to build a savings. She worried that in times of emergency or illness, she wouldn’t have enough – leading her to borrow from others with no way to pay it back with interest.
Then, an Adult Literacy Class started in Parmila’s village. She was invited to join, and even without goals for education or starting a business, she signed up!
Parmila was delighted with all that she learned in the Literacy Class. She learned reading and writing, as well as moral values, through Bible story lessons. She also learned about Jesus! She attended two special trainings; one where she learned about caring for her health and the other where she learned about business skills and how to make locally sourced products. She was finally prepared to use and save her money wisely.
Following the training about starting a business, Parmila decided to start a business of her own. After chatting with the Literacy Class teacher, she decided to start selling coconuts. She invested some money to buy coconuts and water bottles and set up her vending cart near the temple in her village. She chose this location knowing that many people would come and go regularly.
Her business took off and Parmila later expanded it to sell chocolates, biscuits, chips, and more foods. Since then, she hasn’t had to look for other work and has been able to save her money instead of borrowing from others.
Parmila and her family are better off because the Literacy Class opened the door to this bright future.
Although Parmila heard the Gospel in the Literacy Class and believed in Jesus, she has not yet received Him as her Savior. Will you pray that Parmila and her family will come to the saving knowledge of Christ?
