Entrepreneurs with clear vision make compelling stories
One of many privileges of editing this magazine is hearing gifted entrepreneurs tell their stories, describe their passions, and the values that undergird their approach to business.
Our cover story profile of Ernest Hershberger (see Unique Designs in rural Ohio, pg. 10) is a fascinating tale. Hershberger is an Old Order Amish, ordained minister who heads Homestead Furniture and two related furniture firms.
Remaking three companies after a recent downturn required perseverance and clarity of vision. Hershberger prefers to talk about stewardship of God-given talents rather than goal setting. He is also committed to making high-end products that last.
Jeff Haanen captured Hershberger’s ethos in a recent LinkedIn post quoting the Shaker philosophy of furniture making: “Make every product better than it’s ever been done before. Make the parts you cannot see as well as the parts you can see. Use only the best materials, even for the most everyday items. Give the same attention to the smallest detail as you do to the largest. Design every item you make to last forever.”
Business built to improve on personal experience
Gerry Barg (see A plan to put client care first, page 6) also has a clear vision of what he wants to accomplish in his latest business. For Barg, his goals are at least partially informed in opposition to things that he saw in the healthcare industry that he did not like, not least because they involved the
treatment his father received as a Parkinson’s patient.
With CARESPACE, Barg aims to create a chain of client-focused healthcare clinics.
Land for Ghana’s women farmers
MEDA’s Greater Opportunities for Rural Women 2 (GROW2) project had a breakthrough this summer in securing land access for women in Ghana’s Savannah Region for agricultural production.
In collaboration with partner the Center for Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies, MEDA announced the adoption of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Ghana’s Regional Department of Gender and the Regional House of Chiefs. The deal ensures that women have predictable and uninterrupted access to fertile land for growing crops.
This event marks a crucial milestone in ongoing efforts to empower women farmers by providing them with the land security needed for sustainable agricultural practices. The MoU will support predictable access to farmland for women by addressing traditional barriers they face regarding land ownership and mitigating their vulnerability to sudden changes in land allocation.
The GROW2 project has been instrumental in advocating for women’s rights to land access. It recognizes that land is a fundamental asset for agricultural productivity and economic empowerment.
GROW2 is a five-year effort funded by Global Affairs Canada. It aims to support 40,000 small-scale women farmers, 5,000 entrepreneurs, and 50 agribusinesses (at least 50%
women-led) in the soybean, groundnut, and vegetable value chains of northern Ghana by fostering an improved business environment, increased application of climate-smart and nutritionfocused agricultural practices, and enhanced gender equality.
Processing mango pits for more jobs
T&M, a Senegalese firm that was featured in the July 2023 issue of The Marketplace (See Creating juice and jobs in Senegal https://bit. ly/4fht6FU), is ramping up efforts to create more jobs for women.
In late June, T&M unveiled a new processing line to transform mango pits into mango butter for the cosmetics industry.
T&M (Balanta Cosmetics) received a matching grant to purchase the equipment from MEDA and its partner the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) under the Government of Canada-funded Adaptation and Valorization of Entrepreneurship in Irrigated Agriculture (AVENIR) project.
An innovative system will reduce food waste by turning normally discarded mango pits into profitable products such as shampoo and skin moisturizer. Recycling those pits is also expected to reduce T&M’s postharvest losses of mangos caused by whiteflies.
Technical assistance and access to capital from MEDA’s AVENIR project enabled T&M to buy the new machinery.
T&M employs 15 staff and has doubled the number of women farmers it works with from 250 to 500. With its new processing capacity, T&M aims to create another 301 decent jobs by 2027. .
6 Features
Helping people’s engines run smoothly
Gerry Barg had a long career in automotive sales. Now he is working to build a different model of health care clinics. Barg sees similarities between the two lines of business.
19
Reaching New Horizons in Atlanta
MEDA’s annual convention explores new approaches to business in the Global South and North America. Join us to learn about new projects, the interplay of faith and business, and innovations in business as a means to create decent work.
15
Walking the talk
Ohio manufacturer ProVia prioritizes relationships with its customers, suppliers, and staff. The firm takes a lot of time to remain true to its founding values, even as it has enjoyed rapid growth.
18
Promoting faith-based business pitches
The Dallas-based Lion’s Den non-profit provides a platform for Christian entrepreneurs through annual conferences, pitch competitions, networking, and mentoring. By Karen Whiting.
Shorter good reads
22 Roadside stand
24 Soul Enterprise
22 Books in brief
Gerry Barg is building client-focused healthcare clinics
Seeing with fresh eyes
by Stephen R. Clark
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow…” — Matthew 6:28 (KJV)
In His parable about the lilies of the field, the topmost point Jesus is trying to make is, “I’ve got this.” If all we take away from this parable is the encouragement to not worry so much, that’s a good result.
But there’s more here than just an admonition about avoiding worry.
The King James rendering of the line in verse 28 as “Consider the lilies…” is a lovely phrase. The NIV translation — “See how the flowers of the field grow…” — falls a little flat. It doesn’t capture the full sense of what I think Jesus was aiming for what the original Greek implies.
The word “consider” is more robust and richer with meaning than the word “see.”
To simply see something is to look and then move on to the next shiny thing. Like a child at the zoo who exclaims, pointing, “Mommy! See the monkey!” quickly followed by “Daddy! See the elephant!” just before running toward the ice cream vendor to beg for a treat. Each thing viewed gets merely a glance.
This isn’t unlike how we often treat scripture. We read a few verses and think, “Oh, yes, I get it. Amen.” And then zoom out the door to attend to our day.
Jesus is inviting more than a glance toward the lilies.
To consider is to think carefully
about something. To regard it — person, place, or thing — with some contemplation. Even to meditate a bit. To slow down, take in the view, and mull for more than a New York minute what’s happening. What we’re seeing, hearing, feeling.
Considering the lilies takes our eyes off of our need of the moment, lifts the weight of pressing responsibilities from our minds, and opens us up to wonder and imagination.
Creativity is a crucial piece to being an entrepreneur. There’s a nearly insatiable need for fresh ideas, unique approaches, innovative services, and more. And then there’s the need to just take
care of business day in and day out. Every boring detail of the business, of our job. Even when the process is smooth and purring along, a sense of drudgery and same-old, same-old creep into what was before exciting and invigorating.
Worry stifles creativity which is another reason to heed the words of Jesus. To restart creativity requires looking away from the source of worry and looking up and out in order to be lifted above the troubles. It means to accept the invitation of Jesus to “Look out on My creation!”
Consider the lilies…and feel the pressure of life lessen. Feel your breathing ease, your body relax,
your heart settle. Gaze out on the field whether full of lilies, wheat, corn, grass, or whatever is in your view. Look at the intricacies of nature. The warp and woof of this amazing life on earth. Allow your mind to spool out and up as you let go of stifling worries and break from numbing routine.
Can you feel the difference even now? As you exhale the pressures of life and inhale the holiness of the Kingdom all around?
Jesus wraps up this teaching saying, in essence, “Consider the lilies…and seek first My kingdom and My righteousness. In doing so, all else will come.”
A Prayer for Work and Rest
By April Yamasaki
O God of all creation, I give you thanks for your good gifts of work and rest.
Help me to find a healthy rhythm where work gives way to rest, and rest refreshes and returns me to work with strength and joy. May I learn to stop and rest. Be still.
May I learn to play and celebrate, to value relationships, and above all to worship you.
May I learn to resist the go-go, gimme-gimme pattern of this world, to follow instead the Lord of the Sabbath in life-giving rhythms of work and rest. Amen.
This is the closing prayer from “Sabbath Rest for the People of God” by April Yamasaki. April is a pastor, author, editor, and spiritual formation mentor. She lives in British Columbia. You can read more of her reflections at https:// whenyouworkforthechurch.com She is currently offering “Sabbath Rest for the People of God” as a free e-book for people who sign up and request it.
As you lay down your worry, focus on right now, fully take in and consider all that Jesus has to offer, creativity, fresh insights, renewed vigor, and more will follow. Just enough for today.
“For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace.” — Romans 8:5-6 (CSB). .
Stephen R. Clark is a writer, editor and occasionally a poet who lives in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
Volume 54, Issue 5
September October 2024
The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 100 S Queen St Ste 235, Lancaster, PA 176035368. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2024 by MEDA.
Editor: Mike Strathdee Design: Ray Dirks
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Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA’s economic development work in the Global South creates business solutions to poverty. MEDA also facilitates the connection of faith and work through discussions, publications and conventions for participants.
For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026. Web site: www.meda.org
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Cover photo of Ernest Hershberger by Mike Strathdee
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A plan to put client care first
Serial entrepreneur moves from the car business to health care
Gerry Barg has always been an entrepreneur. But he never saw himself getting into the healthcare business.
“Healthcare is something that I actually had zero interest in getting involved in,” he said in a presentation to MEDA’s Waterloo, Ontario hub this spring. “Not my passion. Never had any interest.”
Barg started his first company, as a one-man, used car wholesaler while attending Bible college in Winnipeg more than 40 years ago. He sold cars from curbside in the parking lot at Canadian Mennonite Bible College (now part of Canadian Mennonite University), to help pay for his studies.
Over 17 years, he built Barg Automotive Group into eight companies that employed more than 200 people at 11 locations in six cities across southern Ontario.
Now, he is running healthcare clinics in Kitchener-Waterloo, with dreams of building CARESPACE Health+Wellness into a chain that will be bigger than his auto enterprises were.
After selling his auto business in 2007, Barg returned to school to earn a second bachelor’s degree, then an MBA. He started Mensura Research, a consulting business that eventually led him to oversee a large healthcare firm.
He landed a consulting contract with PT Health, an organization that had grown from 25 to 104 clinics in five provinces within four years. The organization, which largely focused on physiotherapy, had outgrown its management structure. It had 400 shareholders,
with management widely dispersed across Canada.
Barg moved from consulting to running and reorganizing the company as chief operating officer.
When he joined PT Health, the management team consisted of physiotherapists. “I found I was able to bring something to the company because I came from the perspective of the client, or the patient.”
Barg’s professional focus on performance management also brought another lens to the company.
“Practitioners are not taught business skills. There’s a lot that they don’t teach you in school.”
Around the same time, Gerry’s father, Benno, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Benno’s disease progressed to the point where Gerry had to accompany him to appointments.
Gerry did not like what he saw or heard. “His diagnosis was: you’re 80, and you have Parkinson’s. Nobody asked him: ‘So what do you want to do? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do with the rest of your life?’’
“I thought: that’s a mess. That’s not how we should be approaching our health. We should be asking: what’s your goal? That’s where we should be starting from. Our health actually is the basis.”
PT Health was bought out by Lifemark, one of Canada’s largest rehab clinic networks, in 2018, five years after Barg left.
Barg started CARESPACE to develop a company with a client-
focused approach, using a truly multidisciplinary team.
The company’s clinics provide 10 different healthcare disciplines, falling into three distinct categories. “We try to make sure they are balanced across all clinics.”
• Manual therapy, including physiotherapy, chiropractic, registered massage therapy and osteopathy
• Mental health services through psychotherapists, social workers, and certified mental health consultants
• Lifestyle management and optimization through dieticians, naturopaths, and kinesiologists
PT Health’s founder was originally an investor in CARESPACE but had to step back due to a non-compete clause with his previous employer. Barg has one other partner in the company.
He wanted to grow CARESPACE rapidly, but the pandemic hamstrung that plan. The company has five locations in Kitchener-Waterloo, two of which opened this summer.
“We’re in a position now where we can move very quickly,” he said. “Part of it comes down to the model, we’re not re-inventing the wheel (with each new clinic).”
Each location has specific equipment, design, and layout, he said. Glenn Fretz, who did design work for Barg Auto for years (and created MEDA’s current logo, among many others), does the company’s design work.
Phase one of Barg’s expansion plan involves opening eight-to-12 clinics, perhaps more, in Kitchener
Waterloo, within 18 months. Phase two would see CARESPACE open at least three or four clinics in each of two neighboring cities: Cambridge and Guelph.
Phase three will look towards the Greater Toronto area, to build a national brand in the mediumterm. Asked if 30 CARESPACE clinics is a viable goal by 2030, Barg agrees only in part. “I’d want to move a lot faster than that.”
He said that many companies talk about multidisciplinary or coordinated care, but it tends not to happen. Barg is amazed that when new practitioners join CARESPACE, sometimes “they don’t know what the other practitioners do because they’re trained in a specific area.”
While people need to practice within their scope of specialization, they also need to learn to think outside of their scope, he said. “If we’re really going to be clientfocused, we have to do that.”
Barg sees his role as setting up the right structure that allows them to perform to their best, “and to do it in a way that benefits the client.”
The CARESPACE business model provides practitioners with a training allowance and marketing support. It also includes an uncommon approach to compensation.
Barg originally wanted to put all staff on salary but found that was not viable for a startup that was bleeding cash during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
CARESPACE has a split fee model that includes another piece of compensation. Barg designed a compensation package that includes coordinated care and direct service components.
“Half of it is the same as what would be out there typically, but the second half is to provide (an) incentive to be client-focused and include other disciplines in the plan of care. It’s not referring out, it’s including in.”
As the organization grows, it is difficult from a cash flow perspective to staff up using a salary-based model. “It’s more profitable to have them on salary once the clinic is rolling,” he said.
Gerry Barg photos by LOF Photography
Healthcare providers should start by asking what a client's goal is, Gerry Barg says.
“This is something I struggle with because I see benefit to both (approaches) and sometimes we lose good candidates because we can’t bring them on board because they don’t want to work on a split fee.”
CARESPACE clinics do not offer direct billing to insurance companies, as a matter of principle. The organization originally offered this, but Barg found that insurancerelated meetings were sucking up a lot of his time.
“I want the client to be our customer. I don’t want the insurance company to be our customer.”
Plans for management growth are already underway. “Every time we open a clinic, our team gets
stronger.”
CARESPACE currently has a clinic director for each location, “similar to the structure I had at Barg (Automotive). Clinic directors have assistant directors, that’s where we get our (future) clinic directors from. Assistant directors come from being practitioners, and then, once we get to a certain number of clinics, probably double what we have now, we’ll have a district manager, who the clinical directors will report to. It gives the practitioners a career path.”
Barg is now 60. He hopes to be still working to build CARESPACE beyond age 70. “What else am I going to do?”
“I have no desire to retire. I’d
have to get a hobby. Well, this is my hobby.”
He considers himself lucky to be immersed in a business that can improve lives for clients and practitioners. “I love doing business and made the decision a long time ago. I got it from my Dad actually … Do what you love. If you’re doing what you love, it’s not really work.”
In the car business, he saw himself as a painter, with the car as the canvas.
At PT Health, he saw himself a sculptor. That continues to apply to his work at CARESPACE.
“In the sculptor world, I have to take away the things that don’t matter.” .
Healthcare clinics and car dealerships have similarities, entrepreneur says
The business of operating healthcare clinics has many similarities to running car dealerships, Gerry Barg says.
Rehabilitation is like a car lot’s sales division, the Waterloo entrepreneur says.
For Barg, CARESPACE’s wellness offerings are comparable to an auto dealership’s service and parts operations.
When a person has an injury, they look for a practitioner to help them heal, he said. CARESPACE’s approach hopes to keep clients returning. “We want to have you come to us and stay with us. That’s how we grow.”
For Barg, wellness equates to personal maintenance. With his company’s coordinated care model, “it
really works very well.”
“If we do a good job, and the client wins, we win.”
Word-of-mouth referrals are building the firm. “Ideally, what I’d like is for everybody to have a health goal,” he said. “It doesn’t have to always be us. Sometimes it’s a health goal that somebody wants to work at on their own.”
On the other hand, a client may want to have a kinesiologist design a program and ensure they are following it properly, he said.
“We really want to help people achieve their goals, and hopefully it’s a little like (the Eagles classic rock song) Hotel California, once you check in, you never check out.” .
MEDA convention in Atlanta will explore new horizons
Reaching New Horizons is the theme of MEDA’s 2024 convention.
The event will be held October 31 to November 3 at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia.
Saturday evening’s keynote speaker is Magatte Wade. She is the director of the Center for African Prosperity at Atlas Network, an organization of African free market think tanks.
Wade has been honored as a Forbes ‘20 Youngest Power Women in Africa,’ a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and a TED Global Africa Fellow.
The best-selling author of “The Heart of a Cheetah,” (see review, page 23), Wade has spoken at numerous global forums and been featured in multiple US and British publications.
Maria Pacheco, co-founder and president of Wakami Global, will deliver the opening message on Thursday evening. Wakami is a Guatemalan social enterprise that provides economic opportunities for marginalized women and exports fashion accessories to more than 15 countries.
Wakami is one of MEDA’s partners in the Women’s Empowerment for Central America (WE4CA) project. WE4CA, MEDA’s first effort in Guatemala, works with 5,000 rural and indigenous women in regenerative agriculture — chickens, gardens and coffee — and light manufacturing, primarily handmade products.
Melissa and Evan Funk, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Lynn & Liana Designs, will be the Friday
lunch plenary speakers. Lynn & Liana Designs is the largest resin-accented serveware company in the world.
The Funks started the company as a small family project with their parents five years ago. The Steinbach-based firm now has 16 staff and ships its products to more than 2,000 stores around the world.
David Boshart, president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, will be the Sunday morning speaker. Boshart has been a Mennonite pastor for more than 30 years. Before joining AMBS in 2019, he served as executive conference minister for Central Plains Mennonite Conference.
Several optional ways to see Atlanta will be offered. The first, on Thursday, October 31 during the day, is an Atlanta Civil Rights and Neighborhoods Tour.
Anton Flores-Maisonet, leader of Casa Alterna, will lead a walking tour of significant civil rights locations in the Sweet Auburn district, the neighborhood where Martin Luther King Jr. grew up.
Participants will hear stories of how Mennonites were involved in the Civil Rights movement.
On Saturday, November 2, there will be an Atlanta Civil Rights Walking Tour, and a Historic Market Food Tour that includes a Biscuit Making Class.
There is also a professional development workshop on Saturday afternoon. Alicia Hofer, an organization development specialist, will lead a session entitled: “See Visions, Dream Dreams: An Interactive workshop in Change Leadership.”
The annual Seed Grants for New Ventures Pitch Competition will be held on Friday, November 1. This event is co-presented by MEDA and D-Prize, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that runs international pitch challenges twice a year.
Friday evening, attendees can get to know people in smaller groups at the annual dine-around. Registrants can visit one of many restaurants in the Buckhead neighborhood or at the Ponce City Market.
As always, there will be many thought-provoking seminars related to business, faith, and international development.
These include:
• Entrepreneurship as Faith in Action: Business as Hopeful Witness
• Pogo Stick, Bicycle, and a Stool: Leadership lessons from Len Morris of Viewrail
• Anabaptist Business Owners and Climate Action: Linking Faith and Sustainability
• Broken Money: Cryptocurrency for Global Development
• MEDA Risk Capital Fund: Past, Present and Future
• MEDA’s OCIDA Project: Increasing prosperity and decent work opportunities in Honduras’ Dry Corridor
• Technology and Sustainability: How DeLaFinca’s Coffee Supply Chain was Strengthened.
• MEDA’s RIISA Project: Environmental Innovation in the Philippines .
Unique designs in rural Ohio
Amish minister oversees three cutting-edge furniture companies
Ernest Hershberger never wanted to run a retail furniture business.
The Old Order Amish businessman and ordained minister started his adult career as a fourthgeneration woodworker in Holmes County in northeastern Ohio.
He now oversees one of the largest furniture manufacturers in an area well-known for an astonishing number of furniture building firms.
“My mom’s side of the family goes back to 1918 in high-end custom kitchen cabinets, and that’s where I grew up,” he said.
“I married into a retail family… My wife’s mom had a quilt shop, her dad had a harness shop and a shoe shop.
“They were all about retail; my family was all about manufacturing. Six months before we got married, my wife (Barb) and her parents decided to open a little furniture store called Homestead Furniture. I was still a manager at the cabinet shop and had no interest in retail.”
Homestead Furniture, now an eclectic 37,000-square-foot, three-storey furniture showroom, had modest beginnings in the fall of 1990. It was housed in a converted chicken coop on Barb Hershberger’s family’s property.
The building was 40 feet wide and 100 feet long. “They tore the pens out and dressed up the inside, never did anything with the outside. It’s to this day, still an ugly old building, but on the inside is where we started selling this type of furniture.”
Ernest quickly chafed against
This table was inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting.
Photos by Mike Strathdee
Ernest Hershberger's firm specializes in new designs.
Some of the commissions Abner Henry has done have little in common with traditional Amish furniture.
the industry norm of only offering customers standard, mass-produced items. He preferred to follow the custom kitchen cabinet practice of learning what clients wanted, and then building it.
When he sent purchase orders to furniture firms in North Carolina,
all were returned. He was told to “sell the customer what we have.”
Hershberger had other ideas. “I had the customer’s deposit, I had their order, I had their trust, I wasn’t going to send them their money back. So, I would go to the local cabinet shops, and … get them
to build that furniture for me.”
Word of mouth led to rapid growth. The Hershbergers bought out her parents’ interest in the firm four years after it opened. A decade after the company started, it flew the coop and moved to its current location.
Ernest Hershberger claims to be uninterested in growth as a goal. He prefers not to think about goals, saying that once a person achieves their goals, they may become complacent.
For him, stewardship of Godgiven talents, and perseverance in stewarding those gifts, is the path to follow.
However, Homestead Furniture grew far beyond what many expected of a firm led by a man whose formal education ended in the eighth grade.
Homestead has customers in all 50 US states and 10 countries, people who “have asked us to build specific, specialized furniture for them, to their specific
needs,” he said.
“We don’t have any stock, it’s all built to spec, to the customer’s needs.’’
Some furniture is built in their 42,000-square-foot factory across the road from the showroom. Other pieces are built by area firms for Homestead.
There are three distinct parts to
Amish firm challenged by New York museum commission
Being asked to develop a limited edition of high-end furniture by the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a “pivotal association” for Ernest Hershberger’s Ohio manufacturing firm.
But delivering on that commission was far from easy. After investing 3.5 years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars, the company almost shelved the project before finding a breakthrough.
Abner Henry has become an indemand manufacturer for high-end designers.
The New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Art did a global search for a company to develop furniture, Hershberger said. The non-profit museum will receive a royalty for each piece sold.
Abner Henry staff were given access to museum artifacts “in storehouses that the general public hasn’t seen for decades.”
Staff came back to Ohio with over 5,000 photos of artifacts. They first tried to design something from the intricate pattern on 3,000-year-old Egyptian pottery.
A year later, Hershberger realized the team was stuck. He gave the staff a pep talk and asked them to elevate their thinking.
The group began looking at famous inspirational paintings. They decided to develop a piece modeled after Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
They chose 10 paintings to work with. “We couldn’t get the final 10 to 15 percent done,” he said.
“Up to that point, all those years, I’d never prayed that God would help me create a piece of furniture, or create a sale in furniture … And I did, at that time point, because we were stuck. Nothing was moving. “
Walking through the shop one day, he had several epiphanies. Passages from the Bible, including James 2, verse 22, and Matthew 5, verse 48, helped him to see a path forward.
Abner Henry staff pared the collection from 10 pieces to seven. “Seven is the perfect biblical number, and then we were like, okay, how many are we going to make?”
That issue is still unsettled. The collection was unveiled at the Met’s annual gala in April 2023, but none have been sold yet.
In addition to the table inspired by Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, the collection includes:
• Nesting tables based on a Monet painting
• A multi-colored cocktail table based on Renoir’s Seashore painting.
• A 10.5-foot pirouette console table based on a Degas painting of a dance class.
• A bar cabinet based on a Klimt portrait of Serena Pulitzer Lederer.
• A highly polished brass mirror based on Velázquez’s portrait of his enslaved apprentice.
• A console table inspired by Seurat’s Circus Sideshow painting.
At the Met gala, Hershberger had 30 minutes to explain the spiritual stories of the collection. He was grateful for the opportunity to testify to “a class of people that potentially never heard about Christianity, or Christ, or spirituality.”
The collection was written up in Women’s Wear Daily, among other publications that would normally be associated with the views of a conservative Christian.
The symbolism of the seven pieces is
explained on the Abner Henry website. It “comes from Matthew 18:21-22 in which Peter asks Jesus, ‘How many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus responds by saying, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, Jesus is telling Peter to forgive those who sin against him an infinite number of times. He is essentially telling Peter to stop counting or ‘keeping score.’ We believe that forgiveness should be core to Christian living and our company culture at Abner Henry.”
Hershberger says up to 70 sets of the collection could be made. Or a wealthy buyer may offer to purchase the entire collection, on condition that it never be made again.
You can learn more about the collection on the Abner Henry website: https://abnerhenry.com/met-limitedcollection/ or in this 28-minute YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=hpKjB6ulms0&t=179s .
photo courtesy Homestead Furniture Abner Henry collection
the company’s business.
• The main floor gallery displays high-end home furnishings.
• A third-floor gallery includes more mainstream La-Z-Boy offerings, outdoor furniture, and bedroom sets. “I can’t change LaZ-Boy sizes, but we sell La-Z-Boys by the truckload to the local Amish and Mennonite community here,” he said. “We’re the only La-Z-Boy dealer close by, and have been for the last 25, 28 years. It pays the bills. These are the workhorses. We can’t keep this in stock.”
A basement display area is filled with bedroom sets. Some of these are created and designed at the company factory across the highway from the store. Others are drafted out onsite, then specs are sent to an area firm to build.
• At the back of the main floor, behind a locked door that is opened by appointment only, is the Abner Henry line of customdesigned furniture. Abner Henry is named after Hershberger’s father and grandfather. The Abner Henry line is “specifically created, and designed, and built for the highend design arena,” he said.
The Abner Henry line is not what you would expect from an Amish company. The furniture on display incorporates metal, glass, and wood, “using nature, architecture as the inspiration for all the new Abner Henry pieces,” he said. “They’re fresh, they’re new, it’s not a sea of sameness.”
“You can pick from 10 different (hardwood) species, 3,000 different finishes, and you can make it in the size you want; it’s not in stock, and I’m going to make it for you specifically, in a 16-week or less timeframe.”
“Abner Henry had the right ring, the right feel — designers just love the name. It speaks Americanmade, it speaks authentic, it’s
down-home, it’s a little classy. It just hit all the dots.
Some customers have visited the store and asked Hershberger if he is Abner Henry. “I tell them, no, I’m just me.”
He hopes that competitors will pick up on some of his firm’s ideas. “I’m a firm believer that a rising tide will rise with everybody.”
“There is nothing like having a monopoly on a product line, or a look, or a feel. I don’t believe that we should own a market. I think that’s unbiblical, actually, quite frankly. Because then you’ll get stagnant, or you’ll have a tendency to get stagnant and all that stuff, and that’s not good business either. ”
“Good healthy competition is good. My boys tell me sometimes: ‘Dad, would you just stop giving away our business secrets?’ There’s no business secrets.”
Hershberger, an ordained minister in the Old Order Amish church, sprinkles his conversation with biblical references. He wants his firm to be building furniture that is intended to last for generations, rather than 10 years.
“If they (customers) want to buy a Wal-Mart piece of furniture, I can’t compete with that. But
if they’re looking at restoration hardware, and from there up, we can compete.”
Early in his career, Hershberger realized that targeting an upperend price niche was the place he wanted to be.
“Coming from a high-end custom kitchen cabinet shop, I just did not want to (produce) anything that was not built for the next generation… I just could not stomach the fact that I might, or could, or should, sell something to a customer that would not be generational.”
“That does not mean that I have a problem with people that do, because that’s their calling, or whatever, they’re comfortable with it. I don’t look down on them for that, but it’s just not me.”
“I believe that God wants me, with whatever I’m responsible for, to do that at the best possible, at the best value.”
He believes that a furniture store can serve Jesus, based on how it operates daily. “Every interaction that we have with a customer, treating them with respect… serve them in their space — when I say their space, it’s us asking them the questions of: ‘What do they expect this
The Abner Henry line is built for the high end design market.
furniture to do in their home, and how might we be able to help them weed through the details of making that happen, and having a great attitude.’ ”
Recent years have been challenging for the company. “We’ve gone through three economic downturns, some of which we’ve weathered a lot better than others,” he said.
The most recent downturn was “especially rocky” as it combined an economic plunge with dramatic shifts in the style, look, and feel of what furniture customers are seeking, he said.
After 33 years, Hershberger had to reinvent three companies. “The design and style, of what the tourism people that came to Amish country were buying, the Mission (or) Shaker pieces, literally dried up overnight.”
That market change forced the company to focus on higher-end consumers “that were much more critical about the scale and style and look of the furniture that they wanted to buy.”
Some long-term employees did not accept the new direction Hershberger was taking the organization. “When they refused to make that turn, I had 60 years of talent that left voluntarily, on their own, within six weeks.”
Stitching a new team together occurred while also changing market positions, and styles of furniture and developing a new marketing platform, he said.
From a peak of 60 staff, there are now 22 at the three firms — Homestead Furniture, Abner Henry Manufacturing, and Abner Henry.
Hershberger sees the potential to grow beyond previous peak employment levels. “I don’t gauge the success of the companies by that, but I do believe we’re going to exceed that in fairly short order.”
“We’re hoping it doesn’t go too
fast, but it could.”
“Today, as a steward of these companies, I’m more excited for
the current team and the customer base, for the next 25 years, than I was for the previous 33.” .
Farm-based Ohio furniture makers work together
Rural northeast Ohio has a surprisingly large concentration of small furniture building companies, many of which are Amish or Mennonite craftspeople working in on-farm shops.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, this group of entrepreneurs has banded together to market their products to retailers across the United States.
The Ohio Furniture Guild started in 2008 as the Hardwood Furniture Guild. Fifteen people from the industry, mostly Amish builders, were competing against international manufacturers that did not use hardwood.
The non-profit group is run through the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce. For many years, the chamber’s director also ran the furniture guild. When she stepped down, the guild had no staff for about a year. In May 2022, Kendrick Mullet took on a half-time job running the organization.
Mullet previously owned a furniture manufacturing company and a furniture store which he sold a few years ago. The organization that he oversees has grown considerably. Two hundred and 32 members pay annual dues based on the size of their business.
Mullet and others think guild members are only a fraction of the rural furniture manufacturers.
Many guild members are small firms, with an average of 5.6 employees. Most manufacture indoor furniture, including bedroom and dining room sets, occasional tables, and TV stands. Some make outdoor furniture.
Twenty percent of members service the manufacturers, including a few sawmills and many component shops.
“A small Amish firm that makes bedroom sets will order panels from their neighbor,” Mullet said. “Then they’ll order their glue-ups from their neighbor who does nothing but glue-ups … Then they’ll send it down the road to their neighbor who does nothing but finishing.”
The area’s furniture boom began in
the 1990s. “A lot of Amish families that were farmers started diversifying,” he said. “Farming wasn’t as profitable, so they started making furniture as well.”
The guild aims to connect retailers across the US with area builders. Many members do not have computers, internet, or websites, he said.
The guild puts on the Ohio Hardwood Furniture Market, an annual threeday event that attracts 400 retail buyers from the US and Canada. It also provides seminars that teach members about furniture trends, working with design firms to research and write information about colors and new designs.
Members “have gotten a lot better in the past few years of being willing to come up with new designs. Ten or 15 years ago, a lot of the designs looked very similar.”
Mullet thinks the area’s sector will continue to expand. “Word spreads. Quality, price (and) COVID certainly helped us,” he said.
After many years of having 80 to 100 members, the guild’s membership more than doubled. “More and more of the guys recognized the need to work together. Even though they are basically competitors with each other, … they’re all part of this organization where we market them as a whole.”
Imports from overseas had shipping issues and quality issues. That, combined with taxes and tariffs, led to domestically made furniture becoming price competitive, he said.
During the pandemic, area builders “just started getting slammed with orders, as all these retail stores started turning to American-made companies for these products. A lot of them have stayed with us, too.”
Mullet is not aware of any organizations similar to the Ohio Furniture Guild. “It’s unbelievable when you think about it. You know, 200 guys that are in the same industry that all work together like this. It’s unheard of. There is nobody else like us, for sure. .
A focus on quality and a healthy corporate culture
Ohio building products manufacturer works at living out its values
When Craig Mullet thinks about the challenges facing ProVia, competition isn’t among the first things that come to mind.
“I think the biggest challenge we face is not external, but it’s internal. Making sure we maintain our high-quality standards and that we live out our values,” he said.
Mullet is vice president of corporate care and a shareholder at the family-owned building products manufacturer. The company makes steel and fiberglass entry doors, aluminum storm doors, vinyl windows, vinyl siding, manufactured stone, and metal roofing.
Its primary market is selling to home improvement companies that remodel existing homes.
Based in Sugarcreek, a small village in northeastern Ohio, ProVia is among the larger employers in the region. Its main office is near the county line in Holmes County and Tuscarawas County.
When Mullet spoke at MEDA’s annual conference in the fall of 2019, the company employed 980 at five plants in Ohio and Mississippi.
Five years later, staffing has more than doubled to 2,200.
Asked about what lies ahead for ProVia in the next three to five years, Mullet smiles and shrugs. He said that medium-term planning is difficult given the rapid pace of change in the industry.
In early 2020, the company built a new plant in Strasburg, 13
miles northeast of ProVia’s main facility. “We were making our windows at our Sugarcreek facility, in downtown Sugarcreek, and we ran out of room.”
“Our window business started expanding rapidly, so we were diligently working to build a plant in a little different location, where we could pull labor from Massillon and Canton, which are two bigger cities in the area.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, “our business just exploded,” he said. “Nobody could travel, and homeowners had excess income, they were forced to sit at home, and they saw that they had doors and windows that needed replacing.”
That demand
Plant photos courtesy ProVia
Craig Mullet is ProVia's v-p of corporate care.
Craig Mullet photo by Mike Strathdee
ProVia's window business has seen rapid growth.
led the company to double the size of its newest facility to 700,000 square feet, with roughly 900 employees.
Economic cycles have affected the company’s production very little, “because we are mostly in the remodel business.”
Even when new construction dipped significantly during the 2008 financial crisis, ProVia’s production continued.
“We do experience a little bit of seasonality, you know, January, February is a little slower, people can’t work outside.”
The firm, founded by Craig’s father Bill, was originally called Precision Door & Glass. The name was later shortened to Precision Entry. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the firm acquired and built a few other companies. At that time, the door and window manufacturing was done at two different companies, and buying products from both required two separate invoices.
The company knew it had to do some merging and renaming. After a year of brainstorming and working with an outside agency, they came up with ProVia in 2007.
Via is a Latin word that means the road or the way. ProVia means “the professional way,” which is the company’s tagline.
Maintaining corporate values as the organization has grown is something that ProVia works hard at, Mullet said. He has a team of 15 corporate care team members whose focus is maintaining ProVia’s values.
“We’re very diligent, purposeful in trying to live out our values.” ProVia’s values meetings are held once a month. Plants are shut down for 30 minutes so staff can enjoy breakfast provided by the company and see a video that is produced in-house, “going over one of our purpose, mission, vision
or values statements.”
Those meetings also share company news and thoughts on topics such as sustainability or continuous improvement.
Mullet’s team does a lot of leadership training, working with front-line supervisors “to make sure they have the skills to lead their teams. We’re very strong on the servant leadership concept, making sure they are equipped to do that.”
“I have a team of ambassadors that work with the average employee, making sure they have what they need to get the jobs done, … to make sure that they understand what we’re about, and that they’re living up to those values.”
Working hard to ensure that ProVia has a good reputation has helped it to attract staff in a region where unemployment is less than three percent. “We pay our employees well, we do have good
benefits,” Mullet said.
In 2023, ProVia had over 4,000 people apply to work for the company.
Turnover rates are low compared to the industry, with departures well below average.
ProVia is owned by Mullet and three other family members, two of whom also work at the firm. He has a brother who is vice president of information technology and a brother-in-law who serves as vice president of supply chain.
Two of the next generation, Craig’s son and son-in-law, also work at the company.
ProVia is headed by Brian Miller, a non-family president and CEO.
“As far as succession planning, it’s top of mind because the four of us siblings have kids who are growing up. We’re trying to figure out that whole dynamic of making sure that the company maintains
ProVia received over 4,000 job applications in 2023.
the values that it was built upon, that things don’t get watered down. It’s of utmost concern for us.”
Mullet is convinced that ProVia has a bright future ahead of it.
“We constantly hear from more people in the industry who want to buy from a company that stands behind their products, produces good quality products and treats everybody well.”
“We pay our bills on time, we endeavor to have good relationships with our customers, vendors, and employees. So that’s attractive to people. People buy our products, even if they are more expensive, because they know what we stand behind.”
“The Mullets have a strong desire to maintain a corporate culture that treats employees well”, he said. “We want the business to be longstanding so that our employees know that they have a job tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next five years.”
ProVia’s purpose statement is explicitly Christian. It states: To let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven (adapted from Matthew 5:16). “We’re not here to glorify
ourselves, we’re here to give the glory to our Father in Heaven. We’re here to serve each other. We’re here to make the community a better place.”
“Relating a long-term view of what glorifies God in Heaven
to what happens next Tuesday isn’t always easy,” Mullet said. “It requires living in the day-today tension and going back to the company’s founding principles.”
“It’s just decision by decision. Is this the right thing to do?” .
ProVia's plants shut down once a month for values meetings.
Thriving in The Lion’s Den
Christian pitch competition spurs investment in Kingdom-oriented businesses
By Karen Whiting
The Lion’s Den name is based on the book of Daniel. It is a play on the popular US business reality TV show: The Shark Tank.
In 2016, Ed Pearce, a corporate executive at Paragon Legal, recruited nine other Christian businessmen to launch the nonprofit, The Lion’s Den DFW (Dallas Fort Worth).
Their mission: to fuel the expansion of the Kingdom economy through investing in transformational entrepreneurship
The organization connects Christ-centered investors and businesspeople, whether startups with big dreams or existing businesses wanting to expand, using servant leadership and wealth building to grow God’s kingdom.
The original Lion’s Den began with a group of business associates from Birmingham, Alabama who had invested together in Christianled companies for several years. In 2015, the group held the first Lion’s Den pitch competition, opening the venue for other like-minded Christian investors.
Pearce learned about the event, flew to Birmingham, and discussed sharing the program. He returned to Dallas with the blessing of the Birmingham group to start the Lion’s Den DFW, which he and co-founder of Vip Vipperman launched in 2016.
Pearce is the current CEO. The Lion’s Den DFW, now in its ninth year, held its most recent and largest event in April. Interested entrepreneurs start with an online
practice pitch, held monthly, with 10 chosen for the event where they pitch to accredited investors.
The group focuses on building the kingdom on earth through business leaders who serve and share the love of Christ while applying principles of business as a mission. It doesn’t directly invest but provides the platform for business leaders to pitch to Christian investors.
The investors also mentor the entrepreneurs to show the
love of Christ to their employees, vendors, and customers. Pearce says, “We believe we are the ecosystem where investors go to find their next quadruple bottom line of impact investment (economic, environmental, social, and spiritual).”
An Annual Conference
The investor conference takes place in April, at the Dallas Baptist University. Monthly online practice pitches plus live practices narrow
Pitch finalist Kirsten Hund Blair with Doug Williamson, The Lion's Den DFW's director of operations.
the innovative entrepreneurs to 10to-12 finalists. The finalists present to a panel of judges.
Doug Williamson, a venture capitalist with the Bank of America’s Dallas office for 12 years, served as one of the judges for the first pitch competition in 2016, and has recruited the judges panel ever since. Williamson recently became the group’s director of operations and was intimately involved in planning and executing the 2024 event.
Before and after the pitch competition, dinners, lunches, and numerous meetings promote networking between company founders and investors.
In addition, a virtual exhibit day is held a week later. This features guest speakers, panels of experts, a virtual pitch competition, and exhibits from Christian entrepreneurs. It consists of two online tracks: one on film and media, and one on emerging
growth. The 2024 event included panels on artificial intelligence, investor mindset, crowdfunding, and film production.
A 2023 Finalist
Art Ayris, one of the finalists from 2023, and owner of Kingstone Studios, created the successful Kingstone Bible to provide engaging material for children. He pitched an animation idea.
Less than a year after the 2023 conference, he signed a big deal to develop a 2D animation of historically accurate US comics (a Kingstone Graphics Company). Ayris also recently signed a deal with NBC Universal for a second project to develop animation for an intellectual property Universal owns.
Ayris advises entrepreneurs seeking investors to trust in the Lord and prepare presentations well. The pitches should include showing a track record of success, reasonable expectations with market
research, and share strategies. that will bring good returns.
A 2024 Finalist
Kirsten Hund Blair, CEO of software company Lambent Data, unsuccessfully applied for the 2023 Conference, then was chosen to pitch at a monthly online practice and later selected to pitch at the 2024 Conference.
Lambent’s software, OurREACH™, equips healthcare and social service providers and their patients and clients, through goal setting, resources, and communication. This helps families improve their health, jobs, and housing. It also supports parenting, saves staff time, and lowers healthcare costs. It addresses the needs of the 40% of the U.S. population who live at or below the minimum income to make ends meet.
Community health centers, hospitals, family social service
The Lion's Den started in Birmingham, Alabama and has spread to Texas, Florida, Kenya and Uganda.
L-R: Lion's Den judges Steve Hebris, Christeen Rico, Dorothee Kawana Ilunga, Kathrine Braynard, Kurt Knapton and Jonathan Harkless.
agencies, and programs for addiction recovery and prisoner reentry can use the product.
Chuck Hobbs, an investor in her company, connected Blair with Lion’s Den DFW founder Pearce. She immediately connected with the community of supportive, faithbased people. The feedback from her practice pitch made her realize the importance of underlying work and the impact of a business plan, plus a need to communicate the vision effectively.
Her pitch at the annual event led to robust conversations with investors plus extended her network, especially meeting entrepreneurs in health care and services for people in recovery. She’s following up on all the leads. Williamson is staying in touch and
helping with her next steps.
The Future is Bright Williamson, director of operations for the Lion’s Den DFW, sees the Lion’s Den as a capacity builder to help the kingdom ecosystem (network of Lion’s Den members who are investors and businesspeople) grow with investors and entrepreneurs connecting and building wealth to help more entrepreneurs.
He also encourages African businesspeople: providing dairy farmers in Kenya with the possibility of quadrupling their scrawny cow’s milk output through the help of the Wisconsin-based ABS Global’s genetic services. Another venture is assisting Verdant Orchards to expand beyond existing orchards in
Mozambique and Zambia.
Value-aligned investors want either high-return investments or to invest in something they believe will impact lives. At the Lion’s Den, Williamson believes that investors can get both high returns and have a significant social or spiritual impact in the same investment. That’s what The Lion’s Den is all about. Many businesspeople have become sponsors with testimonies that draw other businessmen to join.
Informal dens have started in Tampa, Florida, Nairobi, Kenya, and Kampala, Uganda. The Lion’s Den DFW wants to increase investors and duplicate its strategy, starting with Houston, Austin, and Silicon Valley. It recently held a mini conference in Austin, Texas. .
Pitch competition alumnus has global food production plans
Ray Urrutia grew up on a farm near Aurora, Illinois. Later, as an experienced entrepreneur, he envisioned a business to help feed the world.
His company uses terraponic growing methods — a hybrid that combines the elements of hydroponics and traditional soil growing methods — and shipping containers to provide a highly efficient closed environment for multiple types of vegetables. The system yields many times what an equivalent amount of acreage would provide in an open environment.
One of his first pitches was with the Lion’s Den monthly online pitch practices. He did not make the finals or get investors directly through the Lion’s Den. However, advisors in the Lion’s Den helped him build his network and he attended and networked at the annual event. The networking led to investors and opportunities for additional investors.
Urrutia has built four cooperative businesses to provide energy from waste and build indoor farms. In his quest for investors, his lawyer introduced him to Stephen Casey, who introduced him to the Lion’s Den DFW. Ed Pearce and others from that group advised him to tighten his pitch and add profitability plans.
“I saw what it’s like to be with people who hear the intention of your heart,” Urrutia said. “The entrepreneurs I met shared their ways of doing business as a mission (BAM), and their more faithdriven visions.”
Urrutia provides growing containers, soil, and seeds to people his local church rescues from human trafficking. Urrutia wants to eventually use 51% of the profits for charitable causes.
He has started building Agriculture (AG) Tech parks that combine his vertical growing containers and technology with
a large lab where scientists study plants and test soil and seeds. He built the first three in Illinois, Indiana, and Texas.
Each one has a next-generation farm, a plant that converts waste to energy, 6,500 square feet of containers, and a lab. The plants can convert waste to electrical and thermal energy. Future plants will also produce hydrogen gas energy.
The farms use steel panels designed for extreme temperatures so that the farmers can grow year-round, in any climate. One 360-square-foot farm produces 360,000 pounds of vegetables monthly.
Waste is plentiful, so his plants help the environment while creating energy at each farm location. Future plans include starting a seed company to produce seeds that grow well indoors, and another component to regenerate the soil.
For worldwide sales, an overseas plant in Turkey produces the stackable containers needed for maximum growing. Producing containers in Turkey makes accessing Middle Eastern markets he serves easier.
Each time Urrutia starts to work with farmers in another country he incorporates the popular produce of the area. His company is growing. Urrutia is now a sponsor for the Lion’s Den DFW. .
Ray Urrutia
Looking back at MEDA News
As part of celebrating MEDA’s seven decades of working with entrepreneurs, The Marketplace is retelling stories of significant events from the organization’s history.
From the fall of 1987 to the fall of 2009, MEDA published MEDA News, a quarterly, four-page newsletter.
The items below are excerpted from those newsletters.
Spring 1997 Global MEDA concept tested at India 1997
Is the time right for an international federation of MEDA-like organizations? Some businesspeople thought so after the Mennonite World Conference Assembly 13 in Calcutta, India.
The Jan 6-12 assembly provided a convenient occasion for Mennonite businessfolk from around the world to discuss mutual interests.
Some 75 participants from 15 countries attended the first of two MEDA-led seminars on how Mennonites in business could work together.
“We want to hear from the countries where businesspeople are active in the church,” said MEDA president Ben Sprunger in opening the discussion.
“Then we want to assess the need for cooperation among businesspeople around the world.”
Four persons from India, Indonesia and the US agreed to serve on an ad hoc committee to further process the federation concept. MEDA North America agreed to form a database of interested parties and to convene a meeting of the committee perhaps at this year’s MEDA convention in Kansas City.
MEDA groups have already formed in Holland, Paraguay, Zaire and Tanzania, and work is underway to establish a group in Germany.
Winter 1998
Agencies join forces to help China’s poor China, home to a fifth of the world’s population, isn’t always thought of as a poor country. Yet the United Nations ranks it as “low-income food-deficit,” with severe food shortages and chronic malnutrition in some regions.
The absolute poor in China, estimated by the World Bank to number 270 million, are concentrated in the vast and often arid interior. Over the next four years MEDA consultant Henry Fast will play a pivotal role in helping to boost their economic prospects.
MEDA Consulting Group (MCG) has joined with two other agencies and the Canadian International Development Agency in a poverty alleviation project worth $8 million (US).
Fast, an agricultural and rural development specialist with MCG, will provide expertise in project planning, design and monitoring.
Summer 1998
Aussies lend a hand in Mozambique
Australia has joined the list of countries that like MEDA’s business-oriented help for the poor. The country’s aid agency recently agreed to contribute $50,000 (US) to MEDA’s micro-enterprise program in Mozambique.
The contract, MEDA’s first with the Australians, amounts to a oneyear extension for the program.
MEDA began work in Mozambique two years ago (it was already working in adjoining Zimbabwe and Tanzania). Its eventual aim is to bolster the region’s economy by creating a self-sustaining financial institution
to provide small businesses credit, savings and training services.
The program currently has 200 clients in the rapidly growing Xikhelene (pronounced Shick-aleen-ee) market on the outskirts of Maputo, the capital city. A MEDA office is under construction in the centre of the market.
Spring 2001
M-M-M Good in Mexico
MEDA’s newest ASSETS program got underway in April in Mexico City.
The program is based on MEDA’s successful ASSETS (A Service for Self-Employment Training and Support) methodology, which operates in eight US locations.
Howard Good, MEDA’s vicepresident of North American Services, recently visited a marketing class led by a trainer from the BIC corporation in Mexico City.
He says the presentation was dynamic and the spirit in the class was buoyant. BIC is the same company that employed Andres Martinez, who has been pivotal in getting the program launched.
The new program, the first outside of the US, goes by the name Micro MEDA Mexico (MMM). It is the result of requests from Mexico City Mennonite churches to MEDA to help them improve the economic well-being of church members and people in the community.
It is supervised by a committee of seven Mexico City Mennonite church members, including three pastors.
ASSETS offers business training to low-income entrepreneurs, covering topics such as bookkeeping, taxes, legal issues, marketing and preparing a business plan. .
Tales of hardship and joy in rural ministry
Flyover Church: How Jesus’ Ministry in Rural Places is Good News Everywhere By Brad Roth (Herald Press, 2024. 192 pages, $19.99 US)
The best tours are organized by locals. They know the terrain and have a sense of the area from the ground up. They are keen to local sensibilities. Brad Roth is no tourist to rural ministry.
He writes to pastors and leaders in communities that are under the 2,500 population setting, a place often described in his world as “Flyover Country.” His account of rural ministry is replete with stories of hardship and joy, drawing deeply from the wells of those who think about rural ministry from various denominations across the continent. “We’re going to go where the horizon is burning and the walls are sagging, where ravenous birds murmurate and gravel roads snake and thistles smother the ruins of the school. The church will always go rural, because that’s where Christ himself goes. The story of the rural church is a story of God in the struggle.”
and leaders, but you don’t have to be either of those in a rural setting to benefit from it.
Much of what he describes in his delightful writing style about ministry is true in any church. It’s not just the rural church that sits on the edge of the precipice, after all. .
Jim Loepp Thiessen is a pastor of a church in a hamlet called Floradale, Ontario.
Finding meaning amidst difficulties
The
Crucibles That Shape Us. Navigating the Defining Challenges of Leadership By
Gayle D. Beebe
(IVP, 2024. 152 pages, $22 US)
This book is not light reading. The content and style both demand careful attention and reflection.
Christian faith seriously, may face during their careers.
The book’s seven chapters examine seven crucibles: missed meaning, enduring challenge, human treachery, awakened moral conscience, social conflict, human suffering, and personal choice.
Beebe, president of Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts institution in Santa Barbara, California, has much to say about the importance of endurance and resilience.
He has had to work through many of the difficult challenges he examines.
The book provides good advice for guiding principles for learning, life, who to work for, and why.
The book sometimes reads like a literature review, which is no criticism. Beebe draws on significant sources of wisdom from modern literature, spiritual and secular.
He finds noteworthy and praiseworthy ideas from leaders from across the political spectrum, from social justice warriors to archconservatives.
Roth’s book inspires the church to keep going, be authentic, and vulnerable, and take risks for the sake of the gospel.
“Jesus sends us places where drive, skill, effort and moxie will falter, will sink, will-well-fail. Ministry is the willingness to obey Jesus word, get in the boat, and start paddling even though we can see with our own two eyes that a storm is brewing on the horizon. This book is written for pastors
The author’s suggestion that “life is a perpetual gauntlet with challenges on one side and opportunities on the other” is a truth that one is not always in the mood to hear.
But it is well worth the effort.
A series of relatively short, dense chapters explore challenges that leaders, and likely most people who take their
And Beebe provides a useful framework for thinking about difficulties. He writes: “dealing with crucibles requires embracing life as a quest rather than seeing hardships as unnecessary intrusions or complete disruptions.”
There is a lot of wisdom to chew on in this tome, reflections from a seasoned and thoughtful shepherd. — MS
Books in brief
An entrepreneur’s vision for African prosperity
The Heart of a Cheetah. How We Have Been Lied to about African Poverty — and What That Means for Human Flourishing By Magatte Wade (Cheetah Press, 2023. 268 pages, $25.16 US)
Magatte Wade has a mission. She is determined to make Africa’s future a prosperous one.
Wade is director of the Centre for African Prosperity at Atlas Network. Atlas Network is a USbased non-profit that provides training, networking, and grants for libertarian, free-market, and conservative groups worldwide.
Wade is also a serial entrepreneur, widely honored for her accomplishments, and a speaker who has presented at many global forums.
The author has the heart of a cheetah. The reference comes from a concept espoused by the late Ghanaian economist George Ayittey, who wrote the forward to this book.
Ayittey said the Cheetah Generation — a new generation of African graduates and professionals — views the world differently than their slow-moving “Hippo generation” predecessors.
Cheetahs demand transparency, accountability, human rights, good governance, and marketbased solutions to the continent’s challenges. He wrote that cheetahs must seek their wealth in the private sector and shun the government sector.
Wade has followed the path suggested by her mentor. Born in a small Senegalese village, she knew poverty as a child and family trials along the way.
By age 30, she built Adina World Beverages, an African-inspired specialty beverage company, into a firm that provided decent work for many women and had nationwide distribution in the US.
She also saw her share of hardships. The tragic death of her first husband, and partners who did not share her values or vision for Adina, led to her walking away from that company.
A second firm failed to reach crucial mass after a key partner abandoned the work.
Her third company, SkinIsSkin, is a skincare brand that includes “lip balm to fight discrimination.”
Wade’s book includes a lengthy and stinging critique of the failings of various African leaders.
Her call to action includes building partnerships with people “who have been convinced that free markets are the key to African prosperity.”
She advocates for e-government, startup cities, and broader acceptance of the need to create a business-friendly climate in African nations. .
Wade will be the Saturday evening keynote speaker at MEDA’s annual convention in Atlanta, on November 2.
