How Erica changed my perspective

By -

There is a change in our method of working with businesses in Nicaragua than when we first arrived in 2016. It is easier to explain this difference with a story!

Five years ago I started working with the Association of Christian Entrepreneurs of Nicaragua, (AECNIC). An association started out of the Nehemiah Center. You can read about this association in older blog posts. (I don't know why the pictures do not show up anymore, blogger website problem?) I spent a lot of time mentoring the business owners who made up the board of directors for the association. Hours were spent helping these individuals get a stronger accounting system and flow process in their businesses. I loved working with all of them. Their positive attitudes and faith was, and still is, inspiring today. 

In 2018, Nicaragua went through its political crisis. During those months many businesses were hurting and barely surviving. I met with Erica* to see how she was coping with the crisis we were all living through. She was very sad, stressed and considering closing her business. She ran a medical laboratory and had an employee. However, her principal reason for wanting to close the business was not from the economic crisis caused by the 2018 political problem, it was because of her local church. She was feeling pressure from the pastor and elders of her church to leave the business alone and work in the church more. The pastor wanted her to lead an outreach ministry. Erica knew her business was her ministry. She had been through training and discipleship programs at the Nehemiah Center. She understood her call as a business woman to serve God. The church she worshipped at did not recognize her call, they said her talents should be used within the churches programs. 

In order to close her business she would have to sell off her machines and could still end with some debts. She also felt bad about her employee not having a job, who was also a member of her church. Work was difficult to find in 2018, and still is today. I helped her run a simple cost analysis for closing the business, and keeping it open. I also discussed with her having a meeting with her pastor and bringing with her some of her old training materials about her faith in her business. I encouraged her to share how she is not working in a 'secular job'. She is faithful to God in her business too! We prayed and ended the meeting. I left, waiting to see what would happen. 

Four months would pass before I heard from Erica again. She decided to keep her business open! The pastor understood her position and the church found someone else to lead the outreach ministry. I knew from this example and forward that working with the local church is essential to helping businesses grow or causing them to close. Helping business owners remain in a congregation or leaving it. 

We are working with the business people, but the churches too. Teaching the churches to open their doors and recognize the most talented people in their congregations are also the ones who help share the Gospel by deed and then words. Christian businesses are outreach ministries! They get to do it more than forty hours a week! 

We have a ministry of reconciliation for the church and the marketplace. It is a reminder of the forgotten role of the Churches in the working world. We are not making new wine, we have found that wine left in the basement behind a couple of old boxes! Matthew 9:14 - 17


*Erica- name changed

Location: Jinotega, Nicaragua

Comments

  1. John and JoAnne Van't LandMay 29, 2022 at 7:27 PM

    Thank you for sharing this. It gives us a better understanding of your work and thus makes prayer more specific. -members of Calvary Wyoming

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FINCA AVODAH

By -
Image
Our ministry is based on a simple but profound concept, work as worship! The Hebrew word AVODAH,( עבדה ) means service. It carries two other meanings, work and worship.   In the Old Testament this word was used when the nation of Israel was called to serve God, and worship him. It is also the same word used to describe work! We can say this word, Avodah, is spiritual service. (Exodus 23:25) This concept is expressed again by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:23. When we “work” as unto the Lord it is an act of spiritual service and is also worship.    Whether we are giving a workshop in the Jinotega Chamber of Commerce, or in a farmer’s field of beans, the concept of Avodah is what we live out and teach. It is in this field of beans where we have the most potential to reach our region of Nicaragua with the Gospel! We are now purchasing a small farm to invite farmers to experience avodah with their own senses. We have certified red bean seed, sorghum and hybrid corn available. We can de
Read more

Project Mature Bean! Part 2, We Harvested!

By -
Image
Jari and I arrived back home in Jinotega late December, just before Christmas time. We took a few days to rest and recover from our travels and a small cold that traveling brings. We couldn't wait to go and see the field of beans now that it was almost harvest time. Up to this point, we only saw the field in pictures, but now it was time to be present and see the beans flow in the wind! The plants did not disappoint us in person. They were healthy, bushy with big leaves and plenty of bean pods maturing to a nice deep reddish color. Some of the plants leaves had started to turn yellow as they were reaching maturity and dying off, putting the last of their nutrients into the beans. Darwin had done a great job caring for the plants and now he was preparing for the harvest, but when would they be ready?  The answer was, wait. A test of patience. In the first week of January we saw large portions of the bean field dying off. Since this was Darwin's first time planting beans he wasn
Read more

From blue beans to red beans

By -
Image
 Red beans, growing in El Naranjo, Nicaragua Ever since I can remember I was working with my grandfather in his garden. When I was a kid he would pick me up, looking for "day laborers," as he would joke. My cousins and I would go and work the acre he had at his cousins house in Grant, Michigan. We planted and harvested tomatoes, corn, onions, various chili plants, zucchini, green beans, etc. The green beans, Blue Lake bush beans, were always the most work, and we were able to harvest two crop during the summertime. As my grandpa aged, his gardens were smaller. Eventually he moved the garden to my backyard after I bought a house. Every Memorial Day we would till the soil and plant vegetables, and of course we had three rows of green beans. We would spend the summers sharing stories and jokes as we worked the garden. I always laughed, no matter how many times I heard the stories, because something new would be shared about his life and my great grandparents.  When Jari and I le
Read more