From the Director—Spring 2008
 The word for 2008 is prototypes. We are working with our partners to develop and test prototype Centers that will transform communities and even nations through kingdom business. The stories in this newsletter highlight our activities.
Internationally, we are focused on three Centers and one holistic development project. Each has its unique challenges.
• The Center in Ternopil, Ukraine is ramping up training for start ups and expansions under the supervision of a mature Ukrainian leader, but faces resistance from people who are suspicious of evangelical groups and from potential trainees who aren’t used to paying for training.
• Cameroon is ready for a comprehensive business development center but awaits seed funding and selection of national leaders and advisors.
• Our partners in Indonesia are already operating profitably with their training and consulting for large companies. The next step is to begin starting kingdom businesses in a way that is acceptable in that predominately Muslim country.
• We formulated our holistic development project in Kenya in response to requests from the local village, so it will meet felt needs. It is an ambitious project that will require substantial start-up funding.
Nationally, we are working closely with Nehemiah Project International Ministries to help them expand delivery of their Biblical Entrepreneurship courses dramatically, through an area development model. RCE will refine the model in several test sites before a national rollout.
All of these efforts at prototyping fall under the general umbrella of comprehensive business development centers for global transformation. We will continue to work on the concept as we test elements in the above pilot projects. Our goal is to greatly scale up business as mission work that will transform nations by developing a global network of “best in class” business development centers.
Sustainable Development in Maasai Community
 RCE is undertaking the Olpuaa Ecotourism Lodge Project in partnership with the Olpuaa Maasai community in southwestern Kenya as a means of transformation. The Olpuaa community has land bordering the Maasai Mara game reserve for which a management and rehabilitation plan is immediately necessary. Community leaders approached Dr. Jeremiah Koshal, one of their own and currently a research fellow with RCE, to help find funding to develop an ecotourism lodge.
 The lodge will be a sustainable way to help maximize the Olpuaa community's natural resources (land and wildlife), profit from those resources, uplift the community, and leverage those resources to bring in support from other sources for the benefit of the people.
Read full story
Dr. Jeremiah Koshal is co-founder of Go Africa Safaris
<<top of page>>
Plans for Transformation Center in Cameroon
 In January, RCE Director John Mulford traveled to Cameroon with Patrice Tsague and
Tyrone Grigsby of Nehemiah Project International Ministries (NPIM) to evaluate NPIM’s Cameroonian operation and
assess the need and opportunity for Transformation Centers in Cameroon.
They visited about twenty businesses started by Nehemiah graduates. Some had grown to multisite operations with several employees. All expressed needs that coincided with the offerings of our proposed comprehensive business development center. Plans are underway to launch a Center in Yaounde that will support these growing companies.
View Cameroon Trip Report
<<top of page>>
Biblical Entrepreneurship in Ukraine
 Tom Stansbury, RCE ‘Founder’, followed up the 2007 Business Symposium in Ukraine by teaching the ‘Biblical Entrepreneurship (BE1) course there in March 2008. The BE curricuculum, developed by RCE Strategic Partner, Nehemiah Project International Ministries (NPIM), has transformed the lives of emerging entrepreneurs in the United States and in Cameroon, Africa. Based on the success of our first course in Ternopil, it will soon be transforming entrepreneurs throughout Ukraine, and perhaps neighbors throughout Eastern Europe.
Tom has not only trained 41 students, but he also certified 14 teachers from multiple cities and two countries, who have a vision to impact their regions for Christ through kingdom business. He will return in July to teach the second course in Biblical Entrepreneurship.
Read full article
<<top of page>>
RCE Director Heads to Indonesia
 John Mulford will travel to Indonesia in May to meet with RCE’s partners and other Christian business people there. One of the partners is pursuing his Master's in Organizational Leadership from Regent University's School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship. The other plans to enroll in Regent’s MBA program soon.
Our partners have built a strong revenue model by providing services to multinational companies, which have the ability and expectation to pay international rates. Providing “doing business in” consulting services to multinational clients is critical to making our comprehensive business development center model self-sustaining. While multinational companies often provide good jobs for locals, they do not build the broad-base of small to medium sized enterprises that an economy needs. We will work with our partners in Indonesia to augment their current training and consulting with entrepreneurial training to help disadvantaged people start their own businesses.
NOTE: We don’t mention names and places because we don’t want to jeopardize the work of our partners. They are strong Christians who live the gospel through their excellence, integrity and compassion, and who share their testimony when God opens doors. However, they do not publicize the spiritual fruit of their efforts.
<<top of page>>
RCE Research: Transforming Communities and Nations
 The concept of transformation is gaining support and momentum around the world. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions—income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion—while promoting basic human rights.
There is no doubt about God’s desire to transform the nations both physically and spiritually. As God’s ambassadors on earth, it is the responsibility of the church to be that change agent, bringing about significant transformation around the world. The focus on kingdom business to transform communities and nations is gaining momentum and an increasing amount of research is being done on this topic.
Read full article
<<top of page>>
RCE Roundtable in Atlanta
 The Center for Entrepreneurship held its first offsite Roundtable April 22, 2008 at the Georgian Club in Atlanta. John Mulford introduced the eighteen attendees to the mission and vision of RCE and outlined current activities. Tom Stansbury, Entrepreneur in Residence, reported on activities in Ukraine. Two RCE partners described their organizations and how they are working with RCE.
Several attendees were ready to sign up to launch comprehensive business development centers and roll out NPIM’s Biblical Entrepreneurship curriculum in their areas. Others expressed interest in teaching and serving as consulting experts via the Internet and by going on trips, such as our upcoming trip to Ukraine in October, 2008.
<<top of page>>
Book Reviews
The Richest Man in Babylon, by George S. Clason
 This is a short and easy-to-read book that presents principles for becoming wealthy and living a richer life. The context is provided by a description of the city of Babylon, with its grandeur and squalor, dazzling wealth and dire poverty.
Arkad, a wise and rich Babylonian, tells a story that presents seven universal principles of working and becoming rich which remain applicable today. The book is full of financial wisdom and avoids the financial jargon often heard from the corporate world today.
Read full review by Dr. Jeremiah Koshal
The Mystery of Capital – Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, by Hernando De Soto
 This is an interesting book that effectively explains the role of property systems as the conceptual underpinnings of our capital systems and markets. The relative inefficiency and injustice of property systems relegate the vast majority of people in developing and former communist countries to an extralegal existence, which does not allow these people to use their assets as capital.
With this book De Soto has made a significant contribution to the argument for free markets. He has also given us another factor to consider in understanding both the causes of poverty and the path to transformation. De Soto’s findings give real hope that transformation can happen in developing nations.
Read full review by Jason Benedict
<<top of page>>
Nation in Focus: Indonesia
Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and home to the world's largest Muslim population. Current issues include: alleviating poverty, preventing terrorism, consolidating democracy after four decades of authoritarianism, implementing financial sector reforms, stemming corruption, holding the military and police accountable for human rights violations, and controlling avian influenza.
 Indonesia has been undergoing significant economic reforms under President Yudhoyono. Indonesia's debt-to-GDP ratio has been declining steadily, and the government has introduced significant reforms in the financial sector. Indonesia's new investment law, passed in March 2007, seeks to address some of the concerns of foreign and domestic investors.
(Source: The World Factbook, www.cia.gov.) For more information on doing business in Indonesia, check out this World Bank website.
<<top of page>>
Staff Update at RCE
 Jason Benedict (Regent MBA '02) began working with RCE last November. Jason and John Mulford are working closely together to build a global network of business development centers to transform nations economically and spiritually. Each center will ultimately provide solutions in the areas of training, entrepreneur support, and access to capital. There are currently test sites in three regions: Central Africa, SE Asia and Eastern Europe. Jason has a strong missions background, experience in economic development and a special interest in Business as Mission.
Joyce Ndugo, a Humphrey Fellow at UNC, is joining RCE for 6 weeks beginning May 1. During her time with the Center, Joyce is focusing on projects that will enhance Kenya's economic development: researching a paper-recycling plant, the production of food storage bags, and markets to which Kenyan products can be exported duty-free. We are glad to have her with us!
 Russ Wendell, former Associate Director of the Center, recently took a position as Vice President of Marketing and Sales with Arks, Inc. Arks is a commercial real estate firm located in Raleigh, NC, focused on funding and building God’s vision for the local church. Russ is missed here at RCE but we wish him the best in this new, God-given endeavor.
<<top of page>>
|
