Chocolate Wars

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By: Rob McArthur

Deborah Cadbury, of the Cadbury chocolate family recently wrote Chocolate Wars, her book about the Quakers’ chocolate businesses and their impact on their communities and nation. We so enjoyed the book we want to share some of the principles with you.

George Cadbury (1839- 1922) was a man of God whose religion was his life and whose life was his religion. For the Quaker capitalists of the nineteenth century, wealth creation was for the benefit of all stakeholders: workers, local communities and society at large. For these men and woman business decisions were guided by the goal of spiritual wealth. Business ownership included a deep sense of social responsibility.

George Cadbury’s ideas were radical. His factory was not just a

Pray for Korea

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Prayer for Korea

This morning God impressed upon me that we need to pray for Korea. Oh, not that we would somehow be safe from nuclear attack, but that the Korean people would be released to serve Him in power.

Everywhere I go the Koreans have been there first. They went to Russia before communism fell and started churches ­– churches that are strong disciplemaking churches today. All across Asia and into the Middle East the Koreans have gone first. They most often start businesses.

A retreat center and prayer garden in a Middle East country that desperately needs a place for Christians to come together and pray. Another in Central Asia that provides the same opportunity. Often the businesses are restaurants and other small businesses serving the people with grace and honesty. The Korean church trains the people who go out in business and mission. There are medical people in China that I have worked with. People who stick through thick and thin. These are the things that the South Koreans have done – faithfully for many years. Their bravery and simple faith is exemplary.

Albania, Land of the Eagles, Ancient Shqipëria: Lets do business

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By: Nora Hughes

The first time I flew into Albania, the German engineer sitting next to me said, “the plane will circle a couple of times because the runway isn’t really a runway it’s a collection of paving tiles so the pilot has to find the best way to land.” Sure enough, that is what happened. I found myself in the poorest country I had ever seen. Everything was broken, factories were destroyed, nothing could be purchased, not even a jar of jam. The year was 1993 and Albania had just overthrown its oppressive communist government and hoped to have a democracy. Albania was the North Korea of Europe – a Xenophobic dictator, totally closed to the outside world.

Finishing Well

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How do Christian leaders encourage and lead their Christian staff when they are in a secular environment? We were sent this letter and have published it to share with you one woman’s solution – an end of the year letter.

A Letter from a Supervisor to her Christian Staff

Therefore, my beloved ‘sisters’, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1Cor 15:58 ESV)

As we come to the close of 2016, I am compelled to encourage each of you to not only close this year well, personally and professionally; but to look to the coming year with hope-filled anticipation of how the Lord will both use you, and especially grow you forward in faith and character as you execute your duties as mothers, daughters, sisters, friends… and employees.

THE BUSINESS IS THE MISSION?

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THE BUSINESS IS THE MISSION?

By Robert McArthur

The Year: 1758

The Month: April

The Situation: Sending thirty cash strapped Moravian Missionaries to Suriname

Additional Requirements: a shipment of stripped linen; and one Moravian, Jonas Paul Weiss, to do some hard thinking on economic activities in missions, articulate and pioneer this way of doing missions.

Long Term Results: Over two centuries of successful missionary commerce.

The Story: For the experienced businessman, Weiss, business offered as many opportunities for Christian witness as for profit.[1] His business brain and passionate missionary heart thus laid the foundation for what is now two centuries of missionary commerce.