The Marketplace Magazine January/February 2018

ace January February 2018

Where Christian faith gets down to business

Convention 2017:

Starting Over:

MEDA’s record year

Peace by Chocolate gives back

Development and peace Girders of Faith Business with purpose

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The Marketplace January February 2018

Roadside stand

Recalling the Golden Rule at convention 2017 Several speakers at MEDA’s November convention in Vancouver drew attention to one of Jesus’s most famous admonitions.

Cornelia Horsch of Horsch Machines noted that her family company has Matthew 7 verse 12 as part of its mission statement. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Retired Marketplace editor Wally Kroeker cited the same passage in his keynote address, noting that many in the room learned the most important Christian doctrine at the age of five.

The Golden Rule is the most widely held religious assertion in the world, he said. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. all have a rule that makes a similar point.

“Imagine if all the billions of people in the world who adhere to these faiths would make a daily effort to practice it. Imagine if you and I did. What a bridge that would be.”

Designer and artist friend honored Ray Dirks, a Winnipeg artist and gallery curator who has designed these pages for more than 32 years, was recently honored, along with a long-time colleague, by Manitoba’s Lieutenant Governor for advancing interreligious understanding.

Dirks and fellow artist Manju Lodha received the award in a Jan. 10 ceremony at Lieutenant Governor Janice Filmon’s official residence.

Lodha is an Indo-Canadian, Hindu artist and community activist.

She has been a tireless advocate for understanding, respect and acceptance between all cultural and faith communities in Canada for many years. She and Dirks have worked together on various projects and exhibitions in Canada since 2006, Cover photo of Tareq Hadhad

by Steve Sugrim

The Marketplace January February 2018

resulting in a book, two DVD documentaries and workshops for thousands of Manitoba students. Another book is in the works. It will celebrate our increasingly multicultural, multi-faith society at a personal, intimate level. It, as their previous In the Spirit of Humanity book and DVD, will be distributed by Manitoba Education to schools throughout the province. Ray and Manju have also exhibited together in Manju’s hometown, Jaipur, India.

The two friends agreed “it is better and more meaningful for both of us to receive this award together than as individuals.”

Doctor drivers The most humorous, also somewhat sad, story told at MEDA’s recent convention in Vancouver came from presenter Tareq Hadhad, who is featured on the cover of this issue. Hadhad, who was pursuing medical studies in Damascus before his family was forced to leave Syria due to the civil war, recalls being told that in Toronto, it is safer to have a heart attack in a taxi than in a hospital. Why is that, you may ask? It’s because 90 per cent of the cabbies in that city were physicians in their homeland, but are unable to get their credentials recognized in Canada, Hadhad was told. Here’s hoping this very intelligent, thoughtful and wellspoken young man gets back to studying medicine sooner rather than later.

Hershey retires Marlin Hershey, MEDA’s director of corporate and planned gifts, retired at year-end.

Hershey, based in MEDA’s Lancaster office for close to eight years, had a lengthy career in the charitable sector, including a decade with Mennonite Foundation Inc., (now part of Everence).

Hershey’s first interactions with 2

MEDA began 37 years ago by participating in chapter dinners.

He served on the Lancaster, Pa. chapter board for many years beginning in 1990.

Trips to Ukraine/Crimea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nicaragua and Tanzania, interacting with MEDA’s board and clients were memorable experiences for Hershey.

“MEDA is certainly having a huge impact on global poverty even though we think sometimes it’s very small, but by one’s smallest actions we can restore some sense of order to our broken world,” he said. “Having the opportunity to share those hands-on client stories with donors was truly impactful, and seeing them catch the vision of business solutions to poverty” will last a lifetime.

Reducing inequality One of the prophetic voices at MEDA’s Vancouver convention, Tina Campbell of the Lancaster, Pa. ASSETS program (see story pp.1920) proposed shifting 10 per cent of consumer spending to local businesses as a means of creating jobs and slashing poverty rates.

Turns out Campbell has some support across the pond in Europe. A story in the Winter 2018 issue of Yes! Magazine touts shifting where we shop as a means of reducing inequality. “Crowdsourcing the Robin Hood Effect in Cities,” a study of 150,000 people and 95,000 businesses in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, suggests that if five per cent of commercial transactions were changed so capital flowed to poorer neighborhoods from richer ones, income inequality would drop by 80 per cent. -MS

In this issue

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Longtime Marketplace editor Wally Kroeker made a passionate case for the missional nature of MEDA’s work in a plenary speech at the 2017 Business as a Calling convention in Vancouver.

More opportunity and less war

Economic development and reducing conflict are goals that must work hand in hand, Dr. Samantha Nutt of War Child Canada and War Child US says.

Eugene Stutzman shows off a dress that was worn by the late Whitney Houston

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Fashion for a cause

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Doing well by doing good

Departments 22 24 18 21 23

The Spirituality of MEDA

Roadside stand Soul enterprise News Review Soundbites

Decades after fashion firm Eugene Alexander succumbed to changes in the garment industry, the dresses that once adorned movie and TV stars are now being used to raise money for charity. By JB Miller

Businesses can thrive while helping to reduce inequality, says Tina Campbell, co-director of ASSETS Lancaster. By Mike Strathdee

Volume 48, Issue 1 January February 2018 The Marketplace (ISSN 321-330) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2018 by MEDA. Editor: Mike Strathdee Design: Ray Dirks

Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-4106.

To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters contact the editor at mstrathdee@meda.org or call (800) 665-7026, ext. 705 Subscriptions: $30/year; $55/two years.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-4106

Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026.

Web site www.meda.org

Visit our online home at www.marketplacemagazine.org, where you can download past issues, read articles and discuss topics with others, all from your desktop or mobile device.

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The Marketplace January February 2018

Soul Enterprise

Faith in the workplace Pastor converts to value of churches helping with job training

By Colin McCartney

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while ago I had the opportunity to attend a job creation conference in Memphis. I have been doing some church planting work for the Mennonites in low-income urban, neighbourhoods and they wanted me to look into creating micro-businesses that would employ people in our job-depleted urban communities.

So, off I went to the land of Elvis to learn the ins and outs of creating businesses. At the first session, I listened to a panel of entrepreneurs who shared about their business ventures. I was exhausted within 20 minutes of listening to them and it wasn’t from jet lag. Hearing them talk about their businesses and all the work they put into starting and now running their companies was thoroughly draining on me.

As an urban missionary, I already have enough on my plate. Recruiting, training, caring for and raising money for our inner-city church planters is hard enough. Then dealing with the realities of the pain in people’s lives who live in our neighbourhoods is more than enough for one person to live with.

You can imagine how I felt when I was being told that I also need to create micro-businesses to employ our people on top of everything else I was doing? As I continued to listen to a successful business owner share about his work I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me. In my mind, I heard a quiet voice say; “Don’t do it. Don’t create The Marketplace January February 2018

businesses. That’s not your calling. I already have people who I have been calling to create businesses and they own successful companies.

You go out and find them.

You tell them that it’s their responsibility to employ your people. Your job is to train your people up to be great employees that they will hire.”

Wow — that thought was so wise I knew I couldn’t come up with it on my own so it must have been from God! Why should I create businesses when they are already there! Let someone, gifted and called, create the businesses but I create employees!!

The rest of my time in Memphis I kept thinking and planning a strategy of how I could start an effective jobtraining program that would empower the people in our neighbourhoods to be employable.

I realized that most churches are great at providing short-term solutions to real-time needs by handing out food, clothing or even shelter to people in need. In our ministry here at Connect City, we don’t want to replicate this important model. We want to take it a step further — instead of giving out food, clothing and shelter why not give out jobs to people so they can buy their own food, clothing and shelter?

We want to empower our people to take care of themselves and their families while keeping their dignity and self confidence in place. This 4

was the beginning of a partnership that some of my business friends and I hatched up between Christian business owners and the poor we serve.

And I have to say that it’s so beautiful.

We just graduated out our first job training cohort. Nine out of 10 of our students are working. We also have a mentoring team of business people who journey alongside of our grads, sharing life struggles and encouraging one another.

This has been an incredible thing to experience as rich and poor, male and female, young and old, and a variety of cultures gather regularly to learn from each other’s lives. We even had mentors weep while praying for our students after getting to know what they have gone through in life. What a quality of an amazing mentor. It’s truly been a blessing for both our mentors and mentees, and so I can’t wait for our second class starting in a few months!

Faith alive in the workplace, this is God’s will for his creation. Never forget that God has called us to serve and how we live out our calling will look different in accordance to how God created each one of us.

God’s future for you is awaiting.

All it takes for your faith to impact your workplace is a listening ear to the Spirit, an innovative and risktaking faith and a heart after God’s kingdom reign. ◆ This article first appeared in Seven Magazine.

Colin McCartney, who leads Connect Ministries in Toronto, is an ordained minister, speaker and best-selling author.

Christian insistence of keeping giving secret isn’t Biblical, businessman says

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he Christian view that giving should be kept secret is based on misunderstanding of two Bible verses resulting in a “secrecy doctrine” that we need to get past, a Manitoba businessman and former pastor argues.

Most Christians don’t understand the Bible passage they cite in arguing that giving should be kept secret, Peter Dueck says. “I would like us to get past this secrecy doctrine.”

Dueck, co-president of Vidir Machine of Arborg, Man., worked as a pastor for two Evangelical Mennonite Church (EMC) congregations in northern Alberta between 1984 and 1995 prior to joining the manufacturer of merchandising carousels and display fixtures. Over the years, he has thought a lot about Christian attitudes towards donor recognition as he pondered how to teach and model generosity. “How do we teach people that giving is an integral part of worship and Christian living” has always been an important question for him.

The verses that so many Christians misunderstand, in his view, are Matthew 6 verses 3-4: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (New International Version translation).

“The dilemma that we have, and I don’t think it’s unique to Mennonites… we have this dilemma about when gifts should be announced and be public, and when they should be secret,” he says.

“Giving, like every other gift, be it leadership, teaching or singing, is taught best when it is modelled.”

While Jesus tells people to not do their giving in order to be seen, he makes similar instructions about praying and fasting in the same Matthew 6 passage.

“We have no issue with the fact that .. you can pray in public, just don’t do it for show. But when it comes to giving, we seem to have more reservations about it.”

Dueck believes, as do a number of Biblical commentators, that the point of Jesus’ admonition was motivation. In other words, it is fine for giving to be made public, so long as it isn’t done for show.

Dueck points to several other scripture passages in support of this interpretation.

In Matthew 5, verse 16, Jesus tells his followers to “let your light

Overheard:

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shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

In the book of Acts (chapter 4, verses 36 and 37), Joseph, later known as Barnabas, sells a parcel of land and gives the proceeds to the apostles. The early church leadership and the church “was very aware of this gift,” Dueck says.

“If we want to make a theology of left and right hand, that somehow means secrecy, then why would Jesus in Luke 21 (verses 1-4) announce what the widow gave?”

Dueck’s interest in how churchgoers think about recognition of giving is as practical as it is philosophical.

“Giving, like every other gift, be it leadership, teaching or singing, is taught best when it is modelled.”

“We need leaders showing us and teaching us about generosity.”

Generosity isn’t always in the size of the gift, he says. “Each person can teach and model and teach generosity.”

“Some people will teach and model generosity with a $500 gift, some people will teach and model generosity with a $5 million gift.”

“The reason I as a (MEDA) board member want us to have a bit more clarity on the subject is so we can inspire people to be the best they can be.” ◆

“The business of business is to make the world a better place.” — Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, speaking at the company’s annual Dreamforce convention in San Francisco.

The Marketplace January February 2018

Providing economic opportunity is a spiritual act Long-time publications editor makes Biblical case for MEDA’s mission

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EDA’s work providing economic opportunity in developing nations is a deeply spiritual vocation that is desperately needed by a hurting world, long-time staffer Wally Kroeker told the agency’s annual convention.

“I believe MEDA’s work is as Godly and missional as it gets,” Kroeker told over 300 supporters who gathered in Vancouver in early November. “Seriously folks, the world really, really needs our consistently transformational message. We exist for times like these.”

Kroeker, who edited The Marketplace magazine for 32 years until his retirement this summer, gave the opening plenary speech at MEDA’s 2017 Business as a Calling convention.

Using the event’s Building Bridges to Enduring Livelihoods theme, he spoke of “powerful girders of faith” that are foundational to MEDA’s efforts to create business solutions to poverty around the globe.

Kroeker, author of several books about faith and work, says the spiritual underpinnings of MEDA’s efforts are found in the first page of the Bible, “where God is depicted as a creator and sustainer, maybe even an entrepreneur.”

“Made in the divine image, we too are in the business of creating, The Marketplace January February 2018

sustaining and innovating.”

When a member of a Mennonite mission agency once dismissed Kroeker’s description of MEDA’s work by saying the work is not explicitly spiritual, and therefore not a ministry, he was forced to stop and ponder the question.

“Helping women grow soybeans in Ghana? What’s spiritual about that? Are soybeans even mentioned in the Bible? How about cassava? Or the cherished MEDA strategy of value chains? I have not found it there yet.”

Still, Kroeker thinks a broader perspective supports his view of MEDA’s spirituality.

He explored the Biblical concept of Shalom to make his case. Commonly understood as peace, the term means much more than absence of conflict, encompassing God’s will for humanity, he said.

Shalom covers poverty, abundance, war, ecological wholeness and right relationships. MEDA’s “particular path of justice for the poor is to unleash entrepreneurship and help them seize economic opportunity to enlarge their bandwidth and bolster their well-being. This is how we make straight that which is bent; heal that which is sick; water that which is dry; bring life out of that which is barren.”

MEDA aims “for a profound and 6

holistic manner of witness, a word fitly spoken for the circumstances.

The Good News, as we see it, is not only good news for individuals, it is also good news for society.”

The core values informing MEDA’s work are both rooted in Christian faith and echoed by other religious traditions, he said.

Biblical concepts that are central to MEDA include: • Understanding the creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship that emerge from God’s character, and recognizing that as people made in the divine image, “we, too, are in the business of creating, sustaining and innovating.”

• Affirming and enhancing life while avoiding things that harm or diminish life • Supporting the notion of peace and justice by using entrepreneurship to provide holistic well-being • Honoring the Biblical idea of community by being “good neighbors who value partnerships with the poor and others regardless of gender, race, class, ethnicity, nationality or religion. When we form partnerships, we remember the writer of Ecclesiastes who said a cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

• Being careful stewards who work at “astutely managing human, financial and environmental resourc-

Steve Sugrim photo

es through accountability, sharing, discipline and due diligence.”

People in business can serve God with gifts that are unique to them. “These gifts are skillsets entrusted to us to use as stewards in sustaining creation.”

Much of Jesus’ ministry took place in the arena of work, as 112 of his 122 public appearances were in the marketplace rather than the temple. Fully 38 of his 48 parables recorded in the New Testament related to marketplace themes.

“Our daily work matters to God. It is God’s will that people grow and distribute food, build houses, set up IT systems, make furniture, operate stores, drive trucks, keep books and sell shoes. By operating businesses that provide goods, services and jobs for society, we become co-creators with God.” Kroeker contends that MEDA has “demonstrated missional innovation,” redefining generosity beyond wealth redistribution to model “a more mature term, namely wealth creation.”

MEDA has expanded the understanding of ministry, showing that “not all ministry is sequestered within the walls of the church or denomination.”

Kroeker gave several examples of MEDA ministry in action. In Ethiopia, some rice farmers were sitting and talking under a canopy of acacia trees. They were unhappy about their relationship with processors “who

“By operating businesses that provide goods, services and jobs for society, we become co-creators with God.” they felt were ripping them off.”

Improper equipment broke rice kernels, reducing farmer income. For their part, the processors were unhappy about farmers putting stones in the rice bags so the scales would record a heavier weight.

MEDA arranged meetings between the two sides so they could understand each other. Those conversations helped improve the bottom line for both sides, and led to more harmonious relations. Kroeker learned that many small businesses suffered from a lack of trust, with Muslims and Christians neither 7

buying from each other or eating together. “In Ethiopia, thanks to MEDA, there was an emerging new truce between Muslims and Orthodox (Christians). I would call that a spiritual outcome, sorely needed in our day.”

Years ago, Kroeker, along with his wife Millie and MEDA colleague Marlin Hershey, met soybean farmer Prudence Bato during a visit to a soybean project in Ghana. Bato had started growing beans to feed her children more nutritious food, bolster her family’s income and to save enough money to become a teacher through distance education classes.

Bato told the visitors: “In the future, I will be somebody.” For Kroeker, that comment was “making a theological as well as an economic assertion.

“She aspires to make real the divine spark that we hear about in the first chapter of Genesis.”

During the Thursday evening dinner, Kroeker was given a photo of Bato, who has now achieved her dream of becoming a teacher/farmer.

When Kroeker considers MEDA programs, he asks: “If God were here, right now, would God be doing this? And to me, at least, the answer comes very quickly. Yep, this is what God would do. This is what God wants MEDA to do.

“I believe our work is solidly part of God’s will. That leads me to conclude: The world needs more MEDA.” ◆ The Marketplace January February 2018

Building more Bridges Record donations, new contracts are highlights of FY 2017

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photo by Steve Sugrim

MEDA has ecord donations launched a $50 from supporters, million Buildassisting 91 million families and praise ing Enduring from government funders Livelihoods were highlights of the past campaign to year at MEDA, the organization’s an- raise the funds needed to support nual meeting heard. the $200 million of contracts it has Supporters set a record in private signed in recent years. To date, $27.8 contributions to MEDA for the second million has been pledged over the year in a row, totaling $6.5 million next five years, campaign chair Rob US, president Allan Sauder said.

Schlegel reported.

During the past year, MEDA has Several new employees were signed $40 million in new contracts mentioned by Sauder during his for projects around the speech. Miworld to create enduring chael White livelihoods. These included: was hired as • $11 million to help MEDA’s chief youth and women in northengagement ern Nigeria realize their full officer in entrepreneurial and leaderApril, overseeship potential; ing fundraising • $15 million to test and constitumodels for solving trade ent relations. finance needs of small and White chairs medium enterprises and MEDA’s Buildbuilding trade links; ing Enduring • $12 million to exLivelihoods pand MEDA’s work with fundraising MEDA president Allan Sauder campaign, the the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Tanzania to organization’s commercialize distribution of quality largest ever effort to achieve private cassava seed stock; and donor matching contributions for all • $2 million from the Australian its contract opportunities.

Government to expand MEDA’s work Jodi Martin joined the organiin Myanmar and Pakistan. zation this summer as volunteer Sauder credited supporters for program manager. MEDA has long MEDA’s success in working with 322 relied on the efforts of scores of volpartners in 60 countries, helping over unteers, including business advisers, 91 million families to “realize healthier, board directors, chapter leaders and more economically sustainable lives. volunteer auditors, Sauder noted.

Funding from the Canadian and “This is something that we plan to US governments matches funds expand on. The business skills and raised for many MEDA projects by $5 values that are contained within our to $7 for every donated dollar. In the constituency are probably our singly case of a Tanzanian cassava project, most under-utilized resource — and the Gates Foundation provides a 17we intend to change that.” to-1 multiplier.

MEDA sold its foreign currency The Marketplace January February 2018

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transfer business to longstanding UK partner INTL FCStone this spring, ending more than 25 years of buying and transferring foreign currencies quickly, economically and safely, both for itself and other non-governmental organizations through its MEDA Trade Co. subsidiary.

Sauder praised recently retired employee Sheri Brubacher, who he said was “practically single-handedly responsible” for moving over $1 billion in foreign currency, allowing MEDA Trade Co. to donate more than $1 million to MEDA from its profits.

MEDA is working hard to diversify its institutional funding partners beyond Global Affairs Canada (which is by far its largest single funder) and the United States Agency for International Development (US AID). “However, for the foreseeable future they will remain key to our ability to multiply your contributions by seven times on average, to increase the impact of what your dollars can achieve.”

Shifting political priorities, both in Canada and the U.S., will constrain new funding from either partner.

The Canadian government’s new Feminist International Assistance Policy will be largely focused on women’s health and rights programs over the next year or two, leaving little money for new economic development initiatives.

Changes are coming in Washington as well, but what those will be isn’t known. “Despite recent calls for massive cuts to foreign aid, it is less clear how those changes will look once they have made their way through the political process,” Sauder said.

MEDA has been successful in attracting some funds from USAID to explore new approaches. It ran pilot projects for a gender equality main-

A Canadian govern-

streaming framework with small and medium-sized businesses in India and Indonesia. The framework offers a practical suite of tools to help investors and companies to evaluate and upgrade gender equality within businesses.

Both U.S. and Canadian aid agencies have shown interest in using these tools more broadly, he said.

Senior Canadian government staff have also made it clear that Canada remains committed to the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations.

Meeting the first target, eradicating extreme poverty — people living on less than $1.25 a day — throughout the world by 2030, is a tall order, Sauder said.

Reaching those goals will require reaching beyond government resources. “The bulk of that investment must come from the private sector using mechanisms loosely defined as blended finance.”

Two new board members were introduced at convention. ment official called • Crystal Weaver of Lancaster, Pa. operMEDA and Sarona ates four coffee and retail businesses that Asset Management are committed to contributing to Lancaster’s “rock stars” of hospitality and social landscape by paying Crystal Weaver living wages and ethiblended finance. cal product sourcing.

Weaver’s work was MEDA’s 64-year history of featured in the Janublending private investment with ary 2017 issue of The donated money and governMarketplace (Serving ment support has led to it being up jobs and coffee). viewed as a leader in the blend• Karin Krahn ed finance approach, Sauder of Calgary, Alta. is said. In fact, a senior policy manager of operations adviser to the minister of Global and G & A (general Affairs Canada called MEDA, Karin Krahn and administrative and the for-profit Sarona Asset expenses) accounting Management in which MEDA for the Canadian division of Nexen, a owns a minority share, the “rock major oil and gas producer. ◆ stars” of blended finance, he said.

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iCredito plans to expand to a second Central American country in early 2018, serving Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica, the company’s chief executive officer says.

Veronica Herrera, who heads up the Nicaragua-based microfinance organization, made the comment in a speech to MEDA’s annual meeting in Vancouver. Nicaraguan people living in Costa Rica face persecution. MiCredito wants to help address that problem, she said.

MEDA has worked in Nicaragua for almost three decades. MiCredito was founded in 2004 by MEDA to provide financial services to underserved rural and urban communities in Nicaragua. Over the years, MEDA has provided both technical assistance and investment capital

photo by Steve Sugrim

MEDA-backed microfinance organization expands to Costa Rica

Veronica Herrera, chief executive officer of MiCredito

to MiCredito. “To serve people is a privilege. To change their lives is my honor,” she said, adding that she learned this perspective from working with MEDA over the years.

Building a microfinance organization in Nicaragua was difficult, as

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many people didn’t believe in the idea, but MEDA did, she said.

Initially, the organization asked MEDA for $2 million. That request was turned down, as were subsequent asks for $1 million and $500,000. Eventually MEDA agreed to provide $150,000 in start-up capital.

When employees were challenged to invest their own cash in MiCredito, she sold her car and put $5,000 into the project to demonstrate her trust in the work.

MiCredito now has 13 branches across the country. It has $17 million in assets, more than 80,000 clients and $14 million in outstanding loans.

Many Nicaraguans still live in difficult conditions. About five per cent of the population doesn’t have electricity, she said. ◆

The Marketplace January February 2018

Starting over with Peace by Chocolate Family creates jobs in rural village that sponsored them

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n an ideal world, Tareq Hadhad would be practicing medicine in his homeland.

Instead, he is the public face of his family’s chocolate company, in a country they have only called home for a couple of years.

But with an entrepreneur’s can-do attitude, Hadhad chooses to emphasize the positive. “We always have challenges in our lives,” Hadhad said in a seminar presentation about his family’s firm, Peace by Chocolate, at MEDA’s annual convention in Vancouver.

Given the reality that everyone faces challenges, people have two options: sit down and complain that nothing can be done, or digging down and finding solutions, he said.

“My family and I are honored to choose the second option.”

Tareq’s father, Assam Hadhad, ran a chocolate factory in Damascus, Syria for 30 years after realizing that his first profession as a civil engineer wasn’t his passion.

He got into chocolate manufacturing after attending a wedding and realizing everyone there eating chocolate was happy. Seeing the chocolate business as his family’s future, Assam built it into the second-largest chocolate factory in the Middle East by 2003, employing hundreds. The company shipped product throughout the region and into Europe.

The Hadhads were a tight-knit clan, with 60 members of the immediate and extended family living in a The Marketplace January February 2018

photo by Steve Sugrim

By Mike Strathdee

Tareq Hadhad sees every situation as a learning opportunity.

10-storey apartment building. Each weekend, everyone gathered for a communal Saturday supper.

When Arab Spring demonstrations spread to Syria in 2011, Tareq was studying at the Damascus faculty of medicine. What started as peaceful gatherings turned violent.

Some of Tareq’s colleagues, who wore lab coats and were carrying flowers, were arrested. Others he

People have two options: sit down and complain that nothing can be done, or digging down and finding solutions.

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knew were killed.

When Assam’s factory was bombed in 2013 during the Syrian civil war, the family was forced to flee to Lebanon. They lived there in a refugee camp for three years, during which time they were mostly not allowed to work. “Staying in a refugee camp means that you won’t be able to think about your tomorrow.’’

Tareq kept busy helping the United Nations build hospitals in the camp.

The Hadhads were lucky compared to others. One of Tareq’s cousins drowned in a boat accident off Turkey.

Tareq got an interview with the Canadian embassy with an opportunity to come to Canada on a scholarship. That initial promise was dashed when he was told that officials forgot to check his age. Having just turned 25, he was ineligible for a program restricted to people aged 24 or younger.

A few months later, he was offered a sponsorship to come to Canada. Six months went by without news, then in mid-November-2015, he was told he would be leaving for Toronto soon. He arrived in Toronto in late December to sub-zero temperatures.

Having thought of Canada only in terms of its three largest cities — Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver — he was surprised to learn that his sponsorship group was from the small Nova Scotia village of Antigonish.

A month later, his family called to say they would arrive in Toronto the next day. His mother asked Tareq

to send photos of their new home community. There was over six feet of snow on the ground, so he sent her pictures of Antigonish in the summer.

After a month in Canada, Assam Hadhad, who spoke no English, began asking what he should do.

Tareq suggested making chocolate, so they took chocolate to a community potluck.

A week’s work disappeared in 10 minutes. Then Assam started selling chocolate in the local farmer’s market. Two hundred people were standing in line on the first day.

“They loved our products before they even tasted them.”

Demand was so strong that 10 neighbors, including carpenters, elec-

tricians and plumbers, helped them build a shed next to their house. They also received a few small loans from community members for seed capital.

They opened Peace by Chocolate in August 2016, supplying chocolate for weddings and an event for the Canadian federal government.

When their online store opened in December 2016, they had 3,000 orders in three hours. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned Peace

by Chocolate in a speech at the United Nations. Peace by Chocolate became an international story. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did a video on the family’s journey.

The company recently began supplying Sobey’s, Canada’s sec-

ond-largest grocery chain, with its chocolates in the Atlantic provinces.

Eventually, Sobey’s plans to carry the product across Canada.

Increased production will allow them to hire 25 to 30 workers, a boon to a small rural community of 5,000 where jobs are hard to come by. Hadhad is glad they can give back to a town that welcomed them with open arms.

Tareq is working in the chocolate factory and doing studies online to earn his bachelor of science degree.

He hopes to be able to restart his studies to become a medical doctor within two to three years. “Everything that has happened to me is an opportunity to learn more.” ◆

Newcomers, not refugees

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nyone who wants to help newcomers should avoid labeling them as refugees, MEDA’s annual convention heard.

“Can you imagine being reminded every day of the very thing you want to forget?” Jennifer Mpungu said in a plenary discussion on building bridges to new lives.

Mpungu, a resettlement program coordinator with Mennonite Central Committee British Columbia, says we should use the term newcomers rather than refugees. She quoted the Old Testament book of Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 34 as a proper response: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.

Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”

Tareq Hadhad, who came to Canada in late 2015, thinks fear of newcomers is behind resistance to helping. “People who are afraid, they discriminate. Those who are discriminated against, are even more afraid.”

Negative stereotyping that depicts refugees as terrorists makes it more difficult for newcomers to

photo by Steve Sugrim

Choice of words is important, convention told

integrate and feel welcome. “No one wants to be a refugee… Being a refugee means you have lost everything.”

People who criticized Hadhad for his religion when he arrived, came to his family one year later, after they recognized the Hadhad family’s contributions to the community “and they said welcome.”

The Hadhads didn’t come to take jobs, but to create jobs and offer opportunities for others, he said.

Cornelia Horsch, a German who grew up in France, noted that her sister-in-law grew up abroad as 11

well. “I know how it is when you don’t know the language and have to integrate.”

Those experiences gave her a strong view on the importance of open borders. “We know that to build walls is not a solution, it’s dumb,” she said to laughter and much applause.

When one million refugees came to Germany in 2015, Horsch Machines knew it had to respond.

In 2016, her firm decided to employ 10 refugees as apprentices, young people who came alone, without families. ◆ The Marketplace January February 2018

MEDA and Myanmar Helping women in one of poorest countries of the world

M

EDA is working to help 25,000 women in Myanmar, but is not involved in areas of the country where violence and conflict are occurring, president Allan Sauder told supporters at the organization’s annual convention.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is in transition from decades of political and economic isolation, and remains one of the poorest countries in the world, he said. MEDA’s ongoing work assists women in Shan and Kayin States to grasp new economic opportunities, primarily in agricultural markets.

“I had an opportunity to visit there last November, and met with some of the women farmers in these states. I was struck by how isolated many of them were.”

Even though MEDA’s MEDA president Allan Sauder partners are well accepted in the remote villages where they work, develop agri-business links with rural “it felt like a long road to connect these famers, but simply didn’t know how to women farmers with improved farming go about it. Here was a real opportuand business practices and especially nity for MEDA to be a bridge builder.”

MEDA’s work continues to forge new links and create opportunities “…our focus remains for ethnic minority women. At the same time, MEDA, like others, are concerned about developments in the on helping poor Rakhine region of Myanmar and the families secure sustain- violence against the Muslim ethnic Rohingya population. “We are deeply saddened by this situation and pray able livelihoods.” that it will be peacefully and equitably resolved, Sauder said. “Our work with greater access to markets and is far removed from this region of financial services in the private sector.” conflict, and we don’t expect any diThrough conversations with the rect impact on our current work with Canadian ambassador to Myanmar women farmers. Funding for this projand many potential private sector ect comes from Global Affairs Canada partners, Sauder realized that “many and generous MEDA supporters, and businesses were looking for a way to MEDA does not fund or work directly The Marketplace January February 2018

12

with the government of Myanmar.”

The nature of MEDA’s work leads it to work in countries that are among the poorest and sometimes most conflict-prone. “In many cases the governments of those countries are unstable at best or sometimes responsible for creating hardship for their citizens. While we may not agree with a government’s policies, we try to ensure that our focus remains on helping poor families secure sustainable livelihoods.”

In response to queries from MEDA supporters about how they can best help the Rohingya, Sauder had two comments.”I would suggest that you continue, on a personal basis, to make your views known to your Member of Parliament or Congress, and encourage your government to help resolve the situation in the Rakhine region,” he said. “In recent statements, the Canadian government has strongly urged the military and civilian authorities in Myanmar to do everything in their power to end the violence now, and to allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”

Additionally, he encouraged people to support Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) or other organizations in their appeals for relief aid for the Rohingya in Bangladesh camps.

“At MEDA we are committed to working for peace — in Myanmar and around the globe,” he said.

“I believe our calling — creating sustainable livelihoods and building trusting relationships — is ultimately one of the most important building blocks for peaceful communities.” ◆

Reducing conflict through entrepreneurial activity Economic development within ethical framework more effective than aid.

R

educing armed conflict and providing economic opportunity are goals that go hand in hand, the founder of War Child Canada and War Child USA says.

“You can’t have development without peace, and you can’t have peace without development,” Dr. Samantha Nutt said in a plenary address to MEDA’s annual convention in Vancouver War Child helps children and young people in war-affected communities reclaim their childhood through access to education, opportunity and justice.

Nutt, author of the best-selling book, Damned Nations: Greed, Guns Armies and Aid, has worked in conflict zones for more than two decades.

In addition to practicing medicine, she teaches medicine at the University of Toronto, and has received the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor, for her efforts.

Nutt admits that it is far too easy to succumb to a sense of fatalism given the current refugee and famine crisis, which is the worst since World War II. Yet she believes that peace is possible.

Over 40 million people have been killed or displaced by small arms. Without homes or access to income, people all around the world are driven to make very desperate choices, she said.

Still, she has hope for a different future for these people. “All along the way, there are opportunities to shape a different outcome, to reduce rather than compound these kinds of tensions.”

Training, investing in employment and local capacity building can all make a difference in reducing war and poverty around the world, she said.

The single most important predictor of child mortality in the world is a mother’s independent access to income, she said. More broadly speaking, improved access to income and education greatly decrease the likelihood of conflict.

Access to capital is as important in reducing conflict as other commonly cited factors.

“Business and economic development have the power to do what no amount of humanitarian aid can.”

But that positive outcome only occurs when business is done properly, within an ethical framework.

Done wrong, it can exacerbate human 13

photo by Steve Sugrim

Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder of War Child

The Marketplace January February 2018

suffering and erode peace, she said.

We need to focus on how we invest, what we invest in, and why it matters, she said. Globally conscious entrepreneurialism is the most powerful tool we have to address major problems around the world.

She decried the fact that 12 times as much is spent on fighting and killing each other as is committed to humanitarian efforts. “If you really believe in peace, you have to start addressing that imbalance between military and humanitarian spending.”

There are 500 million Kalashnikov automatic rifles (also known as AK-47s) in circulation around the world, part of the global arms business that degrades and defeats peace.

The challenge of famine in Somalia wasn’t a medical or humanitarian failure, but rather efforts thwarted by trigger-happy, drugged-up young boys, she said. An old lightweight, “child-friendly” AK-47 that can fire 600 rounds in less than a minute sells for as little as $10.

Attacking those young men directly is counter-productive, as they become more hardened after every military intervention.

Including light weapons, there are 800 million legally traded small arms in circulation, one for every 60 people on earth. That includes only the officially reported numbers.

More than 40 million people have been killed or displaced by small arms, mostly in the global south and the Middle East.

Sadly, 80 per cent of the weapons traded in the world come from the five permanent member nations of the UN Security Council (Russia, China, the US, the United Kingdom, France) plus Germany.

Thinking that these weapons are only used in areas of persistent conflict is mistaken, she said. “Small arms don’t ever recognize borders, which means their first stop is rarely their last.”

Even Kalashnikov, the Russian who invented the AK-47, has said he wishes he had invented a lawn mower instead.

The Marketplace January February 2018

The arms trade issue affects many investors. A number of publicly-traded pension funds in both Canada and the U.S., plus the Canada Pension Plan, have money invested in arms manufacturers.

Divestment won’t end war, but it is a step forward in accountability and transparency, she said.

The U.S. government hasn’t ratified the global arms control treaty, and Canada hasn’t yet signed on, although 115 nations have done so.

Nutt wants people to advocate for different measures of financial return that don’t trump ethics.

“If you really believe in peace, you have to start addressing that imbalance between military and humanitarian spending.”

Coltan, a mineral used in cell phones and computers to make the electronics run faster, is a major source of conflict in Africa, as it is sometimes traded for weapons.

Between 60 and 80 per cent of the world’s coltan deposits are found in the Congo.

When rapes of young women there were plotted on a map of Eastern Congo, researchers found that rates of rape with extreme violence were higher the closer one got to mining areas.

Victims of these crimes seek justice, not charity, opportunities, not handouts, she said.

Building up civil society and safeguards in supply chains for minerals so their sale doesn’t fuel conflict are among her prescriptions for change.

“It is possible to invest differently in places like Eastern Congo.”

Nutt had several concrete suggestions on how people can act. She urged people to take time to read or watch one piece of international news every day, to advance knowledge and understanding of what is happening in the world.

Nutt also noted that she wholeheartedly endorses MEDA’s development model. She urged audience members to give to MEDA regularly.

“It’s critically important for all of us to continue giving. But know that how you give is just as important as how much you give.”

The work that MEDA does isn’t (successful) overnight. It takes time, she said. “Those organizations that you believe in need to be able to depend on you. Consider becoming a monthly donor to MEDA.” Businesses and entrepreneurs have the power to shape conversations around socially conscious investing and consumer practices, she said. Businesses can restore faith in the capacity of business to do good. “Model the way by ensuring your consumer practices are socially responsible.”

“With the right amount of effort and initiative, we can give peace the advantage.” ◆

For further reading: • War Child websites: www.warchild.org, www.warchild.ca • The Stockholm International Peace Institute, SIPRI.org publishes a list of the top 100 arms manufacturers in the world.

• globalwitness.org is a source of information on ethical mining practices.

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Finding workplace mentors in the Bible

P

eople looking for a mentor in their daily work would do well to emulate the Old Testament prophet Nehemiah, pastor David Esau says.

“I highly recommend Nehemiah to you.”

Esau, who serves as lead pastor at Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship in Coquitlam, B.C., made the suggestion in a Sunday morning plenary message at MEDA’s 2017 convention in Vancouver.

Having a mentor is more important than ever in today’s fast-paced and complex world, he said, adding that the words of Proverbs 13, verse 20, “be wise by walking with the wise,” are as relevant now as when they were written.

Esau, who grew up in Manitoba, worked as a beekeeper and a carpenter prior to becoming a pastor. He credits The Marketplace magazine with helping him to understand the spiritual value of the workplace, and that ministry doesn’t just take place in the church. “Ministry is anything and everything that God wants done in the world.”

Joseph’s work as an economist in Egypt in the book of Genesis tells the story of someone called by God to manage huge budget surpluses and deficits over a long time, he said.

“Clearly, work doesn’t take us away from God. It continues the work of God.” The Bible is a key place to look for marketplace mentors, he said.

“Ministry is everything and anything that God is doing and wants done in the world.”

Katie West, MEDA

Nehemiah set an example worth following, pastor says

David Esau

“Too many people start ministry ventures with good intentions but poor planning.”

Nehemiah, who Esau described as being “bi-vocational and bi-locational” lived in Persia in the mid400s B.C. He had a good job as the king’s cupbearer, guarding the royal chambers and providing comfort to the king.

Esau cited the international outrage that erupted when people saw an image of drowned Syrian child Alan Kurdi, whose death sparked a wave of sympathy for displaced people, to express how Nehemiah felt when he learned of the afflictions facing people in Jerusalem. “The heart 15

of ministry is a heart for ministry.”

God moves the hearts of people to get personally involved and leverage whatever assets they have for marketplace ministry, he said. “Who or what has God put in your heart to do?”

In Nehemiah’s case, learning of a need in his homeland led him to ask the king for a leave of absence to go rebuild walls around the city of Jerusalem, and for letters of passage so he could travel safely.

Nehemiah’s competence and integrity, character traits that are crucial for anyone hoping to have success in their work, led the king to grant his request.

Esau stressed the importance of both spiritual and practical preparation for whatever you choose to undertake. Prayer and planning are mutually enriching, not mutually exclusive, he said.

The most fundamental changes that have happened in history are attributed to social movements with a spiritual foundation, he said, quoting American author Jim Wallis.

Using your head as well as your heart is crucial to success. “Too many people start ministry ventures with good intentions but poor planning.”

Another lesson Esau draws from the Bible is the importance of working together, with many hearts and hands. “It takes teamwork to make a dream work.”

The gospel of Luke, chapter 8, verses 2-3 mentions several people who financed Jesus and his disciples in their ministry. “Those women were helping to support them out of their own means.” ◆ The Marketplace January February 2018

Up from the ashes Celebrated fashion line raises funds for charity decades after firm’s demise

By J.B. Miller

H

Photos by Jake Smucker of DutchCrafters Amish Furniture

igh fashion ladies apparel is a fickle business.

Each year new creations debut on Paris and New York’s fashion runways, setting style trends for the coming year.

When the scene is repeated next season, the current “must-have” party gowns soon become aging fashion statements, finding their way to thrift shops and on-line markets for buyers of vintage or Halloween party attire and finally disappearing altogether.

Susan Kauffman, however, had other ideas. In 2005, after attending Alexander Wallace’s funeral and seeing photos and articles about Eugene Alexander, a fashion house popular in the 1980’s and 90’s, co-owned

by Wallace and partner, Eugene Stutzman, Kauffman came away deeply impressed. “The gowns’ sheer beauty was truly a work of Susan Kauffman and Eugene Stuzman with art. Among many photos of celebone of the Eugene Alexander gowns rities, here was Joan Rivers wearing a Eugene Alexander gown while ticularly the Vietnam War. Goshen hosting the ‘Tonight Show,’ I wanted College did a great job preparing me to know more,” she noted. to live in the world,” he explained, “Eugene and I were both attend“Being away from home worked well ing Covenant Mennonite Fellowship for me.” in Sarasota. But I had no idea he was After graduation Stutzman met this highly successful fashion design- Wallace. A year later they moved to er. He never talked about it,” she said. Sarasota. Working various jobs kept Born in Holmes County Ohio, food on the table, but sewing and Eugene Stutzman developed a love design were always present. Their for color, textures and clothing at an break came in 1981, while a Hollyearly age. His mother, Erma, taught wood movie was being filmed in the him to sew on her machine. He grad- area. Wallace, a movie extra, became uated from Goshen College in 1973, friends with the costume designer, majoring in art education. “My time who saw several of Eugene’s creat Goshen College was shaped by ations. “He encouraged us to hire current events, social justice and par- an agent and develop a line to take The Marketplace January February 2018

16

to New York, Stutzman stated.

“We worked feverishly to make the spring fashion season and we headed to New York with our collection.” One piece, the “water lily jacket,’ caught the eye of a Saks Fifth Avenue buyer when the elevator she was riding opened unexpectedly on a floor showcasing new designs. A few days later she placed an order. Soon more orders poured in. Eugene Alexander was born.

“We had four months to fill the orders but didn’t have any employees or even a shop,” Stutzman recalled. Returning to Sarasota, they borrowed money with the help of family members, hired employees and met the August 31st deadline. From the beginning, the company endeavored to be a values-based organization. “We committed to pay a competitive wage and keep our production in-house to ensure good working conditions,” said Stutzman. However, his concern for providing steady income for their employees added to the stress of producing successful fashions, season after season.

Despite the anxiety, success soon became evident with the Eugene Alexander label being worn by women at the Academy Awards, presidential inaugural balls, and featured in movies and TV shows, including Dynasty and Dallas. “I felt particularly proud when I saw Rue McClanahan (best known for roles in the TV hits The Golden Girls and Maude) wearing the water lily jacket on the red carpet at the Emmy Awards,” Stutzman said.

In 1987, Time magazine had

Eugene Stutzman surrounded by models wearing Eugene Alexander gowns at a recent fundraiser in Goshen, Ind.

planned a cover photo of Whitney Houston in a Eugene Alexander gown. But the Iran-Contra scandal intervened and an Oliver North photo pushed Houston inside. However, at Houston’s death, the photo appeared on the cover of Life magazine’s memorial edition.

The early 90’s brought a change to high fashion. “The ‘grunge’ look was in and fewer people were dressing up. “We had 35 employees at the time. There was pressure to produce, our employees depended on us,” Stutzman said. “But we couldn’t survive. We closed the business in 1993 and declared bankruptcy in 1994. We lost everything.”

Suffering from bipolar disorder, Wallace took his own life in 2005.

Susan Kauffman described her shock when she began uncovering the Eugene Alexander story and found there was nothing left, no gowns, no patterns, nothing. “I said, ‘This is terrible, we have to do something! We must find ways to celebrate these iconic gowns.’ So I went on-line and began buying gowns through various websites, and over time rescued about 400 gowns.”

The next year, Covenant Mennonite Fellowship sponsored a fashion show to raise funds for the congregation. Once more, Eugene Alexander

gowns were on the fashion runway.

A rebirth had occurred, but now the gowns were being used to benefit charities. Since then, the gowns have been used for other fundraisers including the YMCA, combating homelessness, and United Cerebral Palsy.

In 2016, Rachel Smucker, a student recruiter for Goshen College, became acquainted with Kauffman. “I was introduced to Eugene earlier, and Susan challenged me to think about what I could do,” Smucker explained.

Actor Rue McLanahan wore the water lily jacket at the Emmy awards.

17

Returning to Goshen, Smucker met with college and city representatives and a county-wide fashion week was planned providing community-based events showcasing the creativity of the area.

The week’s highlight was a fashion show at the Goshen Theatre, where over 300 people were wowed by models walking the runway in 60 Eugene Alexander gowns — gowns like those worn by Elizabeth Taylor, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Hart and Whitney Houston. “The best part of the night was seeing Eugene’s story being told in front of all these people,” Smucker, the show’s producer observed. “I could feel the energy as people discovered this person, who they didn’t know, making his fashion relevant today.” The Goshen Theater benefited as well, raising funds for their renovation program.

The path from a rural Ohio town to the pinnacle of high fashion — red carpets, presidential inaugural balls and high society pages seem most unlikely. For Eugene Stutzman however, the impossible dream became reality. Now seeing his gowns, once destined for thrift shops, repurposed to raise money for causes that both Stutzman and Wallace believe in, provides an enduring legacy for a storied career. ◆ The Marketplace January February 2018

News

More aid = More trade

D

evelopment assistance may boost Canadian exports to aid recipient countries, a study by the Canadian International Development Platform suggests.

The study, described as a first attempt to “measure the elasticity of Canadian exports to aid,” studied countries that received Canadian official development assistance between 1989 and 2015.

The average return over that period on a dollar of gross official development assistance was between $1.10 and $1.19 in exports, the report says. “In addition to the core moral and humanitarian purpose of aid, an added benefit over time may be that the same investment has the effect of boosting Canadian exports to aid recipient countries.”

While the researchers state that the main purpose of foreign aid should continue to be poverty reduction, this aid leads to “an effect that is

additional and complementary to the core moral and humanitarian imperative that is and should continue to be the main driver behind Canada’s foreign aid.” About 98.5 per cent of Canadian aid is not tied. Aid is considered “tied” when a condition for its disbursement to a partner country is that the proceeds can only be used to buy goods and services from the donor country providing the assistance.

The study authors argue that Canada has opportunities to improve the linkage between trade and development strategies. This is true both in areas where Canada currently is strong, such as agriculture and agrifood, as well as “high tech, high-value-added and ‘sunrise’ sectors” such as clean technologies. ◆

Cash, or skin chip?

Microchips have become a common way for vets to help animal shelters identify Fido or Fluffie’s owners

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should the furry friends go missing.

How about a microchip for employees so they don’t need to bring cash for the vending machine, carry a pass to enter a building or remember log in codes for computers?

Three Square Market, a Wisconsin technology company, put microchips under the skin of 40 workers who volunteered to have the procedure, USA Today reports. The chips do not have GPS-like abilities to track employees, but is an effort to increase convenience and move to cashless payments, the company says.

Religion professors interviewed by the newspaper said getting a microchip in the arm does not fulfil the Book of Revelations’ warnings about “the mark of the beast” prophecy.

But concerns over that very question led to a $500,000 court award to a West Virginia coal miner who quit his job when his employer wouldn’t honor his religious objection to using the firm’s biometric hand scanner.

That device tracked hours worked by linking a number to an image of a worker’s hand. ◆

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Visit our online home at www.marketplacemagazine.org, where you can download past issues, read articles and discuss topics with others, all from your desktop or mobile device.

The Marketplace January February 2018

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Maximizing purpose to grow profits Businesses that take wholistic view are thriving

B

usinesses that want to grow in making this more widely underlasting profits will embrace stood is overcoming the “sacred“triple bottom line” thinksecular divide,” the misinformed ing that seeks to maximize feeling in the church that business is purpose as well as dollars, a Pennsyl- deeply secular. vania business professor says.

When Flett suggested that the “At the end of the day, because Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce of how God has created and designed should host a seminar on doing well business to work, you are actually by doing good, she was told “no one going to maximize profit if you pay will come to that.” attention to your customers, to your She persisted, and the session suppliers, to your employees,” JoAnn attracted 153 small business owners, Flett said in a workshop address at MEDA’s annual convention in Vancouver.

Flett directs the Master’s of Business Administration program at Eastern University, a Christian university near Philadelphia, Pa. that is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. She is board chair of Capital for Good USA, a philanthropic organization that works to help vulnerable and marginalized people in the USA and around the world.

Flett and Tina Campbell, who is interim co-executive director of the ASSETS program in Lancaster, Pa., outlined the case for using Christian business as a force for good.

There is a theological basis for businesses creating economic and social value, Flett said.

One of the challenges JoAnn Flett 19

spawning a five-year series.

Business is about money and meaning simultaneously, she said.

In her Faith and Fortune business ethics course, she reminds students that the purpose of business is not just to generate profits, but to better the lives of people it touches and to serve the common good. While profits are essential, they are merely fuel to sustain the business.

JC Penney, writing in 1919, understood that his retail firm owed a profit to the public, to provide goodpaying jobs and to restore the community. Similarly, Henry Ford paid a living wage, giving his workers enough money that they could buy the cars his firm produced.

Business has an intrinsic role in Christian identity, by providing meaningful work, she said. Given that business is inherently relational, “you have to care about your community, your employees, your suppliers, your customers. Any of those fall down and you are in trouble.”

The original meaning of the term economics includes care of others, purpose and service, she noted.

ASSETS is working to harness the power of the private sector to reclaim that broader purpose.

The Marketplace January February 2018

MEDA started the ASSETS (ASSETS stands for A Service for Self-Employment Training and Support) program in 1993. At one point, it grew to 25 cities across North America.

Most were in the US, as well as a chapter in Mexico City and Canadian projects in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. and Vancouver, B.C. MEDA spun out the program to local partners a few years later after the board decided that domestic community economic development, for which institutional funding was difficult to find, was not a core priority.

Today, two ASSETS projects remain, in Lancaster, Pa. and Toledo, Ohio.

Tina Campbell urged the audience to consider practical ways of carTina Campbell, co-director of ASSETS Lancaster rying out “business as unusual.”

Since starting that initiative, they “Business as usual isn’t working have had zero employee turnover in in our society right now,” she said.

While North Americans live in the their kitchen over the past four years.

Another firm, Lancaster Food wealthiest society in the world, that Company, has intentionally built wealth isn’t for everyone, she noted. its business around creating jobs ASSETS has struggled to deterfor people with barriers to employmine how to respond to the fact ment. The firm, which bakes organic that poverty has doubled in Lancaster since ASSETS was established, bread, offers a living wage to its employees, most of who come out of largely due to a loss of manufacthe prison system. turing jobs. That is a challenge for For the past four years, ASSETS an organization whose mission is has sponsored the Great Social Enterpoverty reduction. prise Pitch, a five-month competition Campbell urged people to think that helps participants create busiabout how they use restaurant spending, including whether servers are being paid a living wage. “How many of us are thinking intentionally “How many of us are about where we go, when we spend money in restaurants?” thinking intentionally She cited a 2014 study that estimated restaurant spending totals about where we $800 billion, double the $400 billion donated to charitable causes. go, when we spend One Lancaster restaurant, John J. Jeffries, chose to employ Burmese money in restaurants?” refugees and help them buy homes.

The Marketplace January February 2018

20

ness plans that incorporate social and economic values. This year’s winner was a Somali refugee who created Bridge, an online portal that Campbell described as “a cultural Airbnb.”

Bridge offers services such as cooking lessons, dance classes or drumming lessons. Buyers pay for services and provide an income for newcomers.

ASSETS produces a business directory to help companies find suppliers that fit specific criteria, such as women-led social enterprises. Consumer decisions matter as well, Campbell said, urging people to buy their food from locally owned grocery stores and to use a similar lens when purchasing gifts.

Lancaster County, Pa. is a 600,000-person market. If 10 per cent of consumer spending shifted to local businesses from national chains, the resulting $130 million in purchases would create 1,600 new jobs in the area, with $52 million in new local wages, Campbell said.

Given that the creation of 3,000 good-paying jobs would cut the poverty rate in Lancaster County by half, even a 10 per cent shift in consumer spending to local firms could have a dramatic impact, she said.

That prescription didn’t sit well with everyone in attendance. One participant noted this spending would just be pulled from somewhere else, warning about the dangers of protectionism.

Places that pull everything back home will ultimately lose more than those that are trading, he said.

Flett, agreeing that the issues are complex, urged the audience to challenge their church leaders to think more strategically about business. ◆

Review

Flying high in business Applying spiritual principles for secular success Soar! -Build Your Vision from the Ground Up

By T.D. Jakes (FaithWords Hachette Book Group, 2017 239 pp., $25 US) The Hollywood Commandments -A Spiritual Guide to Secular Success

By DeVon Franklin with Tim Vandehey (HarperOne 2017, 248 pp., $25.99 US).

S

oar and The Hollywood Commandments are books about applying spiritual principles to entrepreneurial success. Both men are New York Times bestselling authors who testify that their career path is directed by their Christian faith.

Franklin is a motivational speaker and preacher who heads up a movie production company that works with 20th Century Fox. He was dubbed one of the “Most Influential Christians Under 40” by Beliefnet, a website that provides information on many different faiths.

He has overseen both mainstream box office hits and faith-based movies.

Thomas Dexter Jakes, the founder of the 30,000-member, Dallasbased Potter’s House Church (among the largest in the US) and TV ministry program, has written

more than 40 books, produced Grammy award-winning music and several films.

There Bui d Your is a certain v,~ori trom the amount of wo,un Up overlap in the themes covered by Franklin and Jakes. Both books give helpful perspectives on the proper way to view setbacks and failures.

Both writers name-check their encounters with U.S. entrepreneur and TV personality Oprah Winfrey.

In Franklin’s case, having his first book featured on Oprah’s talk show was a big break. For Bishop Jakes, Winfrey’s counsel about changes in the entertainment industry helped him to not become too attached to a project that he withdrew from after one season.

Franklin argues that not only are secular and spiri-

tual success not opposed, but they are interdependent. He offers 10 commandments for life-changing success, mixing spiritual truths with hard-nosed assessments of what it takes to get ahead.

He draws on the Old Testament experience of “Hebrew boys” Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego (Daniel, chapter 3) to illustrate the importance of using spiritual convictions to succeed in a secular environment.

For Franklin, success equals deep peace, “and we find the most peace when we live out our true calling and fulfil the purpose we were created for.”

His account of the path to success is laced with aphorisms that he has undoubtedly used in many sermons.

Service precedes success, success is not an elevator, it’s a staircase, you can recycle the box people try to put you in, and humility must accompany talent are among his prescriptions.

Franklin includes a frustration prayer that he encourages readers to use to overcome a mindset he deems a waste of energy and time.

Encouraging anyone you can is an important habit, he said, noting that the most successful people he knows are the most generous with encouragement.

SOAR! T. D. J

21

The Marketplace January February 2018

His definition of prosperity is particularly helpful. “Prosperity is simply the condition of being successful or thriving,” he writes. “You can be prosperous without money — and in fact, some of the most prosperous people are those with moderate incomes, but healthy families, healthy bodies, and strong relationships with God.” Soar draws on Old Testament scriptures and the innovative experiments of flight pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright to suggest pathways to get businesses launched, keeping them airborne, and flying to new heights.

Female entrepreneurs are enjoying a strong updraft, he noted.

Women now run more than 9 million firms in the U.S., 30 per cent of the total. He cites an American Express study stating that the number of female-owned businesses grew by 74 per cent between 1997 and 2015, 1.5 times the national average.

In the face of conflict,

will you be an agent of change?

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“Prosperity is simply the condition of being successful or thriving.”

African-American women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the US. The number of businesses owned by black females grew by 332 per cent over the 18 years of the AMEX study.

Jakes makes a compelling case for finding help wherever you can get it, finding “crew members” of supporters, advisers and mentors to assist at various stages.

He also advocates for managing stress by recognizing your limits.

“Being stressed is not just about burnout and depleted energy levels,” he writes. “The real source of the stress is the increased weight added by new roles and responsibilities

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The Marketplace January February 2018

22

as well as unexpected conflicts and complications. Stress is about lacking the structural support for the weight you are carrying.”

Being a good detective is also an important skill for those who aspire to entrepreneurial greatness, he writes. “It’s how you integrate and assimilate the knowledge gleaned from your research and how you use it to influence your own designs that make the difference.”

Many famous businesses started by accident, he notes. Coca Cola began when a pharmacy assistant spilled soda water into a glass his boss was using to create a headache cure. Play Doh, Silly Putty and Viagra were all unintended consequences of other efforts.

A desire to make money can’t be the primary motivation for launching a new venture or it will limit how high the business can fly, Jakes says. A start-up “must be tempered by a clear vision of what you want to accomplish and the sheer passion for whatever field, industry cause or product you hope to bring to the rest of the world.”

All new efforts should also be studied through the effort-to-impact (E2I) ratio, he argues. “Misplaced priorities can cause your E2I ratio to be as powerless as an impotent swing at the monster in your dreams.”

Whatever the business plan, Jakes cautions against actions that don’t incorporate faith.

“If we put together a Hall of Fame for great entrepreneurs, I guarantee that entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, George Washington Carver, Shonda Rhimes, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Mary Kay Ash, Thomas Edison, and Tyler Perry could each attest to the role that faith played in their ascent.”

Both books are easy and entertaining reads. Surprisingly, it is Jakes, the professional pastor, who delivers the greatest amount of widely applicable advice on entrepreneurship. ◆

Soundbites

Print is more memorable

Founders aren’t great CEOs

Founder-run companies are less well run than those where the management didn’t start the firm, a study by business professors at three US universities concludes.

Firms led by founders generally ranked lower on management

scores in data collected by the World Management Survey, which reviews upwards of 13,000 mid-to-large firms in 32 countries.

Those companies were also 9.2 per cent less productive, on average, notes a story in Quartz at Work.

The subpar management scores improved after the founder made way for a new CEO. Most founder CEOs are pushed out in favor of professional management as a company grows, particularly in firms that do an initial public offering.

The very temperament that leads a person to start a company — hav-

Comments?

Support for longhand writing and reading print publications instead of electronic screens can be found in a recent issue of Fast Company magazine. An article entitled, “This is How the Way You Read Impacts Your Memory and Productivity,” cites studies showing that taking notes by hand helps a person remember content better than if your notes are typed into a smart phone or laptop.

Similarly, when a Norwegian researcher asked people to read a mystery story on a Kindle or in print, the participants who read the paper version had better recall on questions related to time and chronology.

People who read on paper also did a better job of sorting events in the story into the correct order than the screen readers.

What’s the problem with the blue light devices? Another study suggested people think they are better at understanding information when they read it on a screen. As a result, they read the text faster than they would have if they were turning paper pages, and performed more poorly in terms of recall.

People who prefer to consume their books digitally can compensate for the “metacomprehension deficit” by taking a deep breath and reading more slowly. ◆

ing the ability to decide how things should operate — can lead to poor management decisions, the study’s authors suggest. ◆

Women are key

Ramping up the number of womenowned businesses is key to ending extreme poverty, says World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim. Writing in Inc. magazine, he notes that female-owned businesses are just over 30 per cent of formal registered businesses. “We need to significantly increase that number, since women-owned businesses create jobs,” he writes.

Lack of access to capital and professional networks needed for success are key barriers to be overcome. ◆

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Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith?

Send your thoughts to mstrathdee@ meda.org

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