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.

Egypt: For Such a Time as This

I'm writing this blog from a balcony in Cairo, a city of 24 million people, making this city's population higher than many countries worldwide.  It's been eight years since I was here, and there are so many new roads and tons of new apartment buildings.  In many places, Cairo seems to be a sea of apartment buildings.  It is quite a remarkable city, contrasting between "Old Cairo" and "New Cairo."  One has buildings that date back hundreds and hundreds of years, while the other is new and modern.  I've always said that Cairo is the one city I would never want to drive in, and while there have been significant improvements with expanded roads, I still stand by that statement!  The driving here is still crazy!

DML operates on a "pull," not a "push."  That means we don't have an agenda for working in certain countries or places.  We wait to see what God is doing in a particular place, as evidenced by His people who reach out to us, and then we have multiple online meetings to determine if there is an alignment of vision.  But we didn't always do it this way.  In the beginning, when DML was very new and unknown, we did a bit of pushing.  Egypt was one of those places, so it didn't take root.  (Read here to see the writing on the wall from our first visits in 2015.  The title of this blog was "A Problem for Every Solution.")

What a difference it makes to join God and His people who share a similar call!  I was able to meet a number of leaders from all sectors who have started, are starting, or feel called to start reclaiming the marketplace for God.  The time seems ripe, not just for Egypt, but for MENA (the Middle East and North Africa), as some of these partners work in multiple countries.

Last week, I joined a meeting of about 30 leaders from business, government, education, and the church, all discussing how Christians must work together to reclaim the marketplace for Christ!  Although they were speaking Arabic, these people were speaking my language! This group is about three months old, debating whether to engage the church or work directly with businesspeople. I did my best to encourage them to engage the church and bring them along on the journey.

The main group I came to meet held a four-day DML conference at a Christian retreat center in Beit El Wadi, about 60 miles outside Cairo. We had a pretty intense four days of teaching and learning about a theology of work, Kingdom-focused wealth creation, and stewardship. Those in attendance came from a number of cities across Upper and Lower Egypt. It was a rich time of fellowship, sharing, worship, and learning.  

Lastly, another group works with churches to move outside the four walls of their buildings to do community development, and they want to add economic development to their portfolio.  

God is good, and I am so grateful to see Him work through His people worldwide!  While on this trip, I received many pictures of the rest of the team at work as well - in Pakistan, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Burundi, and more!  

I leave for home on Wednesday, and ask for your continued prayers for these new seeds that have been planted!

Voodoo Easter

Travelling through different countries during holiday times gives interesting insights into the culture.  While Benin is more than 60% Christian, it is also considered to be the birthplace of voodoo, as I described in a blog post last year.  The common understanding is that when the Catholics arrived in Benin many decades ago, they allowed them to keep their animist gods, and since then, the two have blended.  While Benin may be the birthplace, voodoo is prevalent in many other countries, including Togo, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Haiti, and elsewhere.

This past Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter, when we left the entrepreneurship training, traffic was backed up due to a considerable crowd on the road.  I was told that this was the voodoo Easter or voodoo Passover.  At this time, chickens are killed, and the blood is put on each person, which will then protect them for the next year.

January 10 is known as Voudon Day, a national holiday in Benin. For the first time this year, the President changed the celebration from one day to three days and offered international guests the opportunity to enter the country without visas to encourage tourism. When challenged by Christians, he reportedly said that this is their culture, the birthplace of voodoo, and it should be celebrated. During these days, various animals are killed, their blood is drunk, and ancestors are honored.

As always, seeing this in real life differs from reading about it. It becomes more real and sobering, and prayers for this country and its beautiful people become more urgent.

I observed another interesting fact in contrasting Burkina Faso to Benin.  Ouagadougou is known as a city with some of the highest numbers of motorcycles and scooters. It's a flood of these two-wheelers everywhere you go.  Consequently, there is no need for motorcycle taxis as most everyone has their own means.  You will see as many men as women driving them.  I learned that the goal is to give your son or daughter one of these as a gift when they graduate from high school.  Unfortunately, very few wear helmets, and I witnessed the death of one person as a result of a scooter accident.  

In contrast, in Benin, there are also many motorcycles and scooters, but they are only driven by men.  Parents are expected to give their sons these two-wheelers as gifts when they graduate, but not their daughters.  So, most women are riding on the back of these motorcycles as customers.  But everyone is wearing helmets! 

This observation informs me that these countries are doing better economically, especially compared to Burundi, where most families simply hope to purchase a bicycle at some point in their lives.  I have often observed three men pushing one bike up and down hills with their produce. Not an efficient use of time and we pray that this will change at some point in the future!

My time in Benin was encouraging, as I heard reports of people and the church doing better since they started the work of DML. The leader, Rev. David Sessou, the President of the Missionary Alliance Church in Benin, is now seeking to implement this in the seminaries and Bible schools and reach out to more denominations. While there, I was introduced to two other Presidents of different denominations.

I'm sending you this message from Cairo, Egypt, another unique city of 24 million people!  More updates on that next week.

While my Easter was a bit unusual, I pray this prayer from Peter Greig for myself and for you:

May this Easter day bring resurrection life to my heart and my home.  May renewal radiate within me and revival emanate through me.  May dawn displace the darkness, and spring replace the winter in my life.  May the God of hope so fill me with joy and peace this Easter, that I may overflow with hope by his power and life forever. Amen.

Butterflies and Terrorists

The butterfly effect states that when a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, it causes a tornado in Texas. Small, insignificant events can have far-reaching consequences in complex, interconnected systems.

Last Wednesday, we were driving downtown Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to visit with the Senior Executives of the Assemblies of God church.  Traffic stopped for a while, and soon we saw the road was closed and people were forced to turn around.  

When I asked what was going on, I was told that it was because Algeria shot down a drone from Mali two weeks ago.  Curious as to what that had to do with the closed road in Ouagadougou, I was told the following:

Last year, Burkina Faso joined with Niger and Mali to form the Alliance of Sahel States.  [Sahel is the belt of land just below the Sahara Desert.] All three of these countries are ruled by the military (due to coups) and had been sanctioned by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  So, they decided to leave ECOWAS and work together.  They have broken their ties with France and are now partnered with Russia, who is supplying them with weapons.

Two weeks ago, Mali was flying an armed drone close to the border of Algeria, searching for terrorists.  Algeria claims it crossed the border; Mali says it did not.  Mali said that Algeria harbors terrorists. Regardless, things have escalated, and now Algeria has closed its airspace to Mali, and all the countries have recalled their diplomats.  

Therefore, in Ouagadougou, security close to the president has also been escalated, hence the reason for the closed streets.

What a complex and interrelated world.  It's beautiful and difficult at the same time.

There was one word in the explanation that caught my attention.  The word "terrorist."

The word "terrorist" seems to be a word easily used.  However, it is a word that dehumanizes groups of people, reduces the image of God in them, negates their stories, and gives permission for starving, torturing, and even killing without remorse.  It justifies bad behavior and is dangerous.  As Christians, we should be very careful about using such words.

Some governments label certain groups as terrorists simply because they don't like what they do.  Some groups that are fighting for the rights and freedom of their people end up being labeled as "terrorists" by the stronger party. It gets picked up and passed along news channels.  And before you know it, all people in that group, men, women, children, old, young, sick, and disabled, are seen as terrorists.

That's not to say that some groups aren't doing horrible things to others.  I had a conversation with someone in Burkina Faso who shared that in his grandfather's village, the Muslim extremists came, lined everyone up, counted people off, and killed every tenth person.  The goal was to convince all the others to convert.  Burkina Faso has seen, and continues to see, its fair share of unlawful and inhumane use of violence and intimidation. 

But it's complex.  Like a butterfly flapping its wings and contributing to weather changes thousands of miles away.  We like things to be black and white, easily differentiating between right and wrong.  But there is a lot of gray when we believe that every person is made in the image of God, with the capacity to love and flourish. Every person has the capacity to grievously sin; every person has the capacity to be redeemed through Christ.  Everyone has a story.

What to do with such complexity? I seek to live this prayer written by Thomas Merton:

Lord, give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride, which is the heaviest of burdens.  Possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love.  Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, that I may love not for the sake of merit, not for the sake of perfection, not for the sake of virtue, not for the sake of sanctity, but for you alone.  Amen.

In other news, I am hearing so many testimonies of how God is reclaiming the marketplace in Burkina Faso.  What a joy to hear of the passion of those who are doing their work as an act of worship!  As we have been working here for about six years now, I'm hearing about "third-generation trainers," meaning that the ones we originally trained have now trained others, who are training others.  This is a delight to hear!

I had the opportunity to visit some farms and businesses last week, which is always so much fun to do (although doing it in 42C/107F heat made it a bit challenging). I saw a farm with 800 trees, 300 of which were a variety of mango trees that were so small. The trees in the pictures are only three years old and already very heavy with fruit!  The challenge is that the fruit is so close to the ground that their chickens can no longer be free-range as they peck all the mangos! 

This week, I'm continuing a youth entrepreneurship workshop and teaching a foundational workshop for pastors and church leaders in Ouagadougou. On Thursday, I fly to Benin, where I will do another entrepreneurship workshop over the Easter weekend. Then, on Sunday afternoon, I will fly to Egypt. Meanwhile, another part of the DML team is in Burundi, then going to Ghana; another team is traveling from Cameroon to Congo Brazzaville; another part of the team is heading to Malawi.  We covet your prayers as this team is on the move!   

"Why has this message come so late to Burkina Faso?"

This was spoken by a pastor from the Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, at the end of the first day of training on the theology of work. He lamented the church's lost time in reaching more people by equipping every member to be the church every day of the week.  

I have felt that lament myself, many times.  While the message seems to be spreading rapidly in some parts of the world, so much time has been lost.  And in a few countries where we work, things seem to move very slowly.  You wish you could shake things up, scream and shout to get the attention of those so busy and distracted by so many things, yet missing this opportunity which could help them achieve their own objectives.

On the last day of training this past week, the same man stood up again to speak. 
He said, "I must repeat what I said the first day.  Why has this message come so late to Burkina Faso? I don't understand."

This time, others responded.  While they agreed with the lament, they also urged the group of leaders, who had gathered from the fourteen Assembly of God centers from across Burkina Faso, to not look back but rather look forward.  

"For whatever reason, it has come late; the key is that we don't let the message get lost again."  And so began the planning time for rolling out this message across this denomination.

The Assemblies of God Burkina Faso has created an entrepreneurship department that is assigned to teach a theology of work, Biblical wealth creation, and stewardly wealth management throughout the denomination.  Each leader from the fourteen centers is to select three people from each of the districts that are part of these centers.  There are approximately 70 districts, so that means over 200 trainers will be released to bring this message to the churches in their district.  

The leader of this department is Dr. Noufou Ganamé, who has a degree in entrepreneurship from Montreal, Quebec.  He is also a pastor and is leading the church he planted. The other leaders of this team are equally distinguished.  One works in the government and is a business owner.  Another is the principal of a school that teaches theology and agriculture.  Another works for the government in IT.  So, this team covers the main systems we address:  church, business, government, and education. (Pictured here: Dr. Ganamé (left) and Dr. Levi, at the School of Bible Formation and Agriculture.)

[Sidenote: Burkina Faso is a country of 64% Muslim, 26% Christian. I'm told that 80% of government employees are Christian and 90% of business owners are Muslims.  Christian parents do not encourage their children to go into business, as it is seen as a place of corruption.]

For the first half of this week, I will visit some businesses and farms in the area and then spend two days meeting with this executive team for training and strategizing.

Then, I will leave the Assemblies of God and switch to the Christian Missionary Alliance of Burkina Faso. They have scheduled a concurrent youth entrepreneurship conference and a pastors' conference for April 12th to 16th.  

Please pray for the country of Burkina Faso, which continues to have extensive challenges of terrorism, having the highest number of deaths due to terrorism than any other country.  Please also pray for the Church in Burkina Faso for revival, growth, wisdom, and discernment!

May the things you do, do things.

"May the things you do, do things."

This powerful line was spoken during our prayer call the other week, and I immediately noted it.

It's a beautiful prayer that takes me back to the understanding that we are "blessed to be a blessing."  In life systems, continual ripples go out, and if things work as God intended, there should be no end.  It should just keep going.

May the things you do, do things.

Let me share an example:

Last year, a woman from Grand Rapids whom I had met in Liberia many years ago, connected me to a ministry in Pakistan (see where I'm going with this?). 

After several online meetings and presentations with this ministry, they decided to add DML to the discipleship ministries in which they were already involved. We did online training sessions for trainers and, thanks to the financial partnership of many of you, began to have the materials translated into Urdu.  

A few facts about Pakistan:  It is the fifth most populated country in the world, with the second highest population of Muslims.  1.37% of the population is Christian, or just over three million people, and the number of Christians is growing rapidly.  

Our partner in Pakistan is planning to reach a number of cities across the country in 2025, and I received their first report this past week.  I would like to share with you two testimonies included in that report:

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am Pastor Arshad from Victory Church. This was my first time hearing such a profound teaching on work theology, business, evangelism, and the workplace. The session was deeply encouraging, and I want to highlight an important takeaway. As pastors, we must equip our congregations not just to come to church to receive but to be prepared to "go" into the field and fulfill their calling.

The illustration of the cruise ship versus the warship was particularly impactful in helping us understand our role and purpose. Another powerful point was that God has called us to work—He did not create chairs and tables, but rather, He created us with the ability to work and build. This session made our purpose abundantly clear.

I am grateful to Lord’s Home and DML for helping us better understand God’s perspective on our work and business.

Greetings in the Lord’s name. My name is Nida Shaheen, and I am a banker at HBL Bank. This vision-casting meeting was truly deep and thought-provoking. I strongly encourage such theological teaching at every level within the Pakistani church.

Through both the Old and New Testaments, I learned that God's perspective on work and business is not new—it has been present since the very beginning of the Bible. The way God has progressively revealed His design for work and business was truly enlightening.

As someone working among Muslims, this session has encouraged me to approach my work with greater dedication, seeking to inspire my colleagues through my devotion and integrity. Another key takeaway for me was understanding that work is not a punishment but a divine calling for which God has created and appointed us.

I am deeply grateful to Lord’s Home and DML for providing this valuable learning opportunity. I look forward to applying today’s teaching in my workplace.

Do you hear how the things we do are going to do things? Years later, a woman I met in Liberia followed up with me regarding a connection in Pakistan. We followed up. The ministry engaged. Now, churches and banks have the potential to see change, and the ripples go on.  

Sometimes, we see the ripples immediately.  Other times, we don't.  Some of our partners see doors swinging open while others struggle to get a foot in the door.  But our labor is not in vain, and our prayer is that the things we do, do things.

The DML team has been enjoying a song called "Your Labor is not in Vain," which I've included here.  It's a song that reminds us that our work has impact and outcomes, no matter how big or small we feel our work is! Read the lyrics below and be encouraged this week. Be careful—it can get stuck in your head, especially the reminder from God that "I am with you."

May the things you do this week, do things, in Jesus' name!

Your Labor is Not in Vain, by Porter's Gate Worship Project:

VERSE 1:
Your labor is not in vain
though the ground underneath you is cursed and stained
Your planting and reaping are never the same
But your labor is not in vain.

REFRAIN:
For I am with you, I am with you.
I am with you, I am with you
For I have called you,
called you by name
Your labor is not in vain.

VERSE 2:
Your labor is not unknown
though the rocks they cry out and the sea it may groan.
The place of your toil may not seem like a home
but your labor is not unknown. (refrain)

VERSE 3:
The vineyards you plant will bear fruit
the fields will sing out and rejoice with the truth,
for all that is old will at last be made new:
the vineyards you plant will bear fruit. (refrain)

VERSE 4:
The houses you labored to build
will finally with laughter and joy be filled.
The serpent that hurts and destroys shall be killed
and all that is broken be healed. (refrain)

Silence is God's First Language

I leave for Africa at the end of this week and will spend the month of April in Burkina Faso, Benin, and Egypt. The first half of my trip will be in French-speaking countries, and the last half will be in an Arabic-speaking country. While I can understand and speak some French (thanks to my Canadian upbringing), I will be hopelessly lost in Egypt.

Most people I meet in Africa can speak a minimum of three languages: usually their tribal language, the trade language, and English.  They ask me how many I can speak, and I (shamefully) admit, "One." I then joke that if you speak three languages, you are tri-lingual; if you speak two languages, you are bi-lingual; and if you speak one language, you are American.  What a luxury to travel around the world and, more often than not, find someone who can speak English.  Even if English is not the official language in airports worldwide, the signs are in English.  For most people in the world, that is a luxury they do not experience.

Thankfully, we don't need to learn another language to communicate with God. St. John of the Cross says, "Silence is God's first language." And we can all speak silence.  

Or can we?

If you know other languages, your first language comes naturally, almost without thinking.  It is comfortable and familiar.  You often think in that language. You hardly struggle over words in that language.  You usually don't even know that language's formal "rules" because you learned it as a child, simply by listening. 

Silence is God's first language.  God's language transcends words and can be expressed and experienced best in silence.

Yet too often, even in prayer, which is supposed to be a conversation or a dialogue, we fill up the space with words.  When there is a pause or a silence in a group prayer, we often feel uncomfortable and seek to fill the gap.  

How difficult it is to be silent!  How often does God wish we would be quiet so that He could get a word edgewise?

The Quaker spiritual writer Richard Foster said that the tools of the devil are muchness, manyness, noise, crowds, and hurry.  This is too true.

We live in a world of constant notifications that prevent us from being silent.  There are many demands, which are difficult to tune out, even if our phones are off.  

Some of us live in the past, others in the future, and not many in the present.

We "know" it in our heads, but we don't "know" it (i.e., do it) daily.

Father Thomas Keating talks about three levels of awareness, captured in this picture.  We spend 95% of our time in "ordinary awareness" as we think and plan.  But we have opportunities to spend time in "spiritual awareness," where we become aware of something bigger than ourselves, something that moves us, like a birth, a sunset, a rainbow, and participating in church communion.  But we can go even further into a "divine awareness," where we become aware that God dwells within us, and we can have an intimate relationship with Him.  We must "turn off" our ordinary awareness to reach spiritual or divine awareness.  And that takes effort and practice.  

During my recent silent retreat, I spent time with Ephesians 3:16-19, which says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (emphasis added).

May God help us have the courage to turn off ordinary awareness and tap into our spiritual and divine awareness, a fantastic gift from the Father to His children!

When Government Support Fades: The Church’s Role in Global Aid

Last week, I wrote about DML's emphasis on agriculture this year, and how many programs teaching people how to farm have been cut due to the elimination of USAID. Of course, it is not just agriculture; thousands of other programs that have helped the alien, widow, the orphan, and the poor have been cut across the board.  

Many Christians say it's time we stop relying on the government and that the church must step up.  Unfortunately, that might not be easy.  Richard Stearns of World Vision recently wrote, "Christians in the US give about one-tenth of one percent (0.001) of their incomes to help people in other countries.  To replace the $40 billion dollars that was spent on humanitarian aid through USAID, Christians would have to quadruple their giving."  Other sources state that 90% of the money that is received by the local church stays in the local church.  Stearns went on to say that "governments can do things at a scale that individuals and churches simply can't...it's naive to think that private giving can replace what is lost." (From his post on LinkedIn.)

Regardless of how you feel about the cuts, a gap now exists.  

Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” 

This is a theme throughout Scripture. We are to care for the poor and needy, to defend their rights, especially those with power.  But it's difficult to know how to do so in these changing times. I want to join many others who say that one step in action is to give generously.

Knowing where to send support is also a challenge if God is calling you to respond in this way. While some of USAID's activities related to relief efforts (e.g., responding to a crisis), a significant amount also went to development.

The book, When Helping Hurts, says this:

“We…believe that individuals and churches that have been blessed with financial resources…should dramatically increase their financial giving to churches and ministries that pursue gospel-focused, asset-based, participatory development. The churches and ministries that are engaged in development work have a very difficult time raising the funds needed to pay for this highly relational, time-intensive approach.” — When Helping Hurts

Gospel-focused, asset-based, participatory development.  I think those are key words to think about as we consider where to send financial support:

• Gospel-focused - the whole Gospel, fulfilling all of the parts of the Great Commission, which includes "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded."  This takes time and intentionality and is at the heart of making disciples, who can then make disciples, who can then make disciples.
• Asset-based - looking at communities from an asset perspective rather than need-based.  What is God already doing in this place?  Who are the people who live here who are already leaders?  God is sovereign, and there is no place that we need to bring Him.  But we must ask how we can join Him in whatever He is already doing.
• Participatory development - So much development has failed due to a needs-based approach, as people have "parachuted" into doing something that made them feel good, but it didn't meet the needs of the people who live in that place.  Without local ownership, the initiative will die almost as soon as you leave.  Having local participation in the work is critical.

While we can lament the loss of assistance that many are experiencing worldwide, we can consider how God might call us to respond now.  

Lament, yes.  But let's act as well.

Hungry Farmers: A Contradiction?

If you received our annual report, you will have seen that we declared this year the Year of Youth Entrepreneurship and Agriculture (YEA 2025!).

Why has DML decided to focus on farmers in 2025? I’m glad you asked!

Farmers are the majority of those served through DML, even for those who are formally employed by the government, education, or business.  Many are subsistence farms, growing enough to feed a family for a portion of the year.  However, too many farmers cannot produce enough for their families.  Many have told me they do farming as a hobby, which keeps them busy (no food for lazy man, they say) because there is no profit.  They are lucky if they break even.  Often, they don’t.  So they get capital injections from family members now and then to get their seed and fertilizer; or they take a loan and have a tough time paying it back.

Hungry farmers.  It should be an oxymoron.  How can the food providers be hungry? Yet it is true. Smallholder farmers are often the hungriest people on earth.

According to the book, The Last Hunger Season, by Roger Thurow, the sharing of new farming advances was derailed before it reached farmers in rural areas of Africa, judging that those who had farms less than five acres in size were too poor and remote for attention. While US farmers are heavily supported by the government, producing vast stockpiles of food shipped as aid if needed, smallholder farmers in other parts of the world have lagged behind in terms of technologies, infrastructure, and financial incentives that are common elsewhere. The hybrid seeds that were available in the US as early as the 1930s are only now beginning to spread in the majority world.  Only 4% of African farmland is irrigated.  And one-third to one-half of its harvest is routinely wasted due to storage challenges (weevils and mold) and market issues.  In 2009, President Obama pledged to work alongside these farmers to "make your farms flourish and to let clean waters flow to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds." That effort has now ended but the need is still immense.

For almost twenty years, DML has been joined by subject matter experts to promote certain types of farming – pigs, chickens, goats, corn, cabbage, and more.  We’ve gone through trainings with Foundations for Farmers or Farming God’s Way but haven’t found a catalyst to impact our network. But last year, through a connection from the Global Alliance of Church Multiplication (of which DML is a member), we connected with an organization called Equipping Farmers International (EFI).  The root connection that we made is that they too want to work through the church.  They too have found the church to be where discipleship takes place, and farming is at the core of God’s heart! 

DML has access to many African denominations, which have access to thousands of farmers. EFI has information to help the farmers. We asked, "What if we placed agricultural trainers in denominations, who will have the core responsibility to teach and educate farmers so that people, productivity, profit, and the planet can flourish?" As the global population continues to rise, as trade wars start and stop, providing food internally for a nation is suitable for everyone.

By God's grace, and the partnership of many, we are starting this year. We are doing pilot projects in Sierra Leone, Burundi, India, and adjacent partnerships in Burkina Faso and Nigeria. Teams are being pulled together in each place to undergo EFI’s training. Then, we will get that training into the denominations and identify trainers who can carry this work out regionally. 

YEA 2025!  YEA God!  Please pray that the term "hungry farmer" will soon be more of an exception than the rule.

Decades of Conflict: The Ongoing Crisis in Eastern DRC and Its Regional Impact

One of the most prolonged running conflicts in the world is in the DRC, on the east side of the country.  Fighting has been going on for almost three decades. Neighboring countries like Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi have also been involved.  

In January, a group called M-23 took over the capitals of two provinces in the DRC. M-23 is said to be getting support from Rwanda, which is also reported to have 3,000-4,000 of its own troops located there.

It all goes back to 1994, the year of the genocide in Rwanda, when a large number of people fled to the DRC, including some of the extremists who took part in the killings.  They were Hutu militia groups, who were anti-Tutsis. They ended up taking part in the overthrow of the government for the DRC and from there, there has been no peace.  The M-23 group, a Congolese Tutsi group, emerged in 2012, and has become the strongest of the various militias.  It got its name from a peace deal signed on March 23, 2009, but claimed that the Congolese government never fully implemented.  It is said that there are about 6,000 soldiers in M-23 but that their backing, support and firepower comes from Rwanda. Rwanda denies this.  Countries like the UK, however, have begun to suspend bilateral aid to Rwanda because of the connection.

The big question is what do they want?  The first thing that is said is that they want to protect Tutsis who have been discriminated against for many years.  They also say they are going after Hutu extremists.  But another reason is natural resources.  This region is rich in natural resources, especially gold, cobalt, and coltan, essential for electronic devices.  However, M-23 says their objective is not to use natural resources but to take the DRC from the current government, which they say is corrupt. 

Wherever M-23 goes, it establishes administration and issues new birth certificates, making it look like a long-term occupation.  Hundreds of thousands have been killed; many more than one million are displaced for many years.  So much trauma, including sexual abuse, in these camps.

Since January, more than 500,000 have been displaced, and recent fighting has caused more than 120,000 refugees to spill into Burundi.  53% of those arriving are children, 51% are women and girls.  But the more immense fear is that they will not be safe, even in Burundi.  Burundi's security is now at risk.

Peace talks were held this past weekend, led by the former presidents of Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya and representatives from the ICC.  

Sometimes these stories can feel "old" especially as new wars take our attention.  But imagine thirty years of war with little to no respite. 

The work being done by our partner in Burundi is exploding with potential right now, and we pray against any discouragement or disruption in the doors that God seems to be opening for the flourishing of the people there, who have had their own very long civil war that ended not that long ago.

Please pray for peace in this region and that a regional war does not break out.

What New Invitations Are Emerging? Reflections from a Silent Retreat

[I'm currently on a seven-day silent retreat at The Hermitage in Three Rivers, MI. If you want to read more about what a silent retreat is, you can read my late husband's words about it here. I haven't had a week-long retreat since moving to Africa in 2005.  What a gift to be still and know that He is God!]

"What new invitations are emerging?"

This question greets me at one of my favorite sitting places on my silent retreat. 

At the start of my retreat, this question unsettles me. Do I hear an invitation? If so, what is it? If not, what does that mean? What if I don’t hear one the whole time I’m here? People expect me to “hear from God” in a place like this—but what if He is silent? What if I don’t do silence “right” and miss Him?

At the root of these questions lies fear. Fear that I’m not enough. Fear of failing. Anxiety about producing.

But slowly, as I enter into silence and redirect my eyes, ears, and soul, I hear Him.  Every time.  And I’ve been doing retreats on and off for nearly thirty years.  I don’t always hear what I want.  I usually come with an agenda of what I want to hear, and He gently moves my agenda aside and invites me just to be with Him, letting me know we can deal with “stuff” when I’m back in work mode. 

So, what new invitations are emerging?

This retreat has held an invitation to winter.

I usually take silent retreats in the spring, summer, or fall. Nature always plays a role in how I hear God. But this time, I wondered what it would be like to retreat in the cold, snowy winter—when stepping outside is less of an option.

Yet, as always, God has spoken through the winter landscape. The snowy paths, the stillness of the trees, the crisp air—all of it reminds me that He is present everywhere. It’s not The Hermitage that holds a special connection to God; rather, it’s that in this place, I slow down. I step away from distractions and listen.

How many moments do I miss experiencing God because I am too preoccupied with the calling rather than the Caller?

The invitation to winter is not new, but my understanding and acceptance of it are.

Just as trees go through seasons, so do we. Some trees require winter’s deep freeze to send nutrients to their roots and conserve energy for new growth. From the outside, they appear lifeless, but beneath the surface, quiet work is happening. It’s a season of rest—essential for survival and future fruitfulness.

Psalm 1 says that blessed is the one who is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.  Even for this tree, there are seasons of winter, of deep freeze, cold, barren, dark, and dreary.  We are not protected from that season.  We are to go through it, understanding that something important is happening during that time.  Our roots go down deeper, and we realize we can flourish even in the winter.  While here, I read a delightful book from Brother Lawrence, who lived in the late 1600s and was converted simply by looking at a tree in winter when he was 18 years old!  The potential of that tree moved his heart to believe in God.

So I'm being invited to winter.

What invitations are emerging in your life? Are you in a season of rest, growth, waiting, or action?

I believe God is always speaking—if we have the courage and patience to listen.

I’d love to hear from you.

Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: The Need for Theological Education Reform

As is typical, the first part of a new year is spent reflecting on the past year. For DML, this means collecting all the data on the activities that we have engaged in and assessing both what went well and what was a challenge.

We continue to be very, very busy, and we are seeing good impacts from those activities! As you probably know, we work directly with churches and denominations, business leaders, and people engaged in every workplace.  

(Our annual report will be coming out soon, but here is a sneak peek at the numbers from 2024 compared to earlier years. We thank God for all of our partners who work together to help this message get out there!)

However, one audience we do not share as much is our focus on getting courses into Bible colleges, seminaries, and Christian universities, relating to workplace discipleship and breaking the sacred/secular divide.  This particular audience tends to move very slowly and with great difficulty, as any changes must undergo rigorous accreditation processes to add or change courses.  While that is the reason often given for the slow process, I think the challenge goes deeper than that.

Recently, I was reading a book called Our Secular Vocation by J. Daryl Charles. (I don't like the title of this book—it's confusing.  But that aside, it's a good book.)

He said this about this topic (emphasis mine):

Any emphasis on the priesthood of all believers that calls Protestants back to their roots and to the sacredness of work in the marketplace is scarcely to be found in seminary and divinity school coursework. Substantial curricular change would require institutional reform on a wide scale, reform requiring a different academic model. What is needed in theological education is nothing less than the transformation of its core components. Every course in every theological topic at the seminary/divinity School level needs rethinking to eliminate the perpetual "sacred versus secular" residue and to foster the integration of faith, work, and vocation in a holistic way. At the most basic level, among those things needing serious examination in terms of course content are the following: a theology of creation, a theology of work, human flourishing, a theology of vocation, the history of the sacred-secular divide, the Lutheran breakthrough of the 16th century, the importance of engaging competing worldviews, ethical and economic challenges of the workplace, a theology of stewardship, service toward the common good and community flourishing, and redefinition of "mission."

The challenge is not just adding a course, such as DML's "Church-based Business as Mission" course, but a much broader institutional reform to break down the sacred-secular divide.  

While we have seen great progress in the faith and work movement, it continues to be led by church members rather than church leaders. Relatively few participants in this movement are pastors or priests. This is in large part because theological educational institutions are not keeping up with the opportunity and potential of this movement.

In addition, for those pastors who are already leading churches, the great majority of pastors or church leaders have not spent a significant season of their lives working in the marketplace.  When the leaders can't identify with the challenge and the opportunity, 99% of members will continue to belong to churches that help them worship weekly but leave them unsupported for where they spend most of their waking time.  Many people ask our DML teams if pastors should be co-vocational - having a job in the marketplace and leading a church?  We say that it is not necessary (but may be helpful for a season).  But at a minimum, the pastor should spend time meeting with at least one member in a learning position every week, asking, "What is God doing in your workplace, and how can the church support you to join Him in that work?"

It is good to see this movement change and grow.  We are seeing more and more Christians grow in their understanding that their work can be an act of worship.  We are seeing more and more denominations open their doors and embrace the need for discipleship in this area, especially denominations in Africa.  

(Picture is from Emmanuel University in Malawi, which has adopted DML courses into its curriculum and has undergone accreditation.)

We continue to pray that theological institutions will begin to train and equip every pastor to know how to equip the priesthood of believers to view their workplace as a place for worship and mission.  Please continue to pray with us for a breakthrough in this area!