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22 January 2010 In This Issue
Current Opportunities Remba Project - IT/Flash Integration See complete list of openings... About EI Enterprise International creates businesses all over the world to grow ministries. A place where Christian business people are empowered to use their God-given gifts for business, EI shares the Gospel by creating Kingdom businesses in places of need and funding ministries that have the power to change the world. Contact Us Have questions or just want to say hello? Send us an email at: moreinfo@enterpriseinternational.org Forward Know someone who might be interested in the email? Forward this email to a friend. |
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We’re taking you on a big road trip. Romania, South Africa, St Louis, Los Angeles, Cambodia, Thailand are some of the places that are touched upon in this Quarterly Update from Enterprise International. While the stories included are diverse in scope and nature, there seems to be one theme emerging: on-ramps. My friend Chuck Weldon talks about finding on-ramps for business-minded, business-gifted, business-passionate people to be involved in God’s Business As Mission movement. In this edition of Enterprise International’s Quarterly Update we not only tell you the stories that God has done among our midst in the last quarter, we also describe how they point to ways to get involved in mission through business. From our new project that funds ministry in Los Angeles all the while helping women in Cambodia and Thailand; to the different ways we’re investing in emerging business leaders through our international business internships ; to the two lives saved by our BAM project in Romania, this is one of the four times a year we take the time to inform you about what God has been up to this past quarter at E.I.. This time we’re also inviting you look down at your pedal. Is God accelerating you onto one of these on-ramps? Colin Crawley Business That Transforms People
E.I.’s New BAM (Remba) Project By Jim Caya For the last 8 months, E.I. has been working to build one of our newest businesses: The Remba Project. Worked in conjunction with our Ukrainian Technology company eKreative we’re launching a Business As Mission project that ministers at many different levels. Remba is a Swahili word that means “To make beautiful or to beautify.” Project denotes an initiative to cause a change. When combined, The Remba Project translates to a business that strives to make things beautiful by contributing to significant, life altering transformations in people through the power of Jesus Christ. This socially-minded enterprise connecting people with a passion to change their world with products that truly make a difference. 100% of the products we offer are organic, hand-made, and fair-trade. They come from individual artisans, small businesses, non-profits, or non-government organizations in developing economies around the world. At the heart of these operations lies the common purpose to start organizations/businesses that forever change lives by providing employment and empowerment opportunities. A number of our suppliers are in existence to combat social injustices; issues like child labor, prostitution, human trafficking, and discrimination. Here are some of our stories:
The Remba Project (and rembaproject.com) was launched as a new EI business toward the end of November, just in time provide novel, life-changing gifts for holiday shoppers. Though it is still early, the numbers seem to indicate that Remba will be a sustainable venture that is able to both partially fund missions work in inner-city Los Angeles while also providing artisans with a larger platform/market through which their products can be sold and their stories can be told. Its early progress is promising and we are full of anticipation to see all that God has for it. The exciting part of this BAM project is the more volume we move, the more people get helped all over the world. Additionally, 100% of the profits made go towards missions work and ministry. Want to get involved? Do you have business skills/experience that would transform this to help even more people around the world? There are many ways you can get involved such as those listed in the column to the left. These include sales, marketing and IT / flash integration. Got another idea? You can also email us at getinvolved@rembaproject.com. Do Both: Dual Career Business Missionaries
How To Keep Your Job And Still Do BAM By Colin Crawley We do flexibility well at Enterprise International. We have folks who come on location for vision trips, we have people who join as full time missionaries, and we even have people who are in the 3rd year of their 1 year internship. For some people it is a hard concept to get. People used to the rigid structures of big business, university, or even other mission organizations often take several weeks to get used to all they are ‘allowed to do’ here. I say yes a lot. Our flexibility stems from a deep-rooted belief that God wires and gifts people very differently. So by accommodating people’s call to BAM at E.I., we feel we are really just accommodating God’s plan for our team. One way this is most evident is a new stream of people joining E.I. For lack of a better term I’m starting to call this a dual-career track. Folks who have a strong and distinct call to do business as mission with Enterprise International long-term, but for family, financial, or logistical reasons aren’t called into a full time position with our team. At least not yet. Rob Sturgess is one such person. A British entrepreneur with a young family, Rob runs his own IT company which builds web systems, iPhone apps and a host of other complicated IT offerings (http://www.red-c.co.uk/). However, Rob is a full member of our team also. You find him in our staff directory, he’s invited to staff conferences and he does crazy things like runs down to South Africa every now and then and opens a new company for E.I.!
Rob is a dual-career person and more people like Rob are on the way. If you’re one of those folks who has a strong call to business, a strong call to missions, but still can’t find a way to do both, perhaps you’re a dual-career person too. It may be something worth contacting us about. From Accountant To Business Adventurer
By Katharina Friehe Two years into my tenure with E.I. I have found that working with EI is never dull. Stretching and challenging – certainly, but never dull. I spent almost three months in South Africa this past year. It was an amazing ‘once in a lifetime’ experience as I was introduced to this vast and diverse nation. I lived in the context of missional community and worked in an international business setting. Currently EI has several business projects in South Africa – a bakery, a guesthouse, an auto rebuild business, and an import business. Our projects are diverse – which I think represents the diversity of the country and also showcases the immense opportunity available to business entrepreneurs in South Africa. Our Director, Colin Crawley, has said that South Africa is the new ‘Wild West’ – it’s full of opportunity, but you have to be a bit of a cowboy (up for adventure and willing to roll with the punches) to work there. Coming from a background in corporate public accounting, where I would often look up from my cubicle walls and dream about working in an international ‘on the ground’ setting – I can’t tell you how many times in South Africa I would pause during the day and look around me. Soaking in the exotic sights, sounds, and smells, I would smile with the knowledge that, even when things were hectic or frustrating, I was working in Africa and, frankly, it doesn’t get much more exciting than that! With my expertise my usual role in our business projects is to set up accounting, reporting systems, and controls. While in South Africa, it was both gratifying and challenging to find solutions for such a diverse set of businesses. It reminded me of being in school and enjoying math class – not because it was fun necessarily, but because I was doing work that was stretching and yet I knew I could accomplish it. Setting up the accounting systems felt exactly the same. The trials and road bumps certainly weren’t fun and had to be navigated – but at the end of the day, I was able to develop a system that met both the needs of the business and EI’s global management team. The entire experience was an opportunity to learn and grow – both as a business professional and as a woman walking with God. I was able to team with God and others in the work that God is doing in South Africa. It was exciting and faith-building as our team lived out reliance on God in both work and life. If, like me 2 years ago, you are sitting in a cubicle dreaming about far off places; if you want to explore the “Business As Mission” movement; if you can relate to the desire to serve God in an international business context – then perhaps you should get in touch with our team! We have a lot of ways to get involved for both short-term and long-term projects. Each of our global projects is diverse and at different stages with different business needs – and there may be the right project just waiting for you! Life And Death In God’s Economy
By Jeri Little Business As Missions over the past several years seems to have focused on bottom line profits and the financial largesse which flows to various indigenous missionaries and mission projects. This is as it should be. After all, the seminal idea is to create earned profit from God honoring ventures to finance eternal endeavors worldwide. One fundamental difference between traditional missions funding and a BAM venture is that the funds are available locally and accessible immediately. Truly this aspect served to revolutionize our ministry in Romania & The Republic of Moldova. For me personally, I have always been in awe of what business and the resultant profits have meant to the very people who aid in their creation. I am referring to the nationals who are hired, trained, and tasked with helping to create those profits. I believe that our employees and their high level of commitment have allowed us to garner the sterling reputation that we have developed and now maintain in the market place. They are our greatest asset (next to God’s presence and provision). Without these key players, our business at Little Texas would never have achieved profitability and grown exponentially. With this in mind, I find myself pondering what our business has meant to our employees the past seventeen years. I am reaching beyond wages. I am looking past salaries and well past year end bonuses. I am remembering the dozens of Little Texas families in crisis that have been helped, precisely when and how they needed it most. I am vividly reliving the essential, and at times, life saving difference an indigenous BAM has made. Certainly that was the case with young Anca. One of the ugly vestiges of Communism in Romania is indelible systemic corruption. One encounters and is threatened by this at every level of society. This would include health care. Every employee is provided with a work card that assures virtual “womb to tomb” benefits. Theoretically. For a young mother about to give birth, the reality is quite different. Anca, one of our kitchen helpers was admitted to give birth in one of the maternity hospitals in Iasi. She was placed in a room with eleven other young women about to give birth. Each of the other moms-to-be were treated and cared for by the staff with an acceptable level of concern and professional competence. Anca was not. The reason is that all the others had ready cash with which to “bribe” the doctors and nurses to provide needed care. Anca did not have any money for such payment. Complications arose for Anca and she experienced excessive bleeding. The staff, for their part, assiduously ignored Anca. As they moved in and out of the ward room to give medical care to the others, Anca lay slowly bleeding to death. I was in Bucharest when I received a phone call from Little Texas, apprising me of the situation. The remedy was as simple as immediately instructing one of my staff to race to the hospital, Little Texas money in hand and pay the doctor so Anca would not die. When I meditate on all that Business As Missions means, I find myself remembering Anca. Jeri Little is the pioneering founder of Enterprise International. He, and his wife Gloria, have founded several Businesses As Mission companies in Romania including Little Texas, Enterprise International’s 4 star hotel and restaurant in Iasi, Romania. Jeri’s story has been published in the book “Merchant To Romania”.
E.I. and the Urbana Missions Conference 2009 By John Coghlan Since 1946, generations of college students have come to the Urbana Missions Conference to get energized about what God is doing in the world today through missions. Many missionaries got their start here. Thousands of students get plugged into ministries and short-term trips through the speakers they listen to and the organizations they meet at the exhibition hall. Business majors particularly need a place to land where they can make lifelong commitments to missions. Enterprise International (EI) is one such place where that can happen in God’s growing ‘Business As Mission’ movement. This conference has historically done a very good job of catalyzing students towards missions. Past participants have gone on to do great things for Christ, and undoubtedly many from this year’s Urbana will make their own mark on history. SOME OF US WILL CHANGE THE COURSE OF WORLD MISSIONS God has always called on leaders to bring desperately needed change. Sometimes to return to a forgotten core, other times to explore an entirely new sphere. At this year’s Urbana there was emphasis put on issues as diverse as human trafficking, homosexuality, the environment, and racism. The very fact that these issues were on the table at an evangelical conference is testament to the hard work of influential leaders over the past few decades. Another issue that was noticeable throughout the conference was the task of raising up indigenous, local leadership. Almost everyone would agree that the Great Commission does not belong solely to Europeans and North Americans. Yet somehow people involved in missions today find themselves trapped in that paradigm. What can be done to change the paradigm that prevents Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans from fully embracing the call to missions for themselves? Enterprise International has a distinct role in trying to reverse that trend. Our highest priority is to create the sustainable mechanisms to send local leaders into missions. A restaurant, a café, and a web design studio have given Ukrainian youth the chance to take their own missions trips to different parts of the world instead of just welcoming American young people visiting their country. As businesses are being established for Venezuela and several African nations they are receiving a great boost in pursuing missions work that they have real ownership of. HISTORY YET TO BE MADE Some of the young people at the conference will indeed go on to make history. Young business leaders will be especially vital in changing the way missions are funded. They could be one of the key agents in opening up the door to missionaries in the developing world as they step out onto the world stage. For this reason, Enterprise International is committed to identifying and developing these young leaders and giving them a place to exercise their gifting. We do this through short internships, longer-term apprenticeships and our leadership development course: The Monday Morning Calling . Young people that join EI full-time are partnered with more experienced mentors who provide support to their projects. Urbana 09 has undoubtedly been an inspiration to a lot of people. Time will tell what God will accomplish through those that were there. I would say “sit back and enjoy the show”, but it would be more fun if you got involved! Contact us to find out more. Business Internships At World Cup?
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION IS JANUARY 31. Last year’s first annual business internship took students to inner-city Los Angeles, Kenya, and South Africa through our two internship tracks. High caliber students from around the country took part and several went onto graduate and get jobs. “The internship experience definitely helped me get my job” was what we heard back from these newest Christian business professionals. This year we’re offering a domestic internship but also an international one that takes interns to South Africa for World Cup 2010. Among the things on offer in South Africa: opening a guesthouse to host those tourists coming in for the World Cup 2010. If you’re a Christian university student there’s still time to apply (by the end of January). Students can apply online here |
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