Beginning on Sunday of last week we visited the Anglican Church to make a presentation for Living Hope, Living Way, and Living Grace. We also had planned to be at the Masi Baptist Church for another savings club launch, for a Malawian group, after that. Do to communication issues we didn’t get to launch this one but got it scheduled for mid May. We began our first ever Entrepreneur course for Living Way on Monday and had 6 students that we knew in the community that had either started their own business or had an idea. Mike, Richard, and I met early last Thursday for a time of prayer for this group and God delivered all of our requests and so much more. We invited different races of people to the class and hoped that everyone would have unity among the group. When we see black people in America we sometimes assume they all come from the same place. Here it is quite different, just because someone has dark skin, black or colored, doesn’t mean they all get along. There is a lot of racial tension among them. One thing that sticks out about our class was at the end Mike was reviewing the course and asked if there were any cultural expectations in their neighborhood. He was really referring to the way they did business and buying and selling on credit, but one of the guys spoke up and started talking about the Somalia’s who came in and started businesses and took their customers away. This opened up an opportunity for Mike to explain why it is important to have new ideas to be welcomed into the community and also if they were to need each other say one person ran out of material or packaging they could have good relationships so they could borrow from one another instead of being at each others throats. Literally!! They all understood and I think that really made them think differently about relationships. This class also taught them how credit was not their best way of doing business, as this is part of the cultural expectation.
We also had the opportunity to share Jesus with them and what He has done in our lives. Mike started out sharing his testimony on Wednesday and by Friday morning each one of us had shared as well. We did not know who was or was not a Christian, but we told them at the beginning of the week we were a Christian organization, and we were going to open and close in prayer everyday. It turned out that all had accepted Christ as Lord and Savior over their lives. We also had the opportunity to share scripture references for teachings about business throughout the week.
After the presentation of certificates one of the ladies, Patience, got up and thanked us for giving of our time and talents to their group. She recognized that we probably had some decisions about who would be in the group and if there would be unity amongst them. How awesome is our God to provide just that for this group. You will see in the picture, the guy with his arm around the other guy is a Zimbabwean. The other guy is a Xhosa guy. He is the one who was talking about the Somalia’s coming in and taking over. He used the Somalia’s as an example but I am sure he was referring to anyone coming into the community and competing for the same customers. Everyone got along great as you can see. She like all the rest had a new appreciation for business and was excited to see how God was going to use this teaching to empower them to get out of the poverty situations they are in. Please pray for us to find the mentors that we need (business people) to come along side them in the next couple of weeks.
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