Christian initiative using interest-free loans and education to break debt cycle

A group of Christian leaders in the Eastern Free State town of Harrismith aim to help people get out of debt and into “a spacious financial space” through an innovative programme that will provide interest free loans and financial mentoring, says Johnny Veitch, one of the leaders.

“We call it Fruits of Righteousness Programme (FRP) Harrismith,” says Veitch, who is the Lead Elder of Living Waters Church, Harrismith. “The vision is to empower the Body of Christ and to bring freedom in the financial sphere, ultimately to release more finances into the Kingdom.”

Debt is a huge problem affecting most people to a degree, he says, observing wryly that “almost weekly I qualify for a loan from some institution”.

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Commenting on the programme’s dual focus on education and interest free loans, he says: “The church has been taught well what to do with 10% of their income, but the other 90% is a rather grey area that the church in general says little about.

Freedom
“To help in this we use Family Foundations International’s financial seminars.This is really amazing stuff. Craig Hill and Earl Pitts wrote a brilliant book, Wealth, Riches and Money. Craig Hill heads up FFI and we run the seminars under their covering. In short the seminar touches the practical, tithing, closing your financial circle, stepping up to your debt, etc. But it also focuses on the spiritual aspect concerning money.There is a person called Mammon who wants to steal men and women’s hearts away from God. Mammon has an influence in many believers’ lives. God our Father frees us from it and provides for us.”

Veitch says the interest free loans will initially be aimed at bad debt such as clothing accounts and credit cards and not at home or car loans.

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“If someone is interested in a loan from us they will have to attend the FFI seminar, and walk a road with a mentor.They will have to open their books to the mentor and even be willing to hand over their credit cards to the mentor if need be. We want to empower them to not only get out of debt but also to stay in a spacious financial place. So it is not a handout, but an empowering tool. The loan will be given to pay of account one, the money payment for account one will then be added to the payment on account two. In this way we hope to help people get out of debt. The mentors will help them walk into that spacious place and we are trusting that they will then be empowered to stay there.”

The programme’s first FFI seminar is scheduled to run on March 13 and 14.

“Our mentors are almost ready to start walking with people and we have a couple of thousand Rand ready for the loans,” says Veitch.

Inspiration
Asked what had inspired the Fruits of Righteousness programme he says it seems that God has been leading several people in different ways to the same place. Describing his personal road to that place he says: “In June last year we were at a prophetic input time with Julian Adams and Jeff Jansen. Jeff gave me a word there, “the money is coming”. The next day when we got home there was a confirmation in the form of a business card on my desk.

“In the next week I listened to a teaching on developing prophetic communities by Cindy Jacobs, and in the teaching she talked about debt free communities and how they journeyed into that in her home church.

“The next week Wynand Brandow came to do a teaser for a FFI financial seminar in Harrismith. As he drove into town he asked the Lord about what to do here and felt led to make available R100 000 to the church in Harrismith to be debt free. (This was on a rand for rand basis, and from his family trust)

“What was also interesting was that at the end of last year, while we we’re busy with this Bill Johnson preached a series on finances and ended of with debt cancelation. It seems that this is something God is busy with all over the planet.”

Johnny Veitch can be contacted at jdveitch@icloud.com.