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