A Celebration of Labor and Love from Burundi

DML Board member and volunteer, Lacey Faieta, is in Burundi and shared the following pictures and testimony from her Sunday.  I thought it might be nice for all of us to journey along with her. The DML Burundi team is doing amazing work with four denominations implementing DML and four more waiting to start.  It is a blessing to have a DML board member witness what is going on.  [If you are reading this and have an interest in visiting one of our partners to participate, encourage, and witness what God is doing in the Marketplace, please let me know!]

Lacey writes: 

Thank you for praying for Burundi. 

Today, we drive an hour (on roads that few cars visit!) outside of Ngozi to a village in the middle of the banana fields for a church service and a commissioning service for those who attended a DML business training. 

During the service, the worship was relentless, and the message was powerful. 

It ended with a request for the church members to give to help a homeless man. The pastor even asked how many people knew the man he spoke of. As they raised their hands, he said, "What if it had rained and he had nowhere to go? How would Jesus respond, and how should we?" Then they took an impromptu offering for that man, who wasn’t even a member of their church.

I shared a message about every person being on God’s reconciliation team and in full-time ministry as marketplace ministers. The pastor shared that the message was received with excitement, and it’s a needed message all over Burundi.

The nation of Burundi captures the hearts of most people who visit.  As can be seen in the photo of the bicycle that is stacked high with bananas, the people are incredibly hardworking despite extreme poverty.  There are significant challenges in combating the false teaching of the prosperity gospel and the poverty gospel, but the DML team is changing the narrative of the gospel with a healthy theology of work.

While I was there in June, pastors shared that income is growing among their members, as is their giving, as several pastors have now been able to build church buildings—something they didn't think would be possible.  

However, the most significant change they shared is that members transition from expecting the church to take care of them to being equipped to participate in the church's ministry.  

They realize that when they said "yes" to Jesus, they weren't enlisting HIM to their cause, but He was enlisting them to HIS cause.

And to that we say, "AMEN!"

Here is a short video of the service (or click here to watch it).

Labor Day, Every Day: Work as Worship

I leave the day after Labor Day for a three-week trip to Tanzania, Zambia, and Ethiopia.  I will have the opportunity to meet with three amazing DML teams, speak with denominational leaders, pastors, women, young adults, educators, and government officials. It's my last big trip of the year, with several shorter trips in October and November.  Seems so strange to write that, as this year is flying by!

I'm often not in the US for Labor Day.  I tend to celebrate Labor Day on May 1st, which is when most of the world celebrates it.  Most of our partners hold "Work as Worship" events on Labor Day, where churches gather together to have members share testimonies of how they are integrating their faith and work, and share what God is doing in their workplace.  I'm always amazed that on these national holidays in other countries, whole-day events are held and people actually come!  In the US, that would not be the case, but Labor Day can be acknowledged in some way on the Sunday before (even though the church may be half empty as everyone has gone away for the weekend).

In light of Labor Day, I'd like to share a sample of a workplace commissioning that could be used on a Labor Day Sunday and encourage all of us to encourage our pastors to do something related to our workplaces.  One of the churches living out workplace discipleship in Zambia had their worship team wear their work clothes/uniforms on Sunday.  Others bring in something that they use in work (a tool, a laptop, a motorcycle helmet), lay them on the altar, and they are prayed over.

This commissioning liturgy is from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity:

Missional Business Commissioning 

Our great cause together, including yours as a business owner or professional, is to be a faithful Christ-follower in our workplaces, communities and around the world.  

THEREFORE, WE WOULD ASK YOU TO PLEASE AFFIRM THE FOLLOWING COMMITMENTS:  

As a follower of Jesus Christ, will you embrace your work as a place of possibility and potential in the purposes of God?  Will you believe that God is already at work in these places and will you give yourself unreservedly to his purposes in you and through you, wherever you are? 

IF YES, PLEASE RESPOND:  With the help of God, I will. 

Will you trust God with the big things and the small things that you do day by day, and seek to make all that you do in your place of business and work a part of your worship of Him – learning to rely on Him, His power, His love, and His grace, whatever you do?  

IF YES, PLEASE RESPOND:  With the help of God, I will. 

As a son or daughter of our heavenly Father, will you believe that your value, your worth, your significance, and your life in your place of business and work, flow first from this identity, so that you can embrace the joy and freedom of being a child of God, wherever you are?  

IF YES, PLEASE RESPOND:  With the help of God, I will. 

As a part of the body of Christ, will you commit to encouraging and helping one another flourish in Christ and be fruitful in your businesses and place of work – learning to be the people of God, whether gathered (together on a Sunday or at any time during the week) or scattered (for the rest of the week), helping one another to make all the difference in the world?  

IF YES, PLEASE RESPOND:  With the help of God, I will. 

Today, we want to affirm your call to follow Christ in all of life, and we declare that the strength and power of the Holy Spirit will flow through you as you live out this calling in your business and at your place of work.  We commission you now this life and work, and pledge to you our prayers, encouragement and support.  

Amen!

I pray that all of us may be able to say yes to these statements and be equipped, encouraged, and commissioned to live them out in every workplace!

Guest Article: David Smith on "Your Work Matters. And it Doesn't. Be Glad."

I don't share blogs from other writers very often, but this was too good to pass up. David Smith is the Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, the Coordinator of the de Vries Institute for Global Faculty Development, a Professor of Education at Calvin University, and the Editor of the International Journal of Christianity and Education.  As a fellow Grand Rapidian, we attended the same church for years.

This article first appeared in the Christ-Animating Learning Blog, and I was given permission to reprint this article by the Christian Scholar's Review.

I share this because many of us wonder about how our work fits into the big picture.  Does it really matter?  Some days it feels all important.  Other days, not so much.  David does a very good job of capturing the challenge in this.  What caught me from his article was this quote,

"You must be fully transformed so that you are Everything, Something, and Nothing. Everything in yourself, Something in human society of which you are a part, and Nothing in the presence of God."

Please read below to see the context and enjoy!  (And feel go to the link shared above and give him a review of this article!)

I sit in an empty computer lab, surrounded by the sleek machinery of digital existence, propped in the curvature of an adjustable office chair. I have been here all day, all week, working hard, even harder than usual, spurred on by participation in a writing cooperative. There are others in neighboring rooms, secreting words onto screens, words about wildlife conservation, words about neurotoxins, words about Milton and Lonergan and Owen, words about the nature of attention and the ways we imagine the Apocalypse. In my quiet corner, hunched between my tea mug and the Velky Česko-Anglický Slovník, I am concentrating fiercely on the demanding labor of translating seventeenth century Czech. “Oh God, God, God! God, if you are God, have mercy on me in my misery!”

(That last part was not actually me; that was the last sentence I translated. I am, in fact, not very miserable at all at this particular moment. Huddled in a nest of dictionaries, following arcane verbal rabbit trails, I am having enormous fun of a kind that I would likely be hard pressed to explain to most passing motorists. Perhaps even to most of my colleagues.)

I stand up, stretch, grab a tangerine, and walk over to the windows. The building is next to a highway, and a parade of vehicles streams relentlessly past. As the taut elastic of my attention pings free from its tether, I stand juggling conflicting stories about the traffic and me.

If only they knew, goes one. Here are all these people, hurrying to the store, the dental appointment, the job site, the school, driving past a building with windows behind which important work is happening, profound work, ideas that could change things. Even my own current immersion in the writings of Comenius, the seventeenth century Moravian bishop, theologian, philosopher, and educator, is rooted in a sense that it matters, or will matter if I can persuade a few people that there are still things in his writing that we need to consider. If only they could see what I see, perhaps they might want to pull over for a while.

Why should they care, goes another. They are engaged in the stuff of the real world, earning a living, assisting colleagues, collecting children, getting people to where they need to go. The things they are scurrying toward have immediate consequences for their incomes, their health, and their families. And here I sit wondering whether it would be better to render strašlivý as terrible, frightful, ghastly, or awful.

(Awful, I think, at least for the time being. Awful like the sneaking thought that this is selfish indulgence and a waste of exhausting labor. Awful like the periodic suspicion not just that it might matter to no one, but that perhaps it shouldn’t rightly matter to anyone. Hmm, perhaps I could find my way toward a little misery.)

My project, a story for another day, is large and demanding. Depending on when you ask, you might find me thinking that it could be my finest contribution yet or that I have finally and utterly overestimated the degree to which my peculiar intellectual passions have any significance at all and should quit while there is still time to pivot to something actually useful.

A truck barely held together by rust passes. Then a van from a pet grooming service, a bus with a company logo, a swarm of cars, a mechanical excavator balancing a large sofa on its bucket. I work patiently at linguistic minutiae, and the world keeps passing by at something approximating the speed limit.

I wonder how my feuding stories fit together. Am I supposed to be finding a way to sustain an unwavering conviction that academic work matters? Should I be accepting that it’s just my job and plenty of other folk, along with me, are doing things today that will leave no furrow? Should I be looking for a golden mean, an equanimity that steers between overconfidence and despair?

In one of Comenius’s works, Panorthosia (Universal Reform), he suggests an alternative to the balance image, something that comes closer in spirit to saying “all of the above.” In a chapter devoted to our responsibility to reform ourselves, he urges that “you must be fully transformed so that you are Everything, Something, and Nothing. Everything in yourself, Something in human society of which you are a part, and Nothing in the presence of God.”(1)

In yourself, he explains, you have a full share in the status of being “a true image of God and Christ,”(2) and that is to be expressed in every part of your life; therefore, you have a stake in every facet of human existence. The goal of “representing the very likeness of God in the actions of your daily life”(3) calls for holiness, mercy, generosity, and kindness to be expressed in all human tasks: managing your health, making a living, seeking understanding, controlling your desires, and doing your work. Having a specialization does not exempt you from any part of this, because your life is lived before God as a whole human being. Living that life in the image of Christ requires transformation of its every facet.

Yet each of us also has a position in society, and so it is good to be “something,” to “fulfil your own vocation without presuming to go beyond it.”(4) As the body has many parts, so you do not need to envy the work of others or inflate the value of your piece. You should do the work appropriate to your own calling “without looking round for another one.”(5) It’s enough to be a twig on the tree, a stone in the temple, and weighing which twig or stone matters most is missing the point.

But acknowledging your limited contribution to the larger scheme of things is not enough without also “acknowledging your nothingness, laying yourself empty before God in such deep humility that you take no credit for any good thing that you see before you.”(6) Rather than worrying about status, you should “ascribe everything to God, remaining ready to endure even dire confusion and strife as the penalty for your ignorant use of God’s gifts, and begging forgiveness of your sins.”(7) None of your righteous acts are pure or sovereign. God opposes the proud and exalts the humble.

As with so many of Comenius’s thoughts, the inseparability of the three parts of the argument is key (for theological reasons he was very fond of “three-and-yet-one” thought structures, sensing in them echoes of God’s nature in creation). Focus only on the splendors of multifaceted human existence, and we get triumphalism and delusions of grandeur. Tell only the nothingness story, and we risk degradation. Focus only on your part in the play, and wider purposes fade. The three are all true at once, not in turn. While Comenius did sometimes invoke the golden mean, his instinct was often to shift from dichotomies to triads and turn everything up to eleven. You are and should strive to be, at one and the same time, everything, something, and nothing.

I find this a richer frame for the minutiae of scholarly work than the “everything matters a little bit” impulse that sometimes seems to be implied by balance metaphors. The specific work that I do is part of a glorious whole, an ingredient in an endlessly complex and shifting kaleidoscope of human possibility lived in God’s presence. It is a tiny contribution among many, many others, including those of all those folk on the highway, to the weal of the world, neither insignificant nor the answer, just one piece of the puzzle. And it does not matter at all, because the world belongs to God and I am small, foolish, and mostly mistaken, yet lifted up anyway because of mercy rather than achievement. Acknowledging all three and dwelling on their simultaneity is freeing.

Footnotes:

1. John Amos Comenius, Panorthosia 20.12. All quoted text here is from the translation in John Amos Comenius, Panorthosia or Universal Reform, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993.
2. Panorthosia 20.13.
3. Panorthosia 20.15.
4. Panorthosia 20.17.
5. Panorthosia 20.17.
6. Panorthosia 20.18.
7. Panorthosia 20.18

A Flywheel: "We love you, but please don't visit."

Last week, I had lunch with Dave Genzink, a friend, partner of DML, and former colleague from my time with Partners Worldwide.  As he heard me share about some of the transitions we are seeing with DML this year (good ones!), he shared with me that it reminded him of a flywheel.

A flywheel is a mechanical device that stores rotational energy using inertia.  It acts as an energy reservoir, maintaining speed and providing a buffer for fluctuations in power or demand.  Think about a potter's wheel - when you push the pedal, the speed doesn't fluctuate because the flywheel stores the energy and uses it when needed.  

If you have read the book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, you are familiar with his talk about flywheels.  The difficulty is in getting this very heavy wheel to turn the first time.  It takes a lot of work. And once you achieve one turn, you don't stop.  You keep going until you get two, then four, sixteen, sixty, six hundred, one thousand turns.  Then ten thousand, then one million turns.  He says, "Big things happen because you do little things consistently and very well, and they compound over time."  He emphasizes the importance of consistency.

Jim Collins says, "Despite the differences between business and social-sector economics, a fundamental truth remains. Those who lead institutions from good to great must harness the flywheel effect. Whereas in business the key driver in the flywheel is the link between financial success and capital resources, I’d like to suggest that a key link in the social sectors is brand reputation built upon tangible results and emotional share of heart, with potential supporters believing in not only your mission but also your capacity to deliver on that mission."

Dave explained that the flywheel in ministry needs commitment, through long-term engagement and passion.  It requires alignment in what we do and say, as well as learning about what works and what doesn't.  It needs continuous improvement through the sharing of best practices.  And it needs momentum, by building on success and local ownership.

The story I shared with him that triggered the memory of a flywheel was that I was told by the DML Francophone leaders who are starting the work of DML in several French-speaking countries, "We love you, but please don't visit."  The presence of a white American can disrupt momentum by potentially undermining opportunities for ownership and contribution.  A flywheel that is moving well can slow down when those pushing begin looking for energy elsewhere.  These leaders continued by saying, "In a few years, when it's going well, then it would be good for you to visit and see what is happening."

I took this as a very positive sign, a sign of the flywheel turning now because of momentum and many more hands pushing it.  In fact, so far this year, we have seen THOUSANDS of new DML trainers trained across many countries.  

In French-speaking Africa, we are seeing amazing growth.  With over 300 million French speakers in 18+ countries, DML teams are moving!  This population frequently laments that many materials relating to faith and transformation are in English only.  Our partners have been working hard to ensure all materials are translated into French and are getting them out there!  We now have fully established teams in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, and Togo, and we have teams starting and in training in Chad, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Senegal; and we have teams heading out very soon to Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Madagascar.

We aren't yet to the point of ten thousand or one million turns, but we are on our way!

When Overdoing Something Results in It Being Underdone

Imagine a carpenter building a table. He puts all his time, energy, and resources into crafting one leg—strong, polished, beautifully carved. But he neglects the other three legs. When he finally lifts the table, it topples. It can’t stand, no matter how perfect that one leg is.

In the same way, some churches and believers place an excessive focus on the Great Commission — making disciples and spreading the gospel — that they neglect the rest of Jesus’ teachings: loving one another, pursuing justice, cultivating spiritual depth, stewarding creation, and working with excellence.

The Great Commission is essential, but it was never meant to stand alone. Christianity without the fullness of Christ’s commands becomes unstable and imbalanced.

Jordan Raynor, in his book, The Sacredness of Secular Work, explains that the idea that evangelism is the only thing God calls us to do is relatively new in Christian history.  For the first 1,600 years of the Church's life, Matthew 28 was not read and understood as fanfare for Missiology. In fact, before the 17th century, the Great Commission was largely ignored when discussing the Church's missional assignment. In fact, the "Great Commission” label didn't even appear in print until the 1600s. But in the last few centuries, we've begun acting as though sharing the gospel is the only eternal, significant thing we can do.

The CEO of Operation Mobilization said, “I may be labeled a heretic here, but I actually think we have overplayed the Great Commission.” I believe this to be true, especially as seen in mission movements.  Millions and even billions of dollars are spent on helping every person hear the gospel, but comparatively, almost none is spent on helping people know how to live it out.  We make converts but we don't make disciples.  I don't say this lightly.  However, after twenty years of mission work, watching and participating in mission organizations and church-planting movements, we continue to reduce the message and teaching of Christ to one part of His message, rather than the whole package.

Please don't get me wrong.  I believe we are to share the good news with those who have not heard it.  However, I think that we need to invest in the priesthood of every believer to equip them to integrate their faith and work, so that they are living disciples, "preaching constantly and using words only when necessary." 

The real heresy of overdependence on the Great Commission is that it hurts our people by devaluing 99% of their lives in which they are not explicitly preaching the Gospel.

Jordan Raynor shares that there are five problems with making the Great Commission the only Commission:

1.      Jesus never did. Jesus told them to obey, teach others, to obey everything he had commanded them to do. The Gospels recorded him giving about 50 unique commands. After Jesus's resurrection, he appeared to the apostles over 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. But the Great Commission text takes about 20 seconds to read out loud. And yet we have interpreted it as the exclusive mission of the Church.

2.      It leads to a diminished view of Christ's redemption. Jesus came to reverse the curse in full and usher in the renewal of all things. But when we only preach that the church's Commission is to save souls, it inevitably leads us to an implicit and often explicit message that the only thing God will save in the end is people.

3.      It neglects the other aspects of the Kingdom. God's Kingdom contains far more than just the King and his subjects. It encompasses the intangible qualities of justice, peace, and love, as well as the tangible work of our hands. When we focus solely on the Great Commission, we can easily overlook these other aspects of the Kingdom. Justice doesn't matter. Beauty doesn't matter. Cultural excellence doesn't matter. This leads to the fair accusation that Christians are so heavenly-minded that they are no earthly good.

4.      Ironically, it makes us less effective at the Great Commission, for at least three reasons. First, it is when Christians are the most “earthly good” that Christianity becomes the most attractive. Quote from NT Wright: “It is when the Church acts with decisive power in the real world, to build and run the successful school or medical clinic, to free slaves or remit debts, to establish a housing project or a credit union for those ashamed to go to the bank, to enable drug users and pushers to kick the habit and lifestyle, that people will take the message of Jesus seriously. Second, when we turn the Great Commission into the only Commission, Christians feel guilty for working in the very places where they're most likely to carry out the Great Commission. According to Tim Keller's research, 80% or more of evangelism in the early church was done not by ministers or evangelists, but by mere Christians working as farmers, tent makers, and mothers. That was true in the early church and is likely to be true in the foreseeable future, as non-Christians are more reticent than ever to darken the door of a church, and entire nations are closing their doors to Christian missionaries. Third, making the Great Commission the only Commission creates unbiblical obstacles to following in Jesus. Young people are leaving the Church in part because of our overemphasis on the Great Commission. We tell our young people that if they really love Jesus, they will move to a mud hut 5000 miles away from home to work as a full-time missionary. Overemphasizing the Great Commission may keep people from ever committing to Christ in the first place.

5.      It blocks us from seeing the full extent of how our work matters for eternity. God has set eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). But if our work has only instrumental value, then most of us are wasting most of our time. What is the purpose of building a business, working a register, or planning an event if those actions don't lead to an opportunity to share the gospel? Sure, they are a means of loving our neighbor as ourselves in the present. Not beyond the here and now. How do these actions matter for eternity? Due to our modern emphasis on the Great Commission, we must travel an unexpected path to find the answer to this question.

Sadly, our emphasis on the Great Commission has not yielded the results that were hoped for, according to the "State of the Great Commission report" released by Lausanne last year.  In this report, we observe that the percentage of Christians has remained relatively unchanged for the past 125 years, at approximately 33%.  As Rick Warren says, "Methods are many, principles are few; methods change often, principles never do."  If we aren't seeing the return on investment, we must look at other ways.  Doing more of the same - or overdoing something - doesn't work.

The principle of making disciples is important.  But it must be done within the context of whole-life discipleship by every believer.

But God: Living and Working in Africa for 20 years!

It was twenty years ago this week (July 21, 2005) that Bob, Renita, Hannah, and Noah said tearful goodbyes to house, family, and friends in Grand Rapids, MI, and moved to Liberia.

Twenty years.

In many ways, it seems like a lifetime ago.  So much has happened in twenty years.

Liberia was a challenging place to live, especially in the immediate aftermath of the civil war.  There was no running water or electricity in the entire country.  Break-ins happened every night from the recently disarmed ex-combatants.  We had no colleagues there to guide us on how to live and work in a culture that was so very different from what we were accustomed to.

But God showed up.  And we fell in love with the place and the people.  And the work prospered - from counseling to community development to business development.

And after 3.5 years, we left the work in competent Liberian hands and moved to Ghana.

Ghana had a school that Hannah and Noah could attend (after being homeschooled in Liberia).  It had the hope of running water and electricity (which actually turned out to be more frustrating than not having it at all, because it would go out daily, and we never knew when it would come back).  I was tasked with coordinating business development work in Liberia, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Nigeria.  Bob was tasked with promoting peace and reconciliation in West Africa.

But God called Bob home, just seven months after we moved to Ghana, on March 20, 2010.  Hannah was sixteen years old, Noah was fourteen years old, and I was 41 years old.  Our family shifted in a way that we never anticipated or expected.  In a still new and foreign land, a land with witch camps for women who have these types of events in their lives, we now wondered what to do. 

Despite being away from family and friends, and in a culture that felt less welcoming than Liberia, we felt led not to make a significant change and to stay the course until God showed us what to do.  So, I finished my three-year commitment, Hannah graduated from high school and went to university, and then Noah graduated as well.  This takes us to June 2012.  I no longer felt that teaching wealth creation without ongoing discipleship by the church was a responsible approach.  I was about to leave Ghana with no idea of what to do next.

But God showed up, just in that last week, through a conference speaker named Dr. Phil Walker with International Christian Ministries.  He was frustrated with not seeing the church have an impact on the nation, and I was frustrated with doing business development without the church. So, an opportunity presented itself to bring this work into the church by starting with a seminary in Kenya.  

I moved to Kenya in January 2013, and it was there that Discipling Marketplace Leaders was born. Pictured here is the first class that took the Church-based Business as Mission course in February 2013. It started slow.  Changing the paradigm of church leaders and denominations to view the church not as a building and its programs, but as the people and every sphere of influence, especially the workplace. This change doesn't happen quickly.  

But God showed up again.  We began to see where He was working and joined Him in that process.  We decided to operate not on a "push" but a "pull."  Twelve years later, we are working in twenty-five countries with thirty partners across three continents.

The work has not been easy.  There have been sacrifices, pain, and challenges.  There has been a loss of friendships and connections due to the difficulty of trying to live in multiple places simultaneously.  The stress of fundraising takes its toll.

But God continues to show up, and there has also been incredible joy in joining Him in what He is doing.  His promise that His yoke is easy and His burden is light is right, especially if I keep my eyes focused on Him.  I have been blessed to meet hundreds of faithful disciples of Jesus who are willing to sacrifice, disciples, and build the church.  I’ve been blessed with remarriage, and my husband, Michael, is incredibly patient and supportive of my long trips and my unending burden to share this message.

There’s no one else I’d want to follow BUT GOD.  And I’m thankful for how He shows up through each of you in encouragement and partnership!  Thank you for being on this journey with me!

A Fowl Problem with a Faithful Solution

[Warning:  this post talks about animal droppings!  Sorry if it offends!]

During the entrepreneurship training in Burundi last week, our DML leader from Cameroon divided the young adults into groups based on their residence and asked them to address the question, "What challenges is this community facing and how can we solve the problem?"  The underlying root of the question is the understanding that every social problem is a business opportunity.

One group said that their avocados all come ripe at the same time, and they don't have a market.  They decided to begin processing avocado oil for hair and body lotion and grinding the seeds for animal feed.

Another group said there was a lack of charcoal in their community for cooking.  They recognized a need for alternatives to charcoal for cooking, including recycling waste.

Another group said that everyone in their community harvests their maize at the same time, and they all sell at the lowest price because they don't have the means to store it well.  They learned that they could use the "Zimbabwe model" of boiling their maize and then drying it, and no pests would bother it.  They also discovered that the leaves of the neem tree, which is known as the King of Trees, can be dried and sprinkled among the bags of stored maize, as weevils (the common pest) hate neem.

And so on.  It was really great to hear their thoughts, and they had time throughout the week to discuss and plan together how they could organize themselves to address this.  

For me, as I couldn't listen to the individual group discussions in Kirundi, my mind immediately went to my community and the problem that I am facing:  goose poop.  Geese are everywhere.  And apparently, they poop every 12 minutes.  So, thirty geese in my yard, pooping every 12 minutes, means 360 poops per day.  You can't hardly walk without stepping on it.  I've tried everything to chase them away.  They keep coming back.  We aren't allowed to kill them (not that I could), but we are allowed to break their eggs to slow the population (but I can't do that either).  

So, what to do?  As the groups were pondering their challenge, I sat and pondered this.  We know that everything God created is good...so what is the good in this?  I was still stuck and didn't have an idea.

The next day, the agricultural speakers from Uganda trained the young adults on "chicken poop soup."  They shared that the white substance in chicken droppings is nitrogen, which is very good for growing crops.  They showed them how to make chicken poop soup.  

And suddenly the lightbulb went off for me.  Having avoided stepping on goose poop for years now, I am pretty familiar with how it looks...and there is a lot of white in fresh droppings...which means nitrogen!  I knew it was good for the grass, but what if I could harvest it, make goose poop soup, and help my own gardens grow...plus maybe some of my neighbors' gardens as well!  

As I shared from Philippians 4:9 on the last day of the conference, I shared my goose poop soup plan and told them that the next time they see me, they can call me the "Goose Poop Soup Lady." Philippians 4:9 tells us to put into action what we have learned.  It says:

“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.  And the God of peace will be with you.”

During the week, we learned, received, heard, and saw how to do farming in a way that is restorative to creation and good for the farmer as well.  We learned to be innovative and problem solvers in our communities with our time, treasure, and talent.  And now it's time to put it into practice.  The verse encourages us to have the confidence to tell others to do what they see in us as followers of Christ, knowing that it will lead others closer to Christ as well.  It's scary to say, "Follow me as I follow Christ" because I know how often I fail!  But when we live out what we have learned, we should be able to increase in that confidence.  And most of how we teach and preach is by our actions, not our words.  So, how we work, how we treat God's beautiful creation, how we seek the flourishing of others over self, this is how we practice what we have learned.  

From teaching about God directly to finding a use for goose poop, and everything in between, our call to do our work as worship is holistic! May God help us view our challenges as opportunities to bring God-inspired solutions!

What can you do with $6.71?

What could you do with $6.71?  For many North Americans, it is not a lot of money and so it doesn't inspire a lot of imagination.  We easily spend that amount on a cup of coffee, without thinking twice.

However, in Burundi, the story is different.

I was blessed last week to have attended our second Youth Work as Worship conference in Burundi, attended by 400 youth.  We are halfway through a five-year study to assess the impact of workplace discipleship on young adults aged 18-35 in four different cities and twelve different churches.  Last year, after 1.5 years of teaching and training on entrepreneurship, we were already hearing exciting testimonies.  But this year's testimonies topped those.  

I couldn't capture all the testimonies, but the first three young adults shared a similar theme: how they used the equivalent of $6.71 to get their businesses started.  This was the amount of money that each youth was given at last year's conference to help them get from their homes to the bus pick-up point, and to cover their food for their travel.

The first woman, Janet, shared that before starting with DML, she believed students couldn't earn money - they just had to study.  But after the training, she learned differently.  She had been taught to differentiate between her needs, wants, and desires, and began to save some money (about $11) when she was given the $6.71 travel funds. While her peers were buying food and getting transport to their homes, she decided to keep that money and add it to her savings.  Now she had almost $17.  With that money, she bought a piglet.  She raised it and sold it for $117.  She purchased another piglet for $34 and diversified her business by investing in a rooster and a chicken.  Those two produced seven chicks, and in a few days, there should be six more. 

Janice tells a similar story.  She had been doing business but was taking loan after loan and not moving forward.  At last year's Youth Work as Worship conference, she was awarded a prize for "Best Business Idea" and received an award of $17.  Then she received the transport funds of $6.71, and now she had $23.51.  With that, she purchased flour, sugar, and charcoal in bulk and began selling them retail.  Eventually, she too bought a piglet, and that pig is now full-grown and about to give birth to piglets.  She no longer takes loans, saves regularly to invest in her business, and is thrilled to see that the culture is changing, allowing women to do business.

Lastly, Jessalyn used her transportation funds to buy bananas.  She turned that $6.71 into $67.  She bought a goat for $60, and it turned out to be pregnant.  She continued to sell and save and then purchased another goat, who also turned out to be pregnant!  So she soon she will have four goats.  She also has purchased a chicken and hopes to start enjoying eggs soon.  She is no longer dependent on her parents.  

These are just a few of the results of teaching over 2.5 years.  A successful Burundian businessman who started with nothing told them that they all have capital - their mind, their hands, their feet, and their health. 

This week, we spent an intensive time teaching them about conservation agriculture, including how to plant high-yield crops, how to reduce the cost of inputs by using natural products, how to make compost, and os much more.  They were taught how to raise rabbits.  They were taught the importance of saving, which serves as a refuge, and how to save even with a very small income.  They learned how to make perfume, how to problem-solve and innovate, and how to package. They heard inspirational testimonies from Burundian businessmen who had failed repeatedly in business until they finally succeeded, and they chanted, "Never give up!"  They were told that they could make a difference in their families, communities, churches, and country.  And they didn't have to leave Burundi to do so.

At the same time, leaders of four different denominations were present and they are ready to go full steam with this for all their local churches.  They have already been trained to be trainers and have a full-time person assigned to disseminate this message across Burundi.  And two of the pastors where the youth are attending told us that they have been able to build new church buildings because of the increase in tithes.  

God is good!  And when people change their mindset from poverty to potential, it is amazing!  We are deeply grateful to our partner in Burundi and their ability to convey this message with such passion and integrity.

The Gospel According to the Ground

Greetings from Burundi!  

In DML's 2024 annual report, we announced that this year would have a special focus on agriculture, as we recognized that the majority of members in our partner churches and denominations are farmers.  While we had been equipping people to do their work as an act of worship and teaching basic business principles, we continued to face the significant challenge of "hungry farmers" (as addressed in this blog this past March).  

When an opportunity came to partner with an organization that was teaching conservation agriculture through the church, it didn't take long to see the potential of working together.  Conservation agriculture aims to improve soil health, increase water use efficiency, reduce labor and input costs, enhance biodiversity, and increase crop yields (by 4 times, we are told).

We planned to have three pilot studies:  Sierra Leone, Burundi, and India.  

But as our other partners heard about this opportunity, it became apparent that they didn't want to wait for the results of a pilot study.  They wanted in!  

Our partner in Burkina Faso came on board.  They have been trained to be trainers and have taken this message beyond their borders and into Togo and Guinea.

Our partner in Nigeria came on board.  They were trained to be trainers and have taken this message beyond Nigeria, to our partners in Tanzania and Kenya.

Our partner in Uganda will attend a training next month.

And at the same time, Sierra Leone is moving forward.  The training in India happened last week.  

This week in Burundi, we are hosting our youth conference, which will bring together 400 people over three days, with a focus on agriculture.  Last week, 30 trainers were trained to coach the 400 young adults, along with the DML Cameroon leader, who wants to start in this in Cameroon as well as other Francophone nations!

It's been an exciting season.  

Yesterday, I spoke at a church with approximately 1,000 people about creation care and our call to preach the gospel to "all creation" (Mark 16:15).  

I reminded the church that creation care is a gospel issue.  From Lausanne, “If Jesus is Lord of all the earth, we cannot separate our relationship to Christ from how we act in relation to the earth. For to proclaim the gospel that says ‘Jesus is Lord’ is to proclaim the gospel that includes the earth, since Christ’s Lordship is over all creation. Creation care is thus a gospel issue within the Lordship of Christ.”

Job 12:8 says, "Speak to the earth and it will teach you." We listen, we learn, we teach, we preach.

To those who have supported this effort through your partnership with our scholarship fund, we extend our sincere gratitude.  Enjoy this video from Burundi, worshiping as they prepare the land!

Shifting Perspectives in a Parable: On Being the Injured Jew

I can't tell you how many messages I've heard about the Good Samaritan.

I can't tell you how many talks I've given about the Good Samaritan (a businessman who had compassion, capacity, competence, and courage).

It's a great parable with numerous applications to almost any time and place.  

I'm not sure about you, but when I seek to understand a Scripture, I often place myself in the text.  With the Good Samaritan, I've most often pictured myself as the Good Samaritan, which makes sense as that is how Jesus challenges us to act.  Sometimes, I've pictured myself as the Priest or Levite, recognizing my issues and challenges with "getting involved."  

Never have I pictured myself as the person who was beaten.  I find that interesting and wonder whether that is the case with others.

A friend and DML board member recommended that I read "Finding Spiritual Whitespace: Awakening Your Soul to Rest" by Bonnie Gray, who explores this perspective.

In this book, the author writes that she has always known that she is the wounded stranger, "a casualty stripped bare on the side of life's highway...That stranger is me, too wounded to step closer to joy."  She sees herself as a time-waster to the Levite, who is too busy and needs to get to his temple duties.  She sees herself as an unacceptable risk to the priest who doesn't touch anything lifeless.  She then says that she is both priest and Levite because she also passes by the wounded "me," trying too hard to be useful, and neglects herself.

It's easy to stop for others.  But will we stop long enough for ourselves?

Some cultures believe that doing self-care is a sign of weakness, and they engage in "boundary shaming" for those who attempt to protect themselves.  Other cultures may have taken self-care too far, allowing people to prioritize their comfort to such a degree that they are never willing to love their neighbor sacrificially.  I'm not speaking of either of these extremes, but I do believe there is a call for balance.

It is out of this balance that creativity, ingenuity, and thoughtful engagement can emerge.  It is out of quietness that we can hear the voice of God.  It is often when we take a break from something we have been working on that we have an "aha" moment for how to solve it.  

Jesus not only wants but needs me to stop on the side of the road of my busy life and take care of my wounded self.  He needs me to acknowledge the wounds in my soul and address them.  We take time to offer kindness and compassion to others, but we shouldn't neglect ourselves in the process.  We should not become a stranger to ourselves by being so outward-focused.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 says that we are to "make it our ambition to lead a quiet life."  For most of us, those words make no sense.  A quiet life as our goal, our ambition? Our world, instead, tells us that we are supposed to be faster, louder, busier, and more engaged.  

Alternatively, God calls us to engage the world with thoughtful creativity, seeing life as an adventure, as ambassadors of God.  Our goal is not just to avoid stress, but to cultivate the opposite.  We aspire for spiritual rest which brings joy and healing.

May God grant you spiritual rest this week as you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, minding your own business, and working with your hands.

Remembering Walter Brueggemann: Sabbath as Resistance, Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW

Last week, Walter Brueggemann, a theologian who has written 50+ books, passed away at the age of 92.  A group of DML leaders just finished reading his book, Sabbath as Resistance, Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW, the day before he died.  We were reading this book in our leadership self-care group (where we hold each other accountable for sleep, eating, exercise, tech use/abuse, and Sabbath), challenging ourselves and each other to honor the fourth commandment.  In honor of his passing and a life well-lived, I would like to share what we learned from this book.

Most Christians can recite the Ten Commandments fairly easily, and many would say that they try (imperfectly) to follow them.  But the fourth commandment, to rest, is one that many Christians almost brag about breaking.  We say that we are too busy, too needed, too compelled by others to take a Sabbath.  We don't usually directly say it, but it is implied in our excuses that we are too important, too critical in our circles of influence, to take a Sabbath.  

In this book, Brueggemann argues that the fourth commandment is a BRIDGE between the first three commands to love God and the last six commands to love our neighbors.  He states that for me to love God and love my neighbor, a Sabbath must be taken.

There are more words used for this command to rest than for any of the other nine commands.  Inside this command, everyone was to rest - people and animals.  Sabbath is the great day of equality.  Not all are equal in production or consumption, but on this day, all are equal in rest.

There was no Sabbath while the Israelites were in Egypt.  They were to work seven days a week, in an anxiety-ridden situation.  Through this command, God nullifies anxiety-ridden production and emphasizes committed neighborliness.  A system of rest counters a system of anxiety.  As someone who has struggled with anxiety, I know that I am not at my best when I am anxious.  I don't love well.  I don't listen well.  I don't focus well. I need rest to remember how to love God and love my neighbor. 

Our world behaves like Egypt during the Pharaoh's time of Israelite captivity.  Anxiety-driven connectivity without rest.  

God shows us that after creating a world that was new, young, and unproven to take care of itself, He rested.  He trusted that it was good.  He stopped.  He enjoyed.  

Can I trust my little influence in my little world to operate without me?  Do I have the courage to disconnect?

My personal Sabbath is from 6:00 p.m. on Saturday to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.  I have found that this rhythm works best for me, and I have someone in the DML team who holds me accountable for this.  (It doesn't often work when I'm on the road, but when I'm home, I can do it.)  I love my Sabbath time.  But I'm learning now that unchecked rest is not good enough.  It's not enough to nap, read, and stay off technology.  

It's not just a pause.  It's a pause for transformation. 

It's an occasion to reimagine all society "away from coercion and competition to compassionate solidarity.  Such solidarity is imaginable and capable of performance only when the drivenness of acquisitiveness is broken."

"The economy is not just a rat race in which people remain exhausted from coercive goals; it is, rather, a covenantal enterprise for the sake of the whole community."

I still have a lot to learn about taking a Sabbath.

It's interesting to note that there is no command to work.  Working is what we have been created to do.  There's no command to breathe or to sleep.  It's also what we naturally do.  But there is a command to rest.  As we preach a theology of work, we also need to remember to teach a theology of Sabbath and rest, to help people maintain balance.

Thank you for your work, Dr. Brueggemann!  Rest in peace!

Looking Out and Up: A Call to Humble Work

I love the joke I heard as a child about the boy who received a medal for being humble, then had it taken away the next day because he pinned the medal on his jacket.

Growing up, I knew that humility was a goal, but it was a tricky one. How do you seek it and still remain humble?

As an adult, I have come to a better realization of the call of humility. The irony of the joke I just shared is that one could argue that the boy should NOT have had the medal taken away. The adults may have been confused between the words modesty and humility. What the boy may have lacked in wearing the medal was modesty, NOT humility.

Let's explore this further.

I recently read Healthy Calling: From Toxic Burnout to Sustainable Work by Ariana Molloy, which reminded me of the important difference between these two words.

Modesty is focused on avoiding attention, even to the point of belittling our accomplishments. It can appear to be a lack of confidence or be phrased as "thinking less of yourself."  It can get caught up in being consumed with one's faults and failures.  

The modest person looks down, not seeking attention.  

But humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less (C.S. Lewis). Molloy points out that an identity of humility is not looking to please people, but to please God.  The humble person is not blind to their strengths; they are looking to see how their strengths can help others.  They are self-aware without being self-consumed.  

The humble person looks out and up, seeking to connect with God and others. The humble person sees that they and others are made in God's image.  

Therefore, humility is not a personal virtue but a relational one.  A humble person prioritizes the needs of a group or relationship rather than focusing on self.  

Molloy argues that gratitude is the foundation of humility. Colossians 3:15 says that we are to recognize that we are members of one body and be thankful.  

Healthy humility involves three things.  

1. It is knowing your strengths and weaknesses.  
2. It means being teachable, embracing an openness to learning.
3. It means knowing how to step away, delegate, take a break, and remove yourself from work, trusting that it will be fine without you for a short time.  This involves a vulnerability of resting and reflecting, acting on the strong belief that EVERYONE needs refueling.

Another way to think of the three essentials of humility is know, learn, and rest.  

So what does this have to do with the call to work?  

When we work, we do it with humility, knowing that we have something to offer that is needed.  We work hard, and we do it with excellence, looking up to God as our role model for working, and to others for contributing to their flourishing.  We are aware of our strengths but it is not for us, but rather for others.  We are aware of our weaknesses and seek to partner with others with different strengths, remaining teachable by those different from ourselves, in terms of culture, age, gender, and other forms of diversity.  We are in relationships with a global people in a global marketplace where our work releases the potential of others, and the work of others releases our own potential.

It's a beautiful thing.  May God bless you this week, as you do your humble work!

Tanzania: From Charcoal to Creation Care

One of the four goals we teach every person to consider in their workplace is creation care.  While this goal has lagged behind missional and economic goals in the past, it is rapidly catching up as people see themselves as partners in caring for the world God has made.  Here is one story recently shared with me from our partner in Tanzania, relating to charcoal, which many people use for cooking.  Valuable trees that took twenty-plus years to grow are cut down for cooking without considering the environment.  But now people are looking for alternatives:

From Charcoal to Creation Care - A story from Tanzania

In a profound act of change, a former charcoal maker has purchased 100 trees, which were distributed for planting as a personal commitment to creation care. (Pictures show the handing out of trees and planting of trees) His decision to quit the charcoal trade is especially significant, as he was a key distributor who sourced from many local makers. This change is bound to inspire others in the industry to follow his lead.

In his words: 

"There was a time when these hands made charcoal—cutting down trees and wounding the earth. The land suffered, the air darkened, and creation cried out.

But now, by God’s grace, we have turned. The same hands now plant trees. Together, we have made a commitment—to care for creation, to restore what was broken and to honor the God who made all things good.

May every tree we plant be a sign of healing, hope and new beginnings."

The mandate for creation care comes from Genesis 2:15, where God commands us to "work and care" for the earth.

The Cape Town Agreement from Lausanne says this regarding creation care: 

"The earth is created, sustained, and redeemed by Christ.  We cannot claim to love God while abusing what belongs to Christ by right of creation, redemption, and inheritance.  We care for the earth and responsibly use its abundant resources, not according to the rationale of the secular world, but for the Lord's sake.  Creation care is thus a gospel issue within the Lordship of Christ.

Such love for God's creation demands that we repent of our part in the destruction, waste and pollution of the earth's resources and our collusion in the toxic idolatry of consumerism.  Instead, we commit ourselves to urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility. We support Christians whose particular missional calling is to environmental advocacy and action, as well as those committed to godly fulfilment of the mandate to provide for human welfare and needs by exercising responsible dominion and stewardship. The Bible declares God's redemptive purpose for creation itself."

Our teams celebrate this on different days and in various ways. (Pictured here is tree-planting in Kenya.)   April 22 is Earth Day, June 5 is World Environment Day, and September is the "Season of Creation" month, supported by Lausanne and many other organizations.  We are excited by this declaration as the church has ironically lagged behind the rest of the world in creation care for many years. 

We are thankful that the Global Church continues growing in its advocacy of caring for this earth, to the glory of God, and the flourishing of all neighbors!  We are also excited about all the advocacy we have been engaged with so far this year regarding farming God's way.  Below is a picture of a "black forest cake" (aka compost pile) made in Kenya with the DML Kenya team, as taught by Dr. Gaga, DML Nigeria team leader.  Yum!

Making disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples...

The Great Commission tells us that we are to make disciples, who can make disciples, who can make disciples. We need to make intergenerational disciples and build capacity in those we teach so the message doesn't rely on one person but can grow and spread.

Recently, while in Burkina Faso with DML leader Pastor Theo Pare, he mentioned a recent training of 1000 people that was done by a "third-generation disciple."  When I asked him to clarify, he said that he (first generation) had trained someone to be a DML trainer (second generation), who had then taught someone else to be a DML trainer (third generation), and that person had just done that training.  

Throughout my time with Pastor Theo, he kept referring to this or that person as second or third-generation trainers.  

It was thrilling to hear. It reminds me that we are "losing control" of the message and tracking it. I call it "Godly confusion" as people are traveling here and there to share this good news of "work as a gift" rather than "work as a burden."  Below are just a few pictures I have received over the last few weeks, as DML leaders are making disciples, who are making disciples, who are making disciples.  Please join us in thanksgiving for open doors, as well as in supplication for those spreading the message in difficult areas, and for those hearing the message of purpose and calling for their time, treasure, and talent.

DML in Congo Brazzaville:  Receiving the message for the first time from DML Cameroon leader, Sister Joy.

The DML Pakistan team is in action, bringing the message of "work as worship" to pastors in a second city this year, with three more cities planned for the remainder of 2025.

A new partnership with the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, made up of many denominations and 70,000 churches!  Three workshops were held in three cities, led by DML Kenya leader Caroline Sudi and DML Tanzania leader Anthony Kayombo.

105 new trainers in Burundi from three major denominations: The church is responding strongly in Burundi as it seeks to eradicate poverty through combined efforts in business, government, and education.

Last week's group in Egypt.