Our goal is to propel entrepreneurial teams as integrated and holistic lifelong laborers in business start-ups around the world.  The Entrepreneur Readiness Workshop (ERW) is the first step to prepare for ministry as a Navigator missional entrepreneur.  Missional enterprise is the Navigator’s Business as Mission (BAM) context to living out our calling.     
 
ERW Details:
September 30 – October 2, 2016
Navigator HQ in Colorado Springs, CO
More info and Registration at www.gendesk.org/erw
 
This workshop is for you if any of these apply to you...

• Seriously thinking about opening your own business either internationally or in a US cross-cultural context…  
• Desire to make holistic Kingdom and social impact where God is calling you...
• Passionate for the nations and realize that non-traditional missions is necessary for the future of global missions… 
• A college senior or 20s with an eye toward exploring missional enterprise in the next 5 or 10 years…

 
FAQ:

• Should I come if I don’t know how to start a business or have business experience?  Yes, this workshop is geared to helping both those with some business salve and others with little experience.  You will be teamed together to uniquely utilize your strengths just like on an entrepreneurial team.  Actually, some of the best entrepreneurs are those who currently don’t know anything about business.
• After the workshop, what’s next?  The ERW should give you a good sense of “missional enterprise is great, but I could never imagine myself doing this…” or “I could see myself as part of a team.”  In either case, you’ll have an opportunity to reflect on whether or not missional enterprise is for you.  If so, we have a team who can walk with you through next steps here in the US or somewhere internationally.      
• How certain do I need to be about serving internationally?  The ERW is meant to be a starting point.  You may still be 5-10 years out from moving around the world, possibly.  There is no need to commit to a timeline or location just yet.  Although we discuss international contexts, missional enterprises can even be started in the US.  The Navigator’s I-58, Nations Within and NavMissions already have missional enterprises.

 
Where are they now?
ERW Alumni are currently starting new ventures around the world in places like Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and the US.   

A violent civil war breaks into your city. You are fortunate enough to connect with relatives in America, and you flee to their city to begin a new life. However, your troubles are far from over.

Generous social services, a stream of low skill jobs, and growing family networks have made my neighborhood a place of refuge for such refugees. Still, they face significant hardship.

Mothers are most vulnerable to the trials of refugee life. Many are the sole providers for their families. Their husbands either divorced them or were killed in the civil war back home.

Most jobs here are suited for men, and those suited for women often require English language proficiency—a significant hurdle for refugee mothers, who struggle to attend classes because they are already stretched thin by a houseful of children and a shoestring budget.

Cultural tensions plague the homes of these women as well. It has been a significant challenge for their families to retain cultural identity and religious devotion under the clouds of economic hardship, social stigma, and extremist and gang recruiting.

Our family moved into this predominantly immigrant neighborhood in 2011. We were overwhelmed with our first children, and our hearts went out to the single mothers who were facing the hardships of parenting alone in a foreign country.

To my dismay, this community was not nearly as interested in receiving our help as we were in giving it. My attempts at coffee shop conversations were met with blunt rejection. People would leave the room the minute I walked in the door.

After three years of gradual progress, I discovered the entrepreneurial spirit of my new neighbors. This became my key to Kingdom-oriented community development and my inroad to Gospel-centered relationships.

I began consulting ethnic restaurant owners about Western foodservice standards. The people that once avoided me began to warmly welcome me for hours of conversation about their business practices and family lives. They even honored me with a seat in their Chamber of Commerce.

Having built up this momentum, I began taking action on my vision of providing stable, dignified employment for single mothers of the community. My business partner and I, a mother of this group, are beginning a food distribution company that will soon employ nearly a dozen single refugee mothers.

Our prayer is to see these single mothers find strength and purpose in this dignified work and in the Gospel so that their homes and communities may be uplifted in the light of Christ.

– GEN Desk Contributing Writer, Nations Within Staff, and ERW Alumni