DO NOT BE DECEIVED

We just finished a report on some of the teams we supervise.  This is the second time in 3 months we’ve had a team leader who is operating B4T businesses report 10+ conversions recently.  Both of these leader who are seeing breakthroughs have been working their present jobs for 7+ years each.  The point is, laying a foundation for B4T takes time and investing up front. Yet though we start slow over time the fruit comes.

For example, the last time I was in Morocco we met with several traditional mission workers who had been here 10+ years.  Most of them are still struggling with their identity and true acceptance in the community.  One newer worker who I’ll call Joe, had been there four years.  He told me he’s shared the Gospel with five people in four years.  He’s been discouraged by the other workers from starting a business as everyone who has tried to do business in the past failed.  Yes they failed, and every one of them was trying to start a business part-time.  No one wanted a business that required more than a few hours a week of their time!  None were practicing the 10 building blocks for B4T which are keys to success.  One guy started a school with somebody else’s money and told the mission workers he employed that, “You will only have to teach four hours a week and you can have a real job.”  His words.  Of course the business failed and he’s wondering why.

I told Joe that as people knew he did not have a “real job”, they also knew he did not have a real testimony.  The Muslims are unsaved, but they are not stupid.  I also pointed out to Joe some OPEN workers in the country who started B4T businesses, had 5+ employees and have shared with all of them in much less than four years.

I saw Joe before leaving for the airport. He continued to claim the Muslims there are resistant to the Good News.  Paul reminds us, Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7&8

Do not be deceived.  No one is fooled when we operate a platform or fake business. I wonder if the Muslims are really resistant, or if our message doesn’t make sense to them, as they see us doing one thing and hear us saying another.

PATRICK LAI and his family have worked in SE Asia for over 37 years. His experience in doing business with Jesus has brought him to understand the meaning of work and worship in the marketplace. He started 14 businesses in four countries, six of which are still operating. Patrick and his wife, May, mentor and coach businesspeople working where there are few or no Christians. Check out Patrick’s latest book, Workship, now available in paperback and e-book.