HOW ENTREPRENEURSHIP SERVES ON A SHORT-TERM PROJECT

This fall, we organized an Entrepreneurship Workshop for students at a university in a Central Asian country. It was a great success.

The students’ English was better than expected so that translation was not necessary. One of our team members had taught at top Chinese universities and found the Muslim students even more engaging. Like young people in the West, they dream about becoming entrepreneurs. So our team brought them what they want.

The four-member team came from the Silicon Valley and China. Among them were seasoned entrepreneurs as well as mid-career executives. They worked online to compile the lean start-up curriculum, and met as a group for the first time upon arrival in Central Asia. Tag teaming seamlessly, they delivered thirteen modules and facilitated small group work sessions. The students enjoyed the workshop and were very interested to get to know their instructors personally over meals and breaks.

The local course coordinator is a tentmaker who had spent some years teaching in China before the Lord led him and his family to Central Asia a few years ago. Our team was blessed to know that their work over a few days was a great encouragement to this brother and strengthened his witness at the university.

Our team also had the opportunity to offer a day seminar to 15-20 local believers, who were eager to learn how their faith could impact their work in the business world, and how to approach entrepreneurship from a Christian perspective.

It was most encouraging for members of the team to discover that their entrepreneurial careers and corporate experiences could be used to reach students and encourage believers in a Muslim country on the Belt & Road.

We want to share our experience and curriculum resources with churches interested to organize their own teams to reach emerging tech centers in the 10/40 Window. This is a great way to partner with missionaries out there.