Marketplace Revolution 2014

Today marked the end of an amazing experience with 10 Ecuadorian visitors. While many of them have hosted me at times over the past 4 years while I visited their city and worked with them in the cities of Cuenca, El Guabo, and Guamote, this week was my chance to play host.

During the last two days, over 500 attendees descended on Grand Rapids, Michigan for the biannual Marketplace Revolution Conference hosted by Partners Worldwide. Some highlights of that time have been:

• Dinner together with 22 members of our 3 Ecuadorian partnerships on Thursday night
• Connecting leaders from our Latin American agricultural partnerships with Justin, a Zambian expert on bringing farmers from subsistence to sustainable production to reaching the level of agribusiness.
• Three Ecuadorians presented on our church-based model, mentoring program, and agricultural work in breakout sessions.
• Cesar Luzuriaga, one of our Cuenca Partners leaders, participated in the closing ceremony and delivered part of the commissioning.

Tomorrow I will head to Hudsonville and New Era, Michigan with attendees from Guamote, Michigan to meet with donors and visit a dairy processing facility.

A New Partnership, A New Province

Boris Ordonez, who brought PW to Cuenca, shares with leaders in El Guabo 

Our partnership with the Verbo Christian Church in Cuenca began with a God-appointed meeting and conversation. In a similar way, the movement of that partnership to plant the seeds for a new group in a new region began with a divine appointment.

The Verbo Church in Cuenca started a church years ago in the town of El Guabo, just outside of Machala, a city of 250,000. When that church broke ground to build their own physical structure for worship, they invited one of the Verbo Cuenca leaders to share in the celebration, and that leader—Carlos Serrano—just happened to be a leader of the PW affiliate Cuenca Partners.

One thing led to the next, and over the course of several meetings in El Guabo and Cuenca, the vision for a business ministry was planted, and a leadership team was formed. This partnership is unique because it draws on business and church leaders from not one church but four. The Verbo Churches of the province of El Oro minister to four cities in the region as a team. 

Fittingly, they have taken a team approach to bringing business training, mentoring, and a vision of business as ministry to their congregations, their cities, and with God’s help, their entire province.

A Cuenca Partners leader teaches mentoring skills to future leaders in El Oro

Courageous business leaders from these churches are taking steps toward something new and unknown in their province as they form Camino de Emprendedores, loosely translated “Entrepreneurs’ Way”—the name they selected for this ministry. However, they’re not alone in the process. Leaders from Cuenca Partners have committed to travel the three hours from Cuenca to El Guabo to use what they have learned in the past two years to support their brothers and sisters in the ministry. And Partners Worldwide is actively connecting with Christian North American businesspeople who are interested in partnering with this local ministry.

That is what partnership for business as ministry is—planting the vision, walking together with other Christian businesspeople in diverse geographic regions, and stepping out in faith to pursue God’s calling to impact the businesses, families, and communities in a specific place through the marketplace.