A Conference in Cuenca

What would happen if business and church leaders met together to delve deeper into the issues of poverty in their community? What would happen if they went beyond that to consider how to work together on long-term solutions to poverty?

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!

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

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 Quiet Revolution

The following was a story that my supervisor, Bob Vryhof, shared in a newsletter last month.  It tells a little about our new partnership in Cuenca, Ecuador, the city where I will be moving in just over a week.

Our bi-annual global gathering is called Marketplace Revolution, which refers to the transformative movement we are pursuing. This is not a loud and violent revolution.  It’s a collection of personal commitments from Christian business people to live out their calling to business, dig deeper into God’s desire for how they should do that, and connect with other leaders to figure out how to help other business people do the same. While this ‘revolution’ isn’t normally front page news, it’s most definitely captivating and the impact is  remarkable.
In one of my last letters I highlighted some key puzzle pieces the Lord seemed to be knitting together in Cuenca, Ecuador to promote exactly this type of impact.  Since that time, those pieces have come together, begun to bear fruit, and are driving us on to exciting new possibilities.
Our Ecuador affiliate is now formally partnered with Cuenca Partners – a group of local business people committed to helping small businesses in their Church and community thrive. Not only that, but they are adamant about holding one another accountable to doing business in a way that glorifies God by bearing witness to His love and purpose.
Recently this partnership recruited and trained a group of 52 local business mentors. As business people, all of them are committed  to using who they are and what they have  in service to their community. A result of this offering of service is the planned launch of a second business course in January. Cuenca Partners expects 60 people to attend. Mentors will be paired with  participants that request guidance in implementing course principles. 
Originally, this partnership focused exclusively on small businesses.  However, in the last few weeks via meetings with the local Chamber of Commerce, Cuenca Partners identified the need for high level mentoring and training for medium and large businesses in the community. As a result, we are working to design a strategy to engage and serve those people as well.
Our shared desire through these activities is to raise up a community of business people committed to seeking and living out God’s full callingfor their lives. This begins through training and mentoring, but it reaches further. As this network grows, our prayer is that barriers between large and small, rich and poor, connected and isolated would dissolve and vanish forming a community rooted in Christ-like service. By nature, that will be a community characterized by jobs that truly afford opportunity, growth, and dignity – a community that is increasingly able to meet its own basic needs and help others do the same.
That’s a revolution I’m glad to be part of…..
Please join me in prayer for these business people as they pursue God’s calling for them, their businesses, and their communities.