Home sweet home! Five weeks, five countries, twelve flights, forty hours by road, eleven cities, fifteen different beds, and eleven different workshops speaking to about 2000 people in total. So thankful to God for what He is doing and how we get to join Him! So thankful for the DML partner teams in each place who do amazing work at organizing, facilitating, and spreading this message! And so thankful for each of you who has prayed, encouraged, and/or supported this work financially. We can't do this without you!
Last week, in Cameroon, we saw the beginning of silos breaking down - silos that exist between church denominations, government, education, and business. It was beautiful to watch the dialogue begin as people began to stop pointing fingers at the other for the cause of problems and begin to see opportunities for how to work together. And the opportunities are many. The theme of the BAM Cameroon conference was "Synergy for Transformation" and we definitely saw synergy and discussed practical ways to move forward for transformation.
The government of Cameroon wants to equip 500,000 youth every year in doing business but does not have the capacity to mentor and teach them. But churches have the natural environments to disciple and teach a healthy theology of work. Faith and work NGOs present have the ability to mentor and provide guidance for new and emerging entrepreneurs. Educators need to focus on character development, as well as creating not just job seekers but job makers.
It was a refreshing, healthy dialogue with members of government, education, church, and business present. There were two phrases that they caught and kept repeating:
"The purpose of Sunday is Monday" and "
We don't have problems. We have opportunities." Those two phrases alone indicate the beginning of a paradigm shift.
It was time well spent. Please continue to pray that the seeds planted, and the action steps that each group made, will result in growth for the flourishing of Cameroon, to the glory of God!
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