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.

Big Move: Bolivia

So we’re going to move to Bolivia.

I don’t know if that got your attention, but frankly, it got mine! Dana & I have been talking about this since last summer, and yet it’s still kind of hard to wrap my arms around exactly what it means. The good news is that we just returned from two weeks in Bolivia during which we had a chance to see the city we would be living in (Cochabamba), visit with some of the people we would be working with, see some examples of schools that we might put our kids in, and get a much better idea exactly how we might be able to really be of assistance.

The short version is that I will be taking a position titled “Coordinator of Business as Mission” for the country of Bolivia. What does that mean? It means we will be working alongside a traditional missionary, in a non-traditional missionary type of role. I don’t have Bible classes in my background, but I do have an M.B.A. and have experience in economic development, and working with small businesses. So I’ll have the opportunity to help make sure some business projects have the opportunity to be sustainable, long-term efforts that impact individuals and communities in the country of Bolivia.

I realize that’s a somewhat broad and vague description. Fortunately, our trip to Bolivia allowed us to get a much better vision for exactly how we can have an impact. Rather than try to lay out all of the details of that right now however, I am committing to updating this blog with stories, pictures, and more information in the coming weeks and months.

So if you want to hear more about this strange, wonderful, exciting, and daunting chapter in our lives, sign up to follow our blog or register for our email newsletter here, and see where this adventure takes us.