[Friends] Unique mission opportunities

Tue Mar 11 15:27:36 PDT 2008

Saturday I had the privilege of meeting with Tim Randolph, who is a Prof at
St Louis University's College of Health Sciences, and a long time friend of
the Sheldons. Tim has a fantastic medical mission to Haiti, which includes
opportunities for folks to go with him. More info can be found on his site:
www.randolphworldministries.org.

After talking with him, keeping in mind our mission and vision, core values,
and the sense of what God is doing as I look at our Spiritual Gifts, I would
like you all to read below Tim and Pastor Michel's newest project. All
missions which are from God have the senders, the doers, the mobalizers, and
the prayers. If we, as a community, feel called to partner with Tim, Pastor
Michel, and the people of Haiti, all of us can participate at some level in
one or more of those four functions.

Give it some prayerful thought and give me some feed back. I am looking at
invited Tim to come and share with us in April what God has been doing in
his life and at the very least we can be a prayer partner with him.

On another note, I meet with the pastors from Faith Lutheran, First United
Methodist, and St Michael's Episcopal. We are looking at doing a joint Alpha
program in the fall and we would like to have some folks who have gone
through it from each of our congregations to help lead it. Any takers? Even
if slightly interested, contact me. 

We also discussed how New Creation, based out of its vision and mission, may
be an enrichment to the community of our four churches by leading and
mobilizing common missions that engage our community - like poverty (yes,
O'Fallon has poverty and it isn't getting any better. . . in fact, folks who
may be perceived as 'middle class' are taking advantage of the Food Pantry).
Our full-communion partner churches are willing to commit 'missionaries',
funds, etc if we are able to lift up the mission project and be the
mobalizers (which fits our Spiritual Gifts). 

Lastly, I was reminded last night at the Presbytery's Congregational Mission
Action Team that a church with out mission participation is a church without
identity in the Way of Christ Jesus. That caused me to pause in light of all
the people God has been introducing me to lately.

Peace,

cdb

Rev. Christian Dominic Boyd

Pastor, New Creation PC(USA) in O'Fallon, IL

& Staff, Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy

Mob: 618.292.8583

www.NewCreationPC.org

Live, Love, Serve

(2 Corinthians 5)

RWMLogoSM

Establishing an Economy in Haiti through Entrepreneurship

Observation

Haiti has a large number of missionaries per capita, both full-time and
temporary, who are instrumental in maintaining the meager Haitian economy.
Through construction initiatives, service jobs (cooks, maids, security,
grounds keepers, etc.), child sponsorship programs, and living expenses of
full-time missionaries (vehicle purchases and repair, housing repair, food,
clothing, gasoline, etc.), missionary activities in Haiti continually feed
an otherwise stagnant economy. Although all these activities are necessary,
they do not promote a self-sustaining economy.  In other words, if all the
missionaries in Haiti would leave, the economy would crumble.  In addition,
the system used by most churches to meet the basic needs of the abject poor
is for members to donate to a fund and the abject poor draw from the fund.
Since the abject poor predominate, the fund is usually depleted.

Solution

Investment in newly formed Haitian owned and operated business ventures will
create new families with sufficient income and purchasing power to initially
support other local businesses that provide daily living commodities like
food, clothing, water, fuel, and transportation.  As these new businesses
grow their purchasing power will grow proportionally and begin to support
other established businesses like construction, utilities, automotive,
electronics, and service companies.  As these established businesses grow,
so will their purchasing power leading to overall economic growth.  The
investment in small business would be in the form of purchased shares which
can be donated to the abject poor to serve as a constant source of income
through dividend disbursements.

Small Business Start Ups

Randolph World Ministries, Inc. is partnering with Pastor Michel Morisset,
Founder and Pastor or Eben-Ezer Mission in Gonaives, Haiti.  Pastor Michel
is currently performing market analyses in the Gonaives area to determine
viable business options, hand selecting congregation members who possess the
gifts and qualities to become a small business owners, identifying Haitian
business owners to serve as mentors, and identifying Haitians interested and
able to invest in small business start ups.  Randolph World Ministries, Inc.
is currently developing business plans in the medical areas and preparing to
invest in these start-up businesses.  In addition, we are seeking
non-Haitian business persons to serve as mentors, and investors willing to
buy shares in start up companies.  To date, the details of the program have
not been worked out so transactions are not yet occurring.  However, we are
seeking individuals who can commit to the project until such time that the
system is ready for implementation.

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