Monday, January 17, 2011

Steady Progress



Today, we visited with old and new friends, then ended the day with a meeting of the BVA leadership team.

One old friend, Hillary has been building a landscape design business. He has a wonderful garden in his home and has always been interested in plants and garden design. He thought that this would be something he would do when he retired to make a little pocket money. However we have encouraged him to move forward aggressively in this area and now he has a growing business. He is considering devoting the majority of his time to it. We talked particularly about two things today. First, how to guarantee a low cost water supply at his home where he has literally thousands of plants that he has propagated and which he uses when he fulfills landscape contracts. Second, how to begin to market and sell his capability to landlords and contractors alike. Hillary has been relying on word of mouth to bring him work, but he recognizes that he needs to go out and find new business. We find that passive marketing is very much the norm here. Many people work on the basis that "if we build it, they will come". Not so!

Another friend, Samson, is in his second season of rice milling where we have been helping him with working capital to buy increasing amounts of rice to mill. Today we watched his millers work and produce finished rice. Later, his wife Neria cooked a meal for us, featuring their own rice. It was delicious. George and I had a hard time believing it didn't have butter on it, but Neria assured ut it was just the rice boiled in water! In his first season, Samson milled about 8,000 kilos. This season he has processed over 7,000 kilos for the Christmas , and buying period and has another 16,000 waiting to go. We talked about him holding the rice for a while and milling and selling it when prices rise. Rice is currently selling at 1800 shillings per kilo, but by June and July the price could be as high as 2500 shillings. We showed him how to calculate the cost of carrying the rice for that time versus the dramatic increase in price. It is encouraging that he continues to plow back his profits into expanding the business. His business is not only good for him, but it provides consumers with a steady source of local rice, and farmers with a steady source of income as they determine what crops to plant each year.

The BVA leaders team meeting is another step on the way to having an independent organization that drives economic activity forward in the West Nile region. We are working toward a clear statement of what BVA is, and does, and then create a series of tasks and a timetable toward implementing the vision. Education and training and building community are clearly the key goals of the organization, and all of our efforts will be focused on establishing and expanding these capabilities.

As we come toward the end of our time in Arua, we are rushing to see all the people who would like to spend time with us. There is never enough time, and always more things to be done.

Well I'm falling asleep as I write this and I need to end now. Thanks and blessings to all who are reading the blog and praying for us!! We can't do the things that we are doing without your support.
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownJanuary 18, 2011 at 6:26 AM

    Andy. Very exciting to read about the progress of BVA. God Bless you.
    Andy Aran

    ReplyDelete

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The Genesis of the 5810 Project

Vision

When Jesus was asked what was the most important command he answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your heart and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”

As a follower of Jesus, it is challenging to obey these commands, particularly with regard to my neighbors.
How can I love my neighbors? How can I love my neighbors in a global context? How can I love my neighbors who are struggling to thrive in developing countries?

The classic response of western Christians has been to “send”. Whether we send those that have been called to vocational ministry, or send money and resources to “give to the poor”, or occasionally send ourselves on short-term missions trips. Each of these has value, but is this enough? Is it effective? Is it all that God calls us to?

The questions become more complex when you consider that no matter how much money we have spent on the “war on poverty” over decades, the problem remains as acute as ever. We are not winning the war, even here in the US. Are there other approaches?

As I struggled with these ideas, I was led to consider Isaiah Chapter 58. Here God tells us what true fasting is – to loose the chains of injustice; to set the oppressed free; to share food with the hungry; and to provide the poor with shelter. Then verse 10 says “…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.”

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of others …….”

While we should send, we need to spend too.

What does it look like to spend ourselves?
For me I have been led to spend myself as follows:
• To go to a developing country, and to go repeatedly.
• To develop personal relationships with innovative leaders
• To use my own specific gifting and experience in business
• To find ways to move people out of the poverty cycle on a sustainable basis
• To invest money in parallel with my activities
• To share the love of Christ with my neighbor and to spend myself on their behalf.

5810 Project

The 5810 Project is predicated on the belief that while “teaching a man to fish” will provide him with a fish diet for a lifetime, it will not lead him out of poverty. To escape poverty people need to develop sustainable business activities. The 5810 Project’s vision is to provide an opportunity for business people from developed countries to share the love of Christ with their neighbor by “spending” themselves on behalf of others who are trying to build businesses and break the poverty cycle.

The 5810 Project is currently focused on two principal activities in Uganda.

Arua
Arua is a significant market town in the NW of Uganda, with Sudan to the north and Congo to the West. It is an agricultural market town that has grown because of government and NGO activity primarily in S. Sudan, but now increasingly in E. Congo. While the town has prospered and grown, the native Aruans have not enjoyed this economic boon.

Our efforts in Arua are centered on helping the church and Christian business people develop sustainable businesses.
We work with businesspeople to analyze the market situation in Arua, to offer training sessions, to encourage and mentor entrpreneurs and to invest in their businesses.

Kampala
Jesus Commissioned Ministries (“JCM”) is a church founded in 2000 serving three poor communities on the outskirts of Kampala. The leadership of JCM has a heart to reach the many underprivileged children in the communities it serves. Without education, there is little hope for these children to thrive. While education is available, the costs are prohibitive for most families. JCM has established Mercy Junior School (elementary) for these children. In addition to education, the children receive uniforms, food and school materials. The school currently has over 50 pupils in two Pre-K classes and Primary 1 (P1)and Primary 2 (p2) and is building classrooms for P3,4 & 5 for completion in the spring of 2011.

The 5810 Project has helped Mercy Junior School develop its rudimentary facilities and to buy a neighboring plot of land for expansion. We also advise the administrators of the school on business and education practices and have steered them through a process of becoming a fee-baseda significant drive to parent involvement and elevated educational standards and outcomes.

Opportunity
We believe that the 5810 Project offers a significant opportunity for the body of Christ:
• Grass roots opportunity to create sustainable businesses and deliver families and communities out of the oppression of poverty.
• Many business opportunities are apparent with relatively small investment levels necessary.
• Opportunities for talented business people to connect personally with emerging entrepreneurs and spend themselves on them.
• Opportunity for the body of Christ in the developed world to share the love of Christ with our neighbors in developing countries.
• Transformational impact on the “spender” and recipient alike!

If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me Andy Mills at amills@tkc.edu