A Forgotten Truth Rekindled in Trinidad and Tobago

Last week, I had the privilege of being on the beautiful island of Trinidad and Tobago, located approximately 7 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

The week started a bit rocky with Americans being warned about going to Trinidad, as some Trinidadian fishermen had been killed by American drones a few days earlier. Thankfully for us, that unrest died down fairly quickly, and we were able to travel without too much worry.

The goal of the trip was to share the theology of work with the New Testament Church of God, in partnership with the Network for Christians in Business. We have been partnered with this organization for just over a year.  The Executive Director is Ladi Franklin, and I have known her for some years, back to my time with Partners Worldwide.  She is a follower of Jesus, a businesswoman and entrepreneur, and has served Trinidad very well over the years.  She has had a hunger for the church to engage with the marketplace for some time, so last year I went there for the first time to introduce a theology of work for churches.  

This visit was a fruit of that seed planted, as the New Testament Church of God responded to the message and has been seeking, over the last year, to begin discussing it more and disseminate it further within their denomination.  Key leaders from both denominational and marketplace leadership were gathered for this foundational workshop, and the dialogue was vibrant.  It is so important, we are learning, to have both groups in the workshop, as they help to bring a reality of both the challenge and the opportunity that exists for the church to engage the marketplace.  As is usual, we heard the same lament, this time by the head of the denomination, who said, "I wish I had known about this twenty years ago."  

While this is a statement of regret, it is also a statement of understanding and comprehension, especially that this is not a DML-thing...it is a God-thing. It is Biblical.  It is a forgotten truth.

Please pray for the New Testament Church of God as well as for the Network of Christians in Business as they seek ways to impart this message to all of their pastors and members throughout Trinidad and beyond. 

The extra fun part of this trip was that three others joined me: Dr. Colin Watson, who serves as the Vice-Chair of the DML board, and Lacey and Mike Faieta (Lacey serves on the DML board).  It was nice to see DML's work through the eyes of board members and to spend a good deal of time debriefing and processing our work in real time.  

We also had (for some of us) the first time experience of a 5.2 earthquake while we were there - it was over before we really realized what it was, and we were thankful for all those in the area that it wasn't worse!