Hi folks,

I'm nearing the end of this current 7 months with LEAD but I still have a ways to go before I reach my fundraising budget and I'd like your help.

Last week I dropped another $350 into the LEAD jeep (and again this morning it refused to start...), my April stipend is working its way through the system, and my March expense report will be due the first week of April, meaning: I'll have a number of draws on my account these days.

My math says I have enough to cover all of these expenses, but not by much of a margin, and I'm trying to look ahead to the end of April when my May stipend (my last) goes though.

Finally, until Partners is registered in Canada, funds from my Canadian supporters are still crossing the border with the help of CRWRC, which means those funds can take up to 3+ months before they reach my Partners account, and suffer a 10% processing fee.

If you're a regular reader of the blog, if you've enjoyed keeping up on the details of this journey, if you're already a regular contributor or if you've never given before: please consider how a small dent in your monthly budget of $25, 50 or $100 will help facilitate my work in Liberia.

Partners has just re-vamped its online giving platform, meaning you no longer have to type in my name manually and you can even setup monthly giving without having to call the office.

Click here to see just how incredibly fast and easy it is to do!

Simply click on the -Choose a Type - box and select "People". Then click on the - Choose a Program - box and select "Derek Hoogland (Liberia)".

I genuinely appreciate all of your encouragement and support. Thanks for your consideration.

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Now that we've taken care of the fundraising stuff we can move on to more interesting things. This afternoon we finished up week four of the Montserrado County business training course. Jacob Blamo taught "Business Foundations (continued)" which covers figuring out how to name your business, how to develop a mission statement for your business and a few other things.

Since we're linking the 12 section mentoring program handbook, it was my turn to cover section 4. Its the shortest of all the sections, so we whipped it out in about 15 minutes. For those curious, its exactly this:

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4. WHO BENEFITS FROM A MENTORING RELATIONSHIP?

Mentoring is often perceived as one person benefiting from the skills and the knowledge of another. While it is true that the mentor imparts his/ her knowledge, experiences and skills on the entrepreneur, it’s also true that the mentor has a lot to gain from participating in a mentoring relationship. Listed below are a number of benefits that have been cited for both mentors and entrepreneurs.

MENTOR	ENTREPRENEUR
Sense of mission	Being listened to and heard
Feeling useful	Improved business growth and productivity
Exposure to new cultures	Access to new networks
Opportunity to share expertise	Affirmation and new confidence
Chance to create a legacy	Emotional support and growth
New friendship	New friend and role model
Greater appreciation for others	Clear plan for progress
Emotional support and growth	Greater knowledge of technical aspects

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Yup: quick, easy, and to-the-point. I had someone read out the first paragraph, and then we went through the benefits for Mentors and Entrepreneurs, respectively. Next week is section 5: "The Biblical Basis for Mentoring".

Lets see, in other news, last weekend we installed the remainder of the 36 barrels on the river raft under construction over at a friend's house. Next weekend new intern Brett comes down from Nimba where he's been working on LEAD's research farm and we'll spend Saturday installing the bracing and whatnot.

Anyways, its 3:15pm here and I need to take care of a few things yet today so I'm off. Thanks for reading, Derek