That is the premise of a conference being planned for April by Cuenca Partners in conjunction with Partners Worldwide and PovertyCure.
During the October Marketplace Revolution Conference, Boris Ordonez and Felix Hernandez, the respective leaders of the Ecuadorian and North American sides of the Partners Worldwide partnership in Cuenca, caught the vision of engaging not only their church in their city, but the entire ecumenical Church in Ecuador in this question.
Boris is a leader in the Verbo Church of Cuenca, with two thousand members, several ministries, and different organizations from an orphanage to a medical clinic to a radio that meet various needs in the community. However, he says that, "I think our ministry here lacks an understanding of why and how [we can] help people overcome poverty. We do a lot of charity but nothing with the vision of Business as Mission." His hope is to invite leaders from over 30 Verbo churches in Ecuador, as well as leaders from the Catholic church, other evangelical churches, government ministries, and business people to engage with PovertyCure and Partners Worldwide in a 2-day conference.
Over that time, PovertyCure would help Christians develop an awareness of the church's responsibility in addressing poverty. Through Partners Worldwide, they would take the next step and consider how churches and businesses can develop sustainable programs to create jobs and increase the ability of entrepreneurs to successfully go from poverty to having an income and even being able to employ others.
We still have four months and a lot of planning to make this a reality, but the enthusiasm for this event is tangible!
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| MR14 Workshop on the "Call to Business and the end of Poverty" Cuenca Partners was inspired by this workshop to plan a similar conference for April of 2015 |
