Why Is Business for Mission a Helpful Strategy in Accessing Closed Access Countries?

Why is Business for Mission a helpful strategy in accessing closed access countries?

So business for missions is a perspective of saying, in a closed country, the only way to stay in country that is closed is by finding access into the community that’s accepted by the government. One of the most opportunistic or fortunate ways is that everywhere in the world, people want business. People want to see commerce taking place.

Historically speaking, in the past, one of the ways into closed countries was through NGOs, or not-for-profit organizations. But those primarily have been deemed by governments oftentimes as foreign influence, even government influence, even a negative government influence in those countries. And so those have been far and wide rejected in most countries, which limits it down to getting into a closed country is only through business.

And so how do you get there to do a business in a community? One of the things that we found is that the best way to do this is to find ways that the community will allow you to be there, will allow you to engage in the community by setting up a business, running that business, building relationships through that business, and ultimately seeing a church planted through that business. It takes time to do that. The business has to be legitimate. It's an identity. That's very important for us to do to be there not just to be there for access, but for your identity.

A long time ago when we started doing this, we felt that the most important thing that the business provided for us was access. Over the years we began to determine that it's really not access that's important. It's identity that's important. The ability to be there to describe why I'm there, why I should be there and why I can be accepted there, how I can be accepted in that community, and the government recognizing that I'm there with the identity that they understand, that they want in that community, and that they feel you're contributing back to the community in a positive way. So that identity is hugely important. It's also a reason to explain to people why I would leave my home country to be in this country, through that identity. It's a massive part of what we do. So business for missions is different than business as mission. The focus of it is for us to see a church established through that business. That's the focus. It's not just to be there to do a business to let it trickle down to help the community. The focus is to see a business establishing a church in those communities.