CONFESSIONS FROM A START-UP

On August 18, 2003 I invested in my first start-up. I stood nervously on the stage in my home church’s sanctuary between my pastor and best friend as I saw my soon-to-be wife walk down the aisle.

Everything was perfect, except she was walking alone. Her parents were in Kenya. That wasn’t their fault. Our engagement was for only two weeks, and while they gave us their blessing to get married so quickly, I couldn’t imagine how hard it was on them to miss their own daughter’s wedding.

Not many weeks after we wed, Marci became pregnant with Daniel. We were young, uncertain, and very much worried about how we would make it as parents. My mother-in-law gave Marci some great advice: “Kids just need love; you’ll figure out the rest.” And so our start-up family was created, and now nearly seventeen years later we are still going strong—all five of us.

I’ve thought a lot lately about my wedding day, not only as our anniversary approaches,, but also as we start up Kairos Brasil. It’s not a pure start-up, because there is a North American program called Kairos and we are expanding it to Brazil. But it is a start-up nonetheless, because we are having to tackle unique problems, and lot of them revolve around a language barrier and limited resources.

When you first serve cross-culturally you work ten times as hard to get a tenth as far as others. Over time that gap shrinks, but it never closes all the way. My capacity to do things in Portuguese increases every day, but it’s nowhere near the level I can attain in my native language and culture.

And so, like many other start-ups, we are trying to get a project off the ground, with a skeleton crew, limited resources, and lots of hopes and dreams. It’s been tiring, thrilling, fun, and tedious. We excitedly pass through checkpoints, exhaling and celebrating, only to be reminded of the next checkpoint that lies ahead.

You won’t see me giving expert consultations any time soon on how to do a start-up or appearing on Shark Tank with million-dollar ideas, but here’s some things I’ve noticed the last few months as we launch Kairos Brasil:

·      Flexibility is a blessing and a curse: Any pastor of an established church can tell you about hearing the words, “Pastor, we haven’t done it that way before.” As a startup the possibilities seem rather limitless, which can be great to imagine, but can become a problem when it comes to building a structure that works within your all-too-real limits as a team.

·      You can’t do it alone: I’ve thanked God in my prayers often for all the people he’s brought in to help us with this project. We have had people help in all stages, and we even have people waiting in the wings who will be great resources in future stages. If I were working alone I doubt I’d ever launch this project. It is beyond me, and that’s a good thing because others have great ideas and can make what I am working on even better.

·      Outsiders have no idea: That’s fine. By definition those on the outside couldn’t know all that’s going on inside. I won’t liken our project to a clockwork orange or anything, but I’ve learned to be kind and gracious with others who just want things to be done without knowing all the steps needed to make it happen.

·      Highs and lows come fast: I often think of the story of Elijah on Mt. Carmel. One moment he’s drawing lightning from heaven and declaring the end of a long drought and the next moment he’s in a cave crying, because he’s convinced he’s all alone. I find the lows often come after the highs, as if all the fuel burned out in a fury. Sometimes it’s a good idea to just rest in these lows, as God invited Elijah to do. He made sure Elijah had food, drink, and shuteye. And then God reminded Elijah that he was never alone and isn’t alone…and also that he has more work to do.

·      You’ll never arrive: I’m about to celebrate my seventeenth wedding anniversary and I still have plenty to learn about being a husband and father. I’ve been a baptized disciple for over 32 years, and I have even more to learn about that. One day, if the Lord blesses Kairos Brasil, we will have done things a certain way with good results and I’ll be tempted to say, “We haven’t done it that way before.” And if that day comes, I hope I’ll be reminded to think before I speak and then listen.

·      We need more help: As we start up Kairos Brasil we need to expand our team, and maybe God has you in mind to help us. No, you won’t be coding websites, translating documents, or mentoring students. But we will soon be asking for your help in two ways: 

First, we will be establishing scholarships for our Kairos Brasil students. These funds will cover the costs Sioux Falls Seminary incurs to include our students in their system and grant them a diploma from their institution. We will be asking you to adopt a student to help them graduate.

Second, we are looking to build an ebook library for our students in the form of Kindles that have textbooks preloaded onto them that can be loaned out to the students. In order to help cover these initial and ongoing costs, we will be asking you for special project donations.

The last thing I’ll share that I have learned so far is gratitude. How amazing is it that God invites us to come alongside what he is doing. He uses you to support us. He uses us to serve churches and church planters here. I can only be grateful to be a part of it!