In 1945 a book called Toward the Conversion of England stated this: “We are convinced that England will never be converted until the laity use the opportunities daily afforded by their various professions, crafts, and occupations.” In 1945, 30% of England attended church. In 2018, less than 7% attend church in England. In Europe, fewer than 3% of the population attend church weekly. They have become secularized and now...

Ethiopia is considered to have one of the fastest growing economies in the world, for GDP per capita growth from 2000-2016 (IMF).  It has been lauded in many arenas because of this and it is believed that their GDP will continue to show great growth for the next five years at least.  Additionally, while much of Sub-Saharan Africa found the number of people in extreme poverty going up in the last fifteen years, Ethiopia decreased from...

Today we start our last week of this trip.  It started in Ethiopia, then Uganda, on to Kenya, and finishing in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  This week, as with the previous five weeks, will be packed with training pastors and business people.  There is a deep weariness setting in but God has been good as we have been able to reach deep to summon the strength to finish well. Last week, we were in Eldoret with pastors from 27 different...

A student in my Integrity and Finance class at the Africa Theological Seminary in Kenya shared the following situation with me a few days ago: When the whites were leaving Kenya in the 1960’s, there were plots of land being sold at very reasonable prices.  My father and my uncles approached their father, my grandfather, to ask if they could sell some of his cows in order to buy the land.  He said no.  They reapproached him two...

I am writing from one of my “homes away from home” in Kitale, Kenya.  I have spent more than three years in this little room.  It is the seventh bed that I have been in since leaving home three weeks ago. In the three weeks, I have spent eight days traveling:  from Grand Rapids to Ethiopia:  Addis Ababa, to Arba Minch, back to Addis, to Wolayita, back to Addis.  Then by air to Kampala, Uganda, and then by road to Kitale...

Being in Ethiopia during this trip has been like a breath of fresh air. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed On April 2nd of this year, a new Prime Minister was appointed, following the sudden resignation of the previous Prime Minister.  I was in Ethiopia when this happened but I had no idea of the significance of that event.  On this trip, I feel like I’m seeing a different people – a people with hope, a people who believe they have...

Arba Minch is a city of about 70,000 people, in the southwest part of Ethiopia, approximately 500 km from Addis Ababa. It is a beautiful area of mountains, lakes, banana and mango farms, and lush green everywhere you look.     When I was growing up in the 1980s, Ethiopia had been struck by a severe famine due to drought, and the picture that I had in my head of Ethiopia was a dry, brown land. I have been traveling to teach in Ethiopia...

Last year we had Discipling Marketplace Leaders classes in educational institutions in three countries. So far THIS YEAR we have had DML classes in six countries with more than 175 students! Last year we trained a total of 565 pastors and church leaders in the DML workshops. So far THIS YEAR we have more than doubled that, and have already trained more than 1200 pastors and church leaders! But the news I’m really excited to...

One of the things we like to teach is that we don’t have problems, we have opportunities. God has given us the potential by being made in His image, as well as through the resources of this world and through the body of Christ, to take these opportunities and find ways through them. Nigeria is currently the 7th largest country in the world by population. The largest are (in descending order) China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil,...

Lydia is a businesswoman from the Northwest portion of Cameroon, an Anglophone (English speaking) area. Since 2016 it has been caught up in a conflict between the Anglophone and Francophone (French-speaking) Cameroonians. Lydia is Anglophone. She and her husband have a 22-year-old biological son and three adopted children ranging from 18-23 years old. Lydia was forced to close her business on Mondays starting in October of 2016 by...