Emissary
em·is·sar·y
/ˈeməˌserē/
noun: emissary; plural noun: emissaries
a person sent on a special mission, usually as a diplomatic representative.
I’ve been on mission trips, but I’ve never felt called to be a missionary. At least in the traditional sense.
I’ve never felt that I was supposed to be headed, the gospel in hand, to South America, Asia, Africa, or any other foreign destination. I have felt called, however, and even gifted, to challenge, encourage, inspire, coach, and support business leaders.
I am a fifth-generation entrepreneur. The generations before me died too young along with their businesses. Likely, because of their businesses. My desire to help business leaders runs very deep. My favorite thing we hear our clients say is that they are surprised by how much we care. Hope may be the most valuable currency we offer.
When we met a small group leader over dinner a couple of years ago, we were inspired by the 40,000 small groups he had helped launch on all seven continents with such a rate of multiplication that even that number was at best a conservative estimate. He was very curious about what we did. As it turned out, many of the business leaders he knew in his homeland of South Africa were suffering from a lack of the things we coach.
We told him of the larger companies we coach, the progress we had seen, and how we had felt led to create a “curriculum” to help smaller businesses go on the same journey to maturity that our largest ones had. We showed him our 24 months of professionally bound and published curriculum that we had felt from the first day was designed for a bigger audience than the current one in San Antonio.
We have anecdotal evidence now that the transferability and portability we designed our curriculum with is having its’ intended effect. The universality of the roadmap is being confirmed. With that experiential tailwind…
We offered to help.
After two years of working to design an experience and match it with the great need of the business leaders there, we are headed there today for summits with 60 leaders in Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town.
They are facing record unemployment (29%), a significant devaluation of the currency, and political, social, and economic unrest of every possible definition. As we pray before every video conference call with the leaders on the ground there, what we most sense is a loss of hope.
We felt called to underwrite this entire mission out of company funds for the three emissaries we are sending. We feel like this is a significant outpouring of the father’s heart for his sons/daughters in South Africa. And again, while we don’t feel called to missionary work in the traditional sense, we do feel called to business leaders. These just happen to be in South Africa.
One of our clients approached us a few weeks ago and said they would like to help underwrite our trip. While we are committed to covering the extensive cost of this trip, we felt that it would be a miss on our part not to allow others to partner with us on this mission.
If you are interested in partnering with us as well, please go to the following link. You can donate tax-free to the TAN Foundation in our name and the proceeds will be directed toward our costs. We would also invite you to pray for favor, safety, and impact during our November 15-December 2 travels. Just note in the comment box that you are donating for SummitTrek’s work in South Africa through the TAN Foundation.
For King and Kingdom,
The SummitTrek Team