Why ELSE Business as Mission?

It’s not documented nor is it necessarily always true, but I’ve decided that there is nothing as unifying as commerce. 

Don’t look for holes in the theory, look for truths. Regardless of your geographic location, income bracket, culture, religion, personality, handicap, color or any other factor, commerce is a part of life. Moreover, it’s a part of life into which we enter voluntarily and both sides of a business interaction benefit from the transaction. (Sure we whine about how expensive gas is, but if gas wasn’t more useful than currency, you’d dump bills into your tank or not buy the gas at all. And vendors complain about overhead, licenses, taxes and employee benefits but if it wasn’t worth it, they wouldn’t open a business.)

Business brings us all together and in Guinea, that means a relationship is forged. Just today I went to 7 different stores to find a 12v lightbulb to replace one that burned out. I was asked about my day, my errands, things at home, my wife and I was wished a good day and good luck having children. After learning my name, one man said, “Good. I’m glad to have met you. Now we’re friends.”

So business is even more unifying here. More than anything else.

Sports just unify us against someone else. Patriotism the same. Race, age, gender, nationality and language unify some of us. Even churches (be honest) aren’t that unified. We’re possessive of our pastor, our worship band. Look at all the denominations and doctrinal differences. There’s hardly any racial diversity in our churches.

Why is that a big deal?

Guinea feels this disunity daily. There may not (currently) be racial violence but there’s tension. How die-hard Cubs fans feel when they see someone with a Cardinals hat on. They’re not going to punch them but they won’t be hanging out together or consider each other a reliable source of information or potential business partner, or hear what they have to say about God. Imagine one or both of them were drunk: different story. The tension’s there waiting for a spark. Here it seems politicians often offer that spark.

“Among the 25 countries (in 2012) experiencing armed conflict within their borders, 60% of the population is under the age of 30. Many of the young men born into fractured societies struggle to overcome years of missed schooling and are chronically poor…Their collective discontent and social disengagement, combined with the easy availability of small arms, virtually guarantee catastrophe…locking civilians in a recurring cycle of poverty, human misery and instability.”-War Child founder Samantha Nutt in Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies & Aid 

Our goal is to offer people something better to do. When tensions are high and some politician is trying to rile people up by demonizing some ethnic group, we want small business owners to be able to say, “Things may not be perfect in my country, but I’ve got a nice little thing going here that provides for me and allows me to interact with people. Plus, I’m doing my part to build Guinea’s economy.” Sounds like a good excuse. And beyond that, we hope to help develop a system that will be training motivated, capable, passionate Christians to use their businesses as a platform to share the Gospel through business relationships.

And where will people receive this training? Sitting side by side with someone from a different ethnic group. The GBU Center is open to everyone. Doesn’t matter if you support the Cubs, Cardinals, Red Sox, Yankees, Michigan, Ohio State, Manchester United or Arsenal. Hopefully by the end of the program you’ll see a classmate and friend under the hat they’re wearing or behind the tribe they come from.

If you played a college sport near where you went to high school, you know how quickly rivalry can fade and become camaraderie. 

Guinea could benefit from a stronger economy and a better sense of unity. Business as Mission can meet both those needs through the Business Program at the Center. We’ll share more about how that looks in the next few weeks.

...... In other news: We submitted our grant proposal requesting money to launch the Driver’s Education Program. Praying for wisdom there and trusting that God will send the money where it needs to go even if it’s not here.

We also found some time to escape to outside of town and spend an afternoon on a "date" by the river. We took a lunch, had a picnic and enjoyed being where it was quiet and we could be alone. 

We visited some humanitarian projects in a village a couple hours away. They're in a similar vein of work without the hope of Christ. We saw a swimming pool, chimpanzee, and puppies too. We also broke down twice.

-Brandon

Why Business As Missions?

Why Business as Missions?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over this question the last few weeks. I’m in the process of filling out a grant application. All the rumors you’ve ever heard about how much work and how in-depth they are is unequivocally true. While I am challenged by it—it’s the good kind of challenge.

It’s the kind of challenge that has made me really dig down and examine what we are in Guinea to do. It’s made me ask: why business as missions?

We are frequently surrounded by other missionaries while we are here in Africa. We get to directly hear about God’s work that is happening on this side of the world. There are missionaries here doing church planting, translating the bible, teaching discipleship and training pastors. There are missionaries who train doctors and nurses. There are missionaries who develop radio programs to broadcast God’s word. There are missionaries who share the gospel with children, who develop friendships with Muslims and explore with them how Christ can change their lives.

Then there’s us.

How can I even begin to justify our work here when I stack it up next to all the amazing, inspiring and obviously Kingdom-growing work being done in West Africa? I get shy and apprehensive when missionaries ask us “what is your ministry in Guinea?” Sometimes I muster up all of my communication expertise, try to put my 4-year, umpteen thousand dollar communication degree to work and present a prolonged persuasion of why what I do in Guinea will make an impact on the Kingdom of God. And yet other times I simply reply that we do “business as missions” or “business development” because I think that if I explain in more detail what it is we are doing, their eyes will glaze over and I’ll see blank faces staring back at me.

And I wonder if part of the barrier is that traditionally missions has been things like church planting, pastoral training and bible translation. It’s no surprise that my role as business developer doesn’t fit into the outline that’s been created over centuries of missions work.

If business isn’t a traditional ministry, hasn’t been tested, tried and true and doesn’t have obvious visual results of life changes, then why do it? Why do we leave our home? Why do we leave behind our family, our friends, our pets? Why do we spend months and months going through the awkward process of asking people for money and fundraising? Why put ourselves through the hassle of international travel or the trepidation of adapting to a new culture? Why persevere through feeling unsure and unintelligent learning a new language? Why endure having “white person, white person” chanted at us any time we leave our home? Why do we live without foods we are used to eating and comforts we are used to having?

Often I will respond with, “because God asked us to.” And that’s true. That’s the main reason I do all of those things. And hopefully a viable reason for most of the choices I make. When God says jump, you jump. But “because God says so” isn’t a reason with any real heart behind it. That's a reason with an obligation. It’s the same reason kids eat their broccoli or brush their teeth. Someone said to. It’s not because they truly believe that broccoli will change their overall health or that teeth brushing will reduce dental bills.

So for the past few weeks as I continue to wrestle with “why business as missions?” I’ve done more than just come up with a solid persuasive essay for my grant proposal—I’ve evaluated why we are here, why I am really here.

It’s more than “because God asked us to.”

I really believe in this stuff.

I believe that there are people who will not enter into friendship with Jesus through traditional evangelism and missions. In fact, there are people here who may never interact with a Christian…. 

…unless their drivers education teacher was a Christian, or the guy who prints their photos, or the lady who sells them their rice. 

Business is a daily, engrained part of every Guineans life. A large majority of Guineans own their own small business. And if we are really supposed to “meet them where they are” as I’ve heard said so many times, then this is the place. They’re selling oranges.They’re buying vegetables. They’re adding minutes to their cell phones. They’re having clothes made. They’re buying property. They’re doing all the things it takes to run a household. 

By helping national believers to start businesses we are affording them the opportunity to do life with their muslim neighbors. Their business is a tool to share the gospel. Where there may not have been a way to meet new people and “be Jesus to them,” there now is. 

While I may not be directly sharing the good news of Jesus with people in Guinea, and believe me, I doubt my French is good enough to do so, I am enabling the people who live here, who raise families here and who call this place their home a chance to minister to people they otherwise would not have come in contact with.

And even though I’ve had to struggle with my insecurities about figuring out exactly how I can justify my non-traditional ministry, it’s become more and more clear that an approach to introducing people to Jesus that may seem unorthodox and unusual is the perfect approach for me, unorthodox and unusual me.

-Hannah

Travelling in Africa Can Be Like...

Traveling in Africa is a great opportunity and sometimes it comes at a high price. We decided to share a story that goes beyond the cliche whining about lousy roads. I will share it as if it had happened to me, but in reality, it happened to one our missionary colleagues: 

Last week, I was within 45 minutes of completing my 11 hour, 300 mile drive out of the mountains to spend the night in Kankan before heading to Bamako for a Leadership meeting. Upon approaching a gendarme (literally: man of arms- I’ll call it a cross between police and military) checkpoint I was waved to slow down, which I did. (These checkpoints are common throughout West Africa and are used to check validity of papers and monitor who and what is on the road.) 

I interpreted the next wave as a wave to continue driving but based on my rearview mirror, it had been a wave to pull over, so I did. Mid-apology for the misunderstanding, I was gruffly told to turn around and go back to the checkpoint. 

Upon reaching the checkpoint, I handed over my paperwork and was issued a fine for 300,000 GNF (a little over $40). I pled my case that it was a misunderstanding but it fell upon a set of rude and busy ears. There were perhaps a dozen other people begging to have their paperwork returned-some agreed to pay small “fines”. I finally told him to write me the ticket and I would pay the fine in town at the office according to the law. He refused to write me a ticket but decreased the fine to 240,000 GNF to be paid on the spot.

I called my colleague in Kankan who gave my number to a pastor friend who called me back and asked to speak to the gendarme. After taking the phone, I heard the officer say, “This is between this man and the government, God has nothing to do with this.”

(Toyota cas a corner on the market for African Misisonaries- this is the parking lot at

Thanksgiving)

A few minutes later, my phone rang with someone else on the line asking to speak to the officer. While the officer was refusing, the call was dropped. I learned who was on the line and informed the officer that he had just refused a call from his colonel wanting to know why he wasn’t answering the radio and what category of offense I was being ticketed for. His face turned a little less angry and a little more serious. I was immediately issued a ticket for 140,000 GNF. He took the call the next time. The colonel said I was to be released with a ticket and the officer was to report to the headquarters in Kankan at 7am tomorrow with my vehicle title and driver’s license to settle the issue.

The next morning at 9, my colleague, his pastor friend and I visited the colonel to thank him for his help. The officer in question had not been heard from, but his captain was present to wash his hands of the situation. I handed my ticket to the colonel, ready to pay but he told me I would not be paying the fine. He radioed all the gendarme posts in the region to let them know that if the saw the man who hassled me, he should be sent to speak with the colonel. He then sent several men out on motos to find the guy. He looked at us and held up his hand saying, “Just as all the fingers are not the same length, not all of us gendarmes are the same.”

In order to reach Bamako, only 200 miles away on a pristine new road, we had to reach the border before it closed at 6pm and I still lacked a Malian visa. When we could wait no longer, my colleague offered to drive, we borrowed another truck, had new “mission papers” printed for border crossing and got our passports stamped 20 minutes before the border closed. The gendarmes there hustled to fill out our paperwork allowing us to drive across the point border and walk back to get the necessary papers. The next 3 border stops took a couple hours as we waited for the call (and response) to prayer, the officials to eat and fill out our paperwork. Everyone joked, we exchanged phone numbers and were wished safe travels while we promised to return soon and greet them. Despite having to work late because of our tardiness, we were very well taken care of. 

Because my title and license were gone and my truck left in Kankan, my colleague had to drive me back to Kankan. This meant crossing the border 4 times in 5 days. The second and third times we were waved through in only 45 minutes with handshakes, phone numbers, jokes and food sharing. Once, we didn’t even get our passports stamped. The fourth time we were told that we had to have 1 year, multiple entry visas instead of the 3 month multiple entry visas. We were accused of being dishonest and trying to hide something from the government and don’t talk to me and sit up straight and this is the LAST time. 

Not all the fingers are the same length.

The colonel did get my papers back. He didn’t offer an explanation and my curiosity pushed me to ask but it seemed rude. We paid him a visit with my boss’s boss who was at the Leadership meeting to thank and re-thank him for his service and hospitality toward our mission. 

God provided us alternate plans when we got jammed, peace through stress (He wasn’t stressed), cash on hand when needed, introductions to new people, and RELATIONSHIPS to depend on. These relationships have been cultivated by our colleagues years before we thought about Guinea. It’s not WHAT you know it’s WHO you know, right? 

Wasn’t this whole ordeal really just a parallel to our faith? I had done something wrong (a minor offense but still a blemish) and “the enemy” (for lack of a better word) held it over me. But I knew someone who would accept my confession and request for forgiveness because I knew him. And God tied up every lose end and opened every door along the way. 

So as you form your opinions of people, remember “not all the fingers are the same length”. Also, watch closely because the tough parts of our lives might be God reminding us of our redemption.

Also, Happy New Year! (Freezer Defrost Day)