I'm a man on a mission.
Many of you know that I'm on a separate mission to change my career by going to business school, but I'm not talking about that one. This mission is an exploration into faith.
My mission will take me from a cloistered California lifestyle into the "field". The "field" is going to be in Capetown, South Africa. I will be there for two weeks in June acting as a consultant to business owners, guiding them as they try to refocus their businesses with a vision befitting their faith in God. Though this type of work may not fit into the traditional mold for missions work, how many of us have difficulties in trying to integrate the tenets of our faith into our work lives?
Faith and belief are the biggest intangible assets in existence. Why do unheralded players all of a sudden become Cinderella darlings during March Madness? Why did Enron employees over-invest in their own company stock? Why am I going on this missions trip?
Though faith and belief can be misguided, I'd rather not always wait until I'm put in a situation that requires either. Faith makes us do funny things like waiting for the right girl to come along. Or waiting for her to get out of a relationship. Faith gets us through tough times as long as we're willing to do the right things to push through them. But sometimes we do too little and sometimes we do too much in a given situation. Trying to find that balance between passivity and activity while maintaining faith is the pursuit of wisdom.
Wisdom. In order to help business owners in Capetown, I am undergoing some intense training as a consultant with a group called REP. Our team meets weekly to discuss material (books, videos, homework) aimed at preparing us to minister to the needs of business owners. While this material comes with structure for measuring the effectiveness of business processes, it also tries identify areas for personal growth as well. This is where I would hopefully become more useful, helping them to understand not only how to redirect their businesses to reflect their faith, but also helping them understand a little more about themselves. I'm not going to pretend to be wise but I hope to become a little more fluent in the needs of others.
In a sense, I'm going to South Africa to meet unmet needs. The need of a business owner to know that his/her lifework has a purpose that is pleasing to God is not trivial. However, needs require some funding and funding is one of the reasons why I'm starting this blog...but we'll get to tangible funding on a later date. The type of intangible funding I could use is prayer. If you want to pray for me, please pray that I would develop into the person that can help my clients...that I could learn to adapt to any given situation. This is the type of growth that I am seeking after.
In doing this missions trip, I am trying to make an investment not only in others, but also in myself. Will I be able to help business owners over in South Africa? Can I bear fruit both relational and spiritual fruit? These are some questions I'm hoping to answer. And so I'm asking you as readers to invest in me as partner through prayer and funding.
