Milestones

Years ago, our evaluation of business opportunity for an impoverished and outcast group of Ethiopian Jews, pointed to micro-enterprise development. Yet, the reality of their condition was such that there had to be “something more.” It was the search for that “something more” that led to the development our Global Equippers program.

In Minsk, Belarus our program helped start a handful of small family-owned businesses. With them, we trained the leaders for a small group of new and potential business owners who met to pray, encourage and simply to be a support to one another. Not only did the new businesses grow, but in two years the number of businesses from that group quadrupled.

In Israel, our program has been the means to train, orient and help numerous small businesses to get their start. By bypassing the Western tendency toward rugged individualism and returning to the strong community roots held by the Jewish people, businesses that were started have not only grown, but have assisted others. For example, a single mother with a distinct talent as a hairdresser, not only operates a home business that pays her bills while allowing her to care for her children, but she employs other single mothers who she trains to support themselves as she does.

In central Africa, existing and potential entrepreneurs traveled up to 600 kilometers across wastelands to embrace the entrepreneurial and community principles needed to commercialize their individual talents and come under the radar to break the bondage of poverty that impacts so many areas across Africa. In eastern Russia, existing, seasoned entrepreneurs were trained as mentors to assist new and potential business-owners to plan with the wisdom needed to turn risk and adversity into realistic opportunity.

Across Vietnam, literally hundreds of small businesses have resulted from the regional workshops conducted. While most begin small with simplicity and serve to feed a family, some have seen remarkable growth. In one case, a woman who started with a kiosk promoting laptops with custom designed cases, in less than a year grew to having a storefront operation with ten employees. Within four years, her operation had expanded to three cities. In another case, a factory worker who understood marble tiles who attended our workshop, got the idea of becoming a broker of these products and in a little over a year had become the number one exporter of marble tiles in the region.

Around the world, Global Initiatives is paving new ground with faith-based initiatives that offer hope and change, where hope is often dim. As catalysts for change, its venues are opening gateways of opportunity that succeed against the odds, in a time of growing instabilities, when the ground rules are undergoing major paradigm shifts.

Global Initiatives’ activities and agendas utilize the vehicles of workshops and conferences, webinars, blogs and videos; business startup expertise, corporate-level planning management consulting; as well as professional involvement and coaching with joint ventures, corporate turnarounds, new venture activities and entrepreneurial training as a platform for community building.

Global Initiatives’ approach involves initiatives, ventures and a voice in mobilizing marketplace ambassadors and community builders. Together with the appropriation and use of the world’s resources and systems to advance faith-based agendas for positive change, Global Initiatives advances God’s healing and prophetic influence in environments of disruption and change where God’s light is dim.

The Model
The model employed is one that mobilizes community members to be blessed to be a blessing. Through the combined gifts of individuals, along with principles of entrepreneurship and community, the model releases a process of wholeness and balance that serves as a catalyst for exponential increase.

Community
Community is intended to be a place of safety and mutual benefit to its members. Community represents the bottom-up foundation from which a society operates. Community operating as it should is a place to where its members operate beyond the place of human effort to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. At the core of a wholesome, healthy community will be an assembly of God’s people operating according to principles of exponential increase that makes a difference through opportunity enablement.

Application of the Gifts
At the core of our approach is the identification of the blending between a person’s natural gifts, their spiritual gifts and their gift to create, innovate and build, which we label as the entrepreneurial gift. When these individual gifts are combined to operate within community, a dynamic is released that brings increase and blessing to all concerned.

A description of each of these spiritual, motivational gifts is given on the Spiritual Gifts page. Also, there is a link from the Spiritual Gifts page to a questionnaire that is designed to help you discover your primary spiritual gifts. The password is Chua. The questionnaire is designed especially for entrepreneurs and business people.  Understanding your spiritual gifts is a vital insight into mapping out your destiny.

The Foundation of Truth 
The quest for one’s destiny is found through knowing the Truth and the way and the Life of the One who is at the foundation of creating it all. Truth is goes beyond head-knowledge and requires a connection, through regular exposure to the One who is the path. For those serious about this pursuit, we recommend this robust Bible reading plan. Please click on this link: dailybibleplan-mature