OUR BUSINESS PEOPLE FIND WAYS TO COPE WITH COVID-19 BY JOHN P, MINISTRY POINT PERSON FOR BUSINESS MINISTRIES
Adobe Stock picture, by Stokkete
and re-evaluate their ministry. One BAM business owner in Pacific Asia used the slowdown to develop a more intentional mission strategy for their business plan. A BAM business owner in South Asia used the reduced workload caused by the pandemic to improve the development of her staff. A BAM couple in the Middle East had been in business there for more than 20 years. They went back to their passport country to visit family and friends in early 2020. When Covid hit, they could not return for 16 months. During that time, their staff of approximately 10 local women ran every area of the business with exceptional results. This was the greatest testimony of God’s faithfulness to their business and the result of years of training and
PLEASE PRAY • That our Business as Mission workers would rely on God’s continued wisdom and discernment in decisions concerning business, family and ministry, especially during a time of limited resources. • For a sustained decrease in the virus so that countries will begin to open up and reach a level of normality. • For our Business as Mission workers to find favour in their communities and then lead many to Christ. FEB 2022 • VOL 4 ISSUE 1
discipleship that they had invested in these women. In Southeast Asia, our teams faced significant delays at the beginning of Covid lockdowns in being able to get products out of their countries because there were fewer flights and much tougher export controls. This impacted sales and the wages their local employees could receive. However, they have been greatly encouraged by the ability of local SIM workers to be able to continue to sell their products to women they meet and continue to build relationships with them. They even had opportunity to participate in the Christian wedding ceremony and baptism of two of their weavers who have come to faith since they began working with the Muslim women five years ago. Business is challenging even when things are good. When you compound the challenges of running a business cross-culturally with the uncertainty of a global pandemic, the view can be quite dismal. However, it has been very encouraging to see the faithfulness of our God combined with the resilience of our BAM workers.
Giants of Covid
COVID-19 forced nearly half of small businesses in the US to close temporarily in 2020. In India, 82% of small businesses suffered a negative impact on their business. A great majority of these business owners were indigenous, so how much more challenging was it for those who were operating small businesses outside their passport country? Such is the case for many of our missional business people. Some existing BAM (Business as Mission) enterprises have been impacted more than others. Tourism and hospitality have been hit the hardest by COVID-19. When it was clear the pandemic would be long-lasting, some of these businesses had to close, at least temporarily, or find alternative strategies to remain open. One person who had a tourism business was asked by a like-minded organisation if he could use his tourism vehicles to deliver food and essentials to hard-hit areas of his city. He gladly agreed! This volunteer work was noticed by some business organisations in the area and he was then asked if he and his vehicles could be hired to make deliveries to homes during the Covid lockdown. Although it was not as profitable as his tourism business, he was able to keep most of his employees working part-time and make enough money to avoid closing down. Other business owners have used the pandemic to reflect on
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