Building Bridges Through Business

Are you a businessperson or entrepreneur seeking a job transfer overseas? Why not leverage your God-given talents and experiences to reach the least reached?

We’ve seen business and work opportunities provide disciple-makers like you with a clear identity and access to meet and serve people, especially in places where unemployment is high. And that leads to natural relationships that break down the barriers to the gospel in people’s hearts. You can give them dignity and a brighter future. At the same time, you can be a living example to those who come to Christ of how to integrate faith and work.

You can be a living example of how to integrate faith and work.

Pioneering business people around the world are involved in everything from tourism to education, medicine to engineering, agriculture to the arts. Then there are those with more unusual jobs like sourcing local wool, providing alternate fuel sources for heating in cold climates, consulting on solar energy development, sports coaching and much more.

Pioneers may fill crucial administrative roles. They may put those CPAs and MBAs or skills in management, bookkeeping, IT and more to work in positions that make everyone else’s work possible. These faithful servants keep operations all over the world afloat.

Some Pioneers start with business plans and years of related experience. Others, though, are just getting started. Either way, we can help navigate the process of starting and operating a business and finding job opportunities among the least reached.

Making the switch to business

Steve and Sarah worked among a refugee and immigrant population as volunteer ESL teachers and resettlement helpers.  They hope to see a disciple-making movement emerge among those they serve. Sarah quickly connected with the women as they had much in common, starting with motherhood. Most of those who attended the ESL classes were women. Steve, however, was having a hard time making inroads with the men because they were out working or looking for jobs. Even when he could hang out with men at the local stores they frequented, they were often suspicious of him because he didn’t have a clear reason to be there.

Then Steve asked the men at the shop a simple question. “What do you miss most from home?” They talked about this question for hours, and many of their stories were related to a particular food item that was important to them. So, Steve researched a way to find it and get it shipped to his city. He brought the first shipment to the corner store, and it sold out in 24 hours! Steve’s reputation changed overnight. He was the guy who brought them a treasured piece of home.

Building a company (and a ministry)

As Steve began to sell more and more of this product, he decided to make a business of it. He hired sales reps with a heart to reach the same community through food sales in different cities where they live. In time, Steve shifted his focus from being the one outsider interacting with this unreached community to mobilizing a team of 20+ (and growing) sales reps in cities around the country.

Steve said business changed everything for him. Men in this people group understand business and respect fellow businessmen. Business allowed Steve to build trust and establish an identity. It gave him and those who came alongside him access to relationships and an opportunity to bless people with a quality product that connected them with the home they’d left behind. One of his customers recently became a believer and is being discipled. He plans to go to his home country and start sharing Christ among his people.

Where can you picture yourself?