The Growth Stage is Boring!

It's been a crazy year so far!  Dana & I have just completed a class that we started in January and has kept us very busy with reading and homework every week.

This class is called Perspectives on the Global Christian Movement, and was a ton of great information.  I've never been a real history buff, but I did enjoy some of the more in-depth explorations of history.  From looking at the Great Commission throughout the Old & New Testaments, to considering the times of Genghis Khan, the Vikings, Monk Orders, and even the travesty that was the Crusades, we looked at a lot of interesting information.  I have to admit though, I am thrilled to be done with this, and moving on to the next stage.

Jalapeno plant started in the Holzer house.

And that is what the year 2012 feels like in many ways...  a stage that simply must be gone through in order to get to where we actually are doing life as we envision it.  Sometimes it is too easy to be looking past this year at what will undoubtedly be a major adventure and challenge for us.  But the reality is that we have some very important development steps to complete in order to set the foundation for a successful three year stint.

Kellton & I have been having fun starting plants indoors this year for eventual transplant into a garden box and containers outside.  My favorites are the Jalapenos that are currently really going through some great stages of growth, and Kellton is so thrilled to see the amazing speed of growth exhibited by the Sunflower plants.

Regardless of the plant though, it has to go through a series of stages before the fruit can be enjoyed. Water, light, soil, fertilizer: they all play an important role in getting there.  Oh yeah, and time.

I'm slowly coming to realize the importance of the process of preparation, even it is frustrating at times, and hopefully the knowledge we gain, the support network we build, and the connections developed will provide a better foundation for delivering sustainable fruit in Bolivia.

Cool example in the Billings Gazette today!

OK, so I don't know anything about this guy, and I am not promoting him or his business (not that I think would be bad in this case!) but I ran across this article on a business in Montana today, and I thought it was a great example of doing business for the glory of God.  Right here at home!

Quote from the article: "To become part of the team, the crew members have to be from the South Side, out of prison and have an interest in learning about the Bible.

“The idea is to teach these guys construction skills, introduce them to the teachings of Jesus and hope they pick up on what we are teaching and doing,” Houlihan said.

Click here to read the whole article. "Construction program gives former inmates skills needed for new life"

Why? (or Why not?)

An outlet in Bolivia...  If only all of
life's decisions were so clearly marked!

One thing I’ve struggled to summarize for you who have asked is “Why” we are doing this.  In the end, it would be easier to explain how we overcame the reasons not to, than simply the drive to move forward.  Dana & I have gone through a long decision-making process, and it was good for us to do together, but there was never a moment when we simply knew this was the right thing to do.  Maybe it would help to share our basic understanding of following God’s will in our lives. 

While I believe God can and does work in unique ways, when it comes to a vocation or job, I don’t think He generally gives most of us a clear path to follow.  Rather, He has given us this amazing gift of “free will” and expects us to use that gift in making wise choices.  We have been repeatedly asked about this “calling” on our lives, and I have to admit, I’m not sure I would use that term.  I think God has placed in us a desire for adventure, a desire to have a lasting impact in our world, a desire to see our children raised in such a way as to expand their horizons, and a desire to constantly strive to better ourselves.  Ironically, at times, feeling the urge to pursue these desires has seemed very self-serving, and even an argument against moving forward with this.  After all, we didn’t want to be doing this simply for ourselves.  There’s nothing too “Godly” about doing something from selfish ambition…  So yes, we struggled with numerous circular arguments and philosophical debates.

Another couple serving in Bolivia.  We had a great conversation about
"Why?" and they had a totally different path to their decision, yet we are
so excited about arriving at the same conclusions and serving together!

In the end, we know that we will not be outside of God’s will for our lives in pursuing this opportunity to improve the world as we know it.  However, we truly believe we (and you are included in this!) can serve God right where we are.  In fact, that is one of the goals of Business As Mission: to chip away at the “secular-sacred” divide, and help people see how they can serve God with the skills they have, right in the workplace, just as effectively as if you decide to pursue “full time ministry.”  In fact, if you think about the realities of who a small business person interacts with throughout a week, compared to who a church pastor interacts with, I believe the small business person has more potential to impact non-Christians on a regular basis.

Bolivia... Even the terrain offers some challenges.

For most of us, I don’t think God insists on a specific career path, or the correct toothpaste.  Some things are left to us to figure out.  I don’t know what this means for you, but I do hope you are seeking to live a life that glorifies God.

This concept of finding “God’s will” for our lives has been tricky for many people I have talked to.  Not that this will have all the answers you are looking for, but if you are interested in learning more about this topic, our pastor did a great series on this last fall, and those teachings are available online here.  I hope you find them interesting and thought-provoking.

-Update: Our church updated their website after I posted this link, so if it didn't work for you, I have updated the link to direct you to the new website location.

Family Update from Dana

Kellton and Astoria in Miles City, with their friend Perri for the 4^th of July, 2011

While we were in Bolivia, I wanted to try and visualize what it’d be like to really live there for three years.  Traveling without our two mini demolition crew bosses (Kellton 5 and Astoria 3) it was tempting to picture life in Cochabamba as a bit of a cinch.  And then I’d snap out of my “vacation daze” when we’d get into a taxi with the pressure to communicate.  I’d say to myself, “Now picture doing this without Quinn and with the kids.”  Mind you, we won’t even bring down car seats to Bolivia…we’ll have to convert our American ideals about safety in quite a few areas.

So to picture our new lives in Bolivia, my “must see list” included the open air market, grocery store, and school options for the kids.  A little school background is needed before I post a photo of the school our kids will likely attend.  Where I went to school in Central Indiana, there’s seemingly no end to a school’s financial resources.  The schools have beautiful grounds, immaculate classrooms, and Gifted and Talented programs beginning in the elementary schools.  You can take Japanese and Russian in high school, in addition to the other languages you’d expect.  We had a phenomenal planetarium.  Graduation rates top 95% for the high school, even with 4,000 in the student body.  So growing up as a student, it was just what I came to expect school to look like.

Our friends' daughter in front of her classroom.

So touring a potential school, Cristo Nación was not only a cross cultural experience, it was a bit of a shock in terms of the facility.   Most everyone has emotional ties and memories to their elementary school.  So picturing Kellton and Stori going to school at a playground without grass, or any play equipment to speak of was, well, pretty much what I’d expect of a developing world school.

So what impressed me about Cristo Nación?  First of all, the Directors.  They have a big heart for orphans and so a whole orphanage is schooled there.  Impressive when you think of approximately  20% of a fledging private school offering a free education to so many students.  Secondly, the rebar sticking out of the first story of much of the building.  Ok, so this wasn’t the “dream setting” of Orchard Park Elementary School where I attended, with all fresh paint, new books, and cheery wall murals.  But the rebar was there because the school Directors fully plan to grow and expand the school as God supplies, and they’ve completed in two years an impressive amount of remodeling.  They have faith and vision to impact their country by raising up solid students who have a good education and heart for God. 

Quinn looks over the school courtyard.

At some level every parent wonders if a school is “good enough” for their child.  And yet Quinn and I believe that the opportunity to live in Bolivia and see more of the world, much of it poor and non English speaking, will also be a special way to show our children first hand the big world Jesus loves.   Yes, we want our friends and family to pray for safety, and for Kellton and Astoria’s language acquisition to go well (so they can translate for me!) but we also believe that they will be blessed by fellow orphan class mates in a classroom that looks like the year is 1850.  Education will likely be less technological and entertaining…and that’s not all bad.

So yes, I want to the very best education for my kids.  But I also want their hearts full of compassion and wisdom, and tender to the things that really matter most.

Business As Mission: Part Two

According to what we repeatedly from locals, Volleyball is the second most popular sport in Bolivia (behind futbol/soccer of course!). Project Bless Volleyball is a sports ministry that was started in Bolivia, through World Venture.  There have been some cool activities around this concept that have varied from kids club teams of all ages, to college age competitive teams.  They have had some impressive participation in coaches sports clinics that included famous professional athletes, and have started to make a mark with their presence in the community.

But there are also some significant barriers to this program really taking off, and as a result, this was the second business concept our business team looked at while we were in Bolivia.  This project has reached a wide audience, but has been completely dependent upon donations from the United States to sustain its efforts.  For several years now donations have come in, but always last minute, which has hampered their ability to plan ahead.  Additionally, every time they have built up their competitive team to where they are receiving some attention, star players are recruited by local universities to play for them, with significant financial advantages to doing so.

As a result, Project Bless is being refocused and developed around a kids club concept, that will fit the local culture, maximize the number of youth they can impact, and be sustainable based on a cash flow basis.  That sentence sounded very simple, but trust me, our team struggled with a number of concepts here, not the least of which was understanding the local culture and current volleyball sports system.

Local kids volleyball clubs play late into the night.

I get excited about the concept of creating a sustainable system with the potential to have positive impacts on a developing country.  But another aspect of this project that was exciting to me was seeing Dana as she utilized her talents in assisting this project.  Dana spent a significant amount of time creating lesson plans for coaches in this system that would combine learning volleyball skills with a corresponding life value that will give these kids lifetime benefits from their involvement.

I look forward to seeing what this project can grow to in the future with a real business model.

Exciting Bolivian Business Update

I’m not generally a very excitable person.  Dana might even say that is the understatement of the year right there.  I have a tendency to hide emotions, and often fail to adequately celebrate achievements with my wife.

Having said that, I’m tingling with excitement right now!  I just received an e-mail from Dan Collins in Bolivia, that seemed to be almost an exact answer to some of the questions he and I had discussed while I was in Bolivia.  Specifically, I was asking about the Board, leadership, and future direction of the non-profit (Emprendimiento Mundial) they have established for their mission.  Along with that, I had some very specific questions about the role of Bolivians, and any plans for transferring ownership of the vision to locals.

One of the Bolivians (Tito) who is already serving on the Board of Directors took the opportunity to come meet the entire team of U.S. businessmen who traveled to Bolivia while Dana & I were there.  There were a lot of direct goals and deliverables that we hoped to achieve as a result of having this team on the ground, and a lot of progress was made toward achieving those ends.  But as God often does, He used us in ways we had not even expected.  To quote Dan's e-mail, "We might have just sparked the desire and passion of an influential Bolivian business man who sees where he can use his business gifts in missions."

As a result of the excitement generated by our meetings that day,Tito recently provided Dan with a basic written strategic plan to do some of the very things we had talked about trying to figure out how to motivate someone to do!  Now, Dan and Tito are working together to lay a strong foundation for me to be able to come alongside them and build toward a sustainable system of business enterprises that support the vision of World Venture in Bolivia.  The potential exists for many great things to come out of this seemingly small step.

Please continue to pray for Dan and the direction of the many activities being undertaken in Bolivia.

Big Questions: When?

The most common question we have had in response to our news about moving to Bolivia is, “When?”  Right now I can tell you the answer to that is…  TBD.

Yeah, not exactly the best answer.  We would really like to be in Bolivia within a year.  In November, the Bolivian school year just completed, and this kind of timeframe would give our kids some time to settle in before having to jump straight into school.  The field staff in Bolivia would love to have us on the ground as soon as possible.  There are timelines with our current jobs that we want to be sensitive to.  In many ways, this would be an ideal time-frame.

The reality is that we aren’t completely in control of our timeline. Because we are going through a Missions organization, World Venture, we are required to raise the funding for this venture entirely from donations.  As a result, the real answer to “When?” is that we will go once the funding is in place.

If you are interested in helping by providing a tax deductible donation through World Venture, we would welcome your participation with us in this endeavor.  Click here for more complete information regarding our budget.

If you would simply like to make a donation now, or provide a monthly commitment, follow these links, and choose “Holzer, Quinn & Dana” from the drop-down menu provided.