Mongolia: church planters in business
Paul Williams, Radstock's Eurasia Network Developer, reports on a recent trip to equip Mongolian church planters in small business development.
New business ideas taking shape to underpin and sustain church growth and mission across this exquisitely beautiful yet economically impoverished region of the Gobi Desert. This was the main purpose - and achievement - of our team (Mike Clargo, Jacqui and Peter Mounsey and myself) on our visit to South Gobi in May. Of course, it will be some months before we can see the fruit of this visit in terms of new ventures getting established, but the eagerness to learn and excitement of the seminar attendees was evident throughout.
The strategic timing of the visit became more apparent as time went by. The number of churches in South Gobi has shot up from 4 to 23 in the last two years - a phenomenal growth by any reckoning. Conference delegates spanned a wide age range, from the teenager (now early 20's) who had been sent in one direction to plant a church, to a granny sent in the opposite direction to do the same in mountains just north of the Chinese border.
Now in a period of consolidation, many of these church planters are coming to the end of their two years' start-up funding. In this context, the development of culturally-meaningful business ventures is key to sustaining the ground that has been gained, and laying the foundations for more.
At the same time, specifically Christian businesses are a means for churches to witness to the transforming power of the gospel in a business culture where if money is made, it is often made badly. It also enables churches to forestall potential leadership drain to more prosperous areas of Mongolia and beyond.
After 2 days' flights we set off on a 24-hour drive into the Gobi. There are no roads through the desert, only the tracks of previous vehicles. Mongolian maps show the routes most used but the rutted, ridged tracks with frequent trenches across make 25mph a good average and absolute concentration is need to avoid wrecking the suspension or turning over. Our three vehicles battled on to Dalanzadgad, the provincial capital of South Gobi, and home to the parent church of the smaller planted churches.
The course ran for 4 days in the town's community centre. 40 trainees from the Gobi desert churches attended and were cheerful, enthusiastic and attentive. The need to translate all the spoken teaching and impromptu flip chart notes slowed progress a little but the interpreters were excellent and well received by their older students.
The course was extremely good-natured with lots of laughs, mostly provided by Mike who bonded with all in the room across the language barrier. Individual attention was needed by about a quarter of the students and the teaching team split up with an interpreter each to provide this.
A representative of a local bank spent an hour explaining their offerings for small loans which seemed very fair and encouraging. Each trainee brought or chose a business idea to model and each finished the course with a business plan, cashflow forecasts, an understanding of basic business finance and a collective determination to progress. They received a certificate of attendance and seemed well prepared to continue.
The plan is for these delegates to start small enterprises themselves and, while learning through practical experience, pass their knowledge on by training others. This should improve their lives, support their churches and go on to positively affect their local communities.
The Reconxile course has a second, more advanced, module and we will keep a watch for the correct conditions to take that to the Gobi, possibly in a couple of years. Meanwhile, some of the new businesses may have products suitable to sell to the West and we will help in finding the route to market for them.
We were amazingly blessed as we saw Jesus at work through the seminars, and His joy in those Mongolian missionaries as they serve amidst extreme poverty (many on less than £1/$2 a day). It was a privilege once again to join with these saints in the advancement of the Kingdom in the Gobi Desert.
Click here for details of the development materials we used, courtesy of Mike Clargo and Reconxile.
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