Business and the Kingdom

One of the things I (Anna) have been thinking about quite a bit in the last few months is how to make our ministry sustainable and how God can use businesses to support and maintain other mission projects. Not only that, but also we work with many people who are very poor and do not have enough money or know how of to set up businesses, but some of them do have some good ideas which would work with some financial help and business support. With a little bit of help these people could work their way out of poverty (the Oxfam idea of: give an man a fish and he can feed his family for a day, give him a rod and he can feed them for a life time). We would love to be able to help people here who have some good ideas to get them off the ground. And so when we heard Anna's Dad, Julian, a businessman who has computer software companies in 3 countries was coming to Peru, we felt it was a great opportunity to get him to talk to Christians in business or people who are considering being in business.

Julian gave 2 talks on two evenings. The first one was about the calling to be in business, centring on Godly values in business and integrity (important everywhere but even more so in the South-American short-cut, short-term mentality). The second talk focused more on business practicalities and actually running a business, emphasising the need to start small and take it one step at a time, giving some advice on things such as managing funds and hiring and firing people (when to, when not to, etc.) Both of the talks were very well received, especially as there are quite a few people in the church who are running businesses or thinking about starting ones.

We think Julian will be involved a lot more in the future here in Peru. It is great that he is able to use his business skills to bless and encourage the people here. Peru is an up and coming economic world player and so wisdom is really needed for those wanting to be on the playing field!