B4T Impact Updates

September 28 -From Central Asia

Four months ago two local believers took training from us, and moved their small business into a city of about 150,000 to start working for the sake of sharing with clients and neighbors. Now they say there is a house church of 12 gathering regularly.

From Sumatra: 4 confessed faith this week, of course confessing faith and following through are two different things.

October 10 - India

This is a broad statement, the church and missions may have missed their day in India.  No one foresaw in 1990 that the economy would open up and the economy would create all the small businesses it has.  This was a huge opportunity that we missed.  If the church had recognized the role business would play in developing an emerging middle class and building a consumer orientated economy, if the church had developed a way to reach these people and use business as a tool for the kingdom, the church could have released the values that impact lives for the kingdom.  The church missed a huge opportunity for credibility amongst the upper classes and so the Gospel still sits in lower class castes.  We should have set up B4T then, we could have changed communities; instead we took them out of their networks and supported them, and created a system that is not sustainable.    Paul Hillhouse

October 18 - Indonesia

When we started our business 7 years ago we never imagined the impact it could make.

October 22

GOD IS THE CEO

Sharon and I were putting our heads together about the theme of her next children's class. We had just decided that the overall theme should be 'Animals', when there was a ring on the doorbell and a travelling salesman walked into the school selling Big Books. He only had one title...'Animals'! We gratefully bought 2 copies and went back to our task encouraged and with thankful hearts.

Today it was time to meet again to plan the next 7 weeks. Sharon had decided she should do the theme of Holidays this time, and she had already come up with the titles of 5 of the classes - titles like 'At the Beach, At the Mall, At the Swings. We were just brainstorming for one more topic, when there was a ring on the doorbell, and ... you've guessed it, a travelling saleswoman walked in selling Big Books for children (the first time we'd had a visit for 9 weeks mind you!). Again she was only selling one title - amazingly, the title was 'At the Circus'.

More than being grateful for the provision of exactly the resources we need at precisely the right time, we are so encouraged to know just how exactly our Father knows, cares for and is intimately involved in every little detail of our lives.

October 29

Our first business (a rustic resort) is growing rapidly and we are looking to seize the opportunities the Lord gives us to share His truth with our staff and surrounding community.  Pray for boldness from all of our believing staff to both demonstrate in word and deed the glorious love found in Jesus Christ.  Pray specifically for our local staff managers who are very close to entering the Kingdom.  The second business (a consulting company) is granting us opportunities to go deep and quite personal with local managers from a variety of backgrounds.  I have three guys that are asking to study spiritual topics with me.  

December 7

We’re learning a ton about the theology of work and how our work is our ministry. God has been granting us incredible favor in our businesses and that favor is being poured back into our staff, clients, and community through specific actions of prayer, evangelism, community development, life skills training, and leadership development. It’s exciting to see the ministry of presence and how the power of God pours through us into the lives of others as we live, work, and disciple among them. Let’s not forget that the Kingdom of God is not only a future reality, but it is also a present reality and within each of us who calls upon the name of Jesus.