Business as Mission Workshop Launches Adelante Business Coaching

by Kristen Allen, Director of Community Development
 
On Saturday, July 20, 2013, Adelante Business Coaching launched with a Business as Mission workshop presented by Rudy Carrasco of Partners Worldwide. Thirty-five men and women came to listen, learn, and dialogue about partnering to foster business development to transform the community. We see God stirring the hearts of men and women to use their experience and skills in relationship with other entrepreneurs to expand job opportunities and His Kingdom.

If there is one word that could sum up Rudy’s Business as Mission presentation it is “partnership”. God created us for relationship with Him and each other. We can partner together to do great things for Him and this includes partnership in business.

Adelante Business Coaching promotes and supports the development of immigrant and refugee owned businesses in our community. One of our key strategies for this ministry is partnership with immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs in mentor relationships to share experience and help encourage enterprise development. Men and women on both sides of the mentor relationship will share wisdom, experience, encouragement, and accountability. In true partnership, we all have something to give and we all have something to gain.

We’ve shared the story of R.G. Asian Store and know there are more success stories to be told in our community. As Adelante Business Coaching continues mentoring businesses and expands to offer training and further develop a network for collaboration and advocacy between community organizations, business owners, and potential entrepreneurs, we are excited to see individual transformation become community transformation.

Other News

• Jasmin and Cesar, Latino house church members, moved back to Kansas City last week after spending a year in Texas.  We were overjoyed to see them join us at house church.   
• Jason Schoff joined two of our local partner ministries for a meeting in Washington, D.C. with Evangelical Pastors and Leaders who are advocates on behalf of immigration reform as part of the Evangelical Immigration Table .

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for a refugee-owned business in the community who has been working with Adelante Business Coaching on a new business plan. They will soon submit information to the bank as they seek a loan to purchase a new location and expand their business.
• The Adelante Business Coaching team had a great strategic planning session with Rudy Carrasco. Please pray that this ministry continues to follow God’s calling for community development as they move forward with the plans for the rest of this year.
• Please pray for the Adelante Thrift team as they continue to work through the site selection process for the thrift store.

Current Needs

• We are looking for a volunteer or volunteers to trim a tree away from the blue house so we can move forward with roof construction. Please contact Sarah at sarahw@missionadelante.org if you can help.

• The Kids Adelante ministry needs an ipod with a long battery life.. We would use it multiple times each week and would be so grateful to receive one.  Please contact Megan meganm@missionadelante.org if you are interested. 

• Looking for an intentional way to impact the future leaders of our community? Our LIT program (Leaders in Training, after-school tutoring program)  is currently seeking mentors for the fall. Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org if you would like more info.

Important Dates

Summer Parties are August 11th at Wyandotte County Lake Park, 91st and Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, KS 66109.  After entering the park, you'll come to a fork in the road; go left. 

• The Latino party begins at 3:00 with an informal time to socialize, followed by a pot-luck meal at 4:45 and program at 6:00.  It will be in the "Beach Shelter." Turn right after passing shelter #6.

• The Bhutanese party begins at 4:00 in shelter #6.

Sharing the love of Jesus one backpack at a time

All families know that back-to-school season is one of the most expensive times of the year. The fees, the supplies, the new shoes--it can be a little overwhelming. Imagine coming to a new country with only the clothes on your back and few other resources. For the first couple of years it is going to be quite a struggle. If you look at the back-to-school season through that lens, school supplies for your child are probably going to fall pretty low on your list of priorities, and your child will most likely go back to school with few, if any of their needed supplies. Is that a fun way to start a new school year?

The kids outreaches at Mission Adelante have the opportunity to disciple around 190 kids and teenagers on a weekly basis. Ranging in age from 9 months to 19 years old, they all have a unique and wonderful story to tell and it is a blessing to get to be a part of it. We get to plant seeds, water them, and see the fruit of Jesus changing lives and families. What a privilege! 

The most practical way that we can show our young friends the love of Jesus is by providing for physical needs like school supplies. When we do that, we are able to have conversations about why people care about them, and ultimately, why Jesus cares about them. The Gospel can be communicated through the giving of a backpack! Not only that, but the student can go back to school with the confidence and dignity of having what they need to be successful in the year ahead.

Would you be able to help us share the love of Jesus by putting together a backpack for one of our friends?

Please contact Kristen Maxwell (KristenM@missionadelante.org) or Megan McDermott (Meganm@missionadelante.org) for more information.

Other News 

• IGNITE 2013 is this Saturday! A Workshop on Developing Businesses for Kingdom Impact - July 20 at 8:30am. You are invited to join us as we learn how fostering entrepreneuership can tranform lives and communities in under-resourced areas.  Check out the link below for more information and to register for the event!

IGNITE 2013 Information and Registration: July 20, 8:30-11:00 a.m 

• The medical clinic team continues to develop partnerships and learn from various community members as they seek to understand the complex medical needs in the neighborhood. We appreciate all of the feedback we are receiving this trimester and know it will help form a medical clinic that represents the diversity of culture and need among our neighbors. 

Prayer Needs

• Pray that program participants and volunteers would finish out the trimester strong!
• Please pray for the Adelante Business Coaching Team’s time with Rudy Carrasco this weekend as they continue to develop the ministry. Also pray that those in attendance at Ignite would be inspired to deepen their commitment to business as mission. 
• Pray for an immigrant family from one of our suburban churches who has a member in deportation hearings.  Please pray for God to open a way for this man to stay in the US with his wife and five children. 

Current Needs 

• The Kids Adelante ministry needs an ipod with a long battery life.. We would use it multiple times each week and would be so grateful to receive one.  Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org if you are interested. 
• Looking for an intentional way to impact the future leaders of our community? Our LIT(Leaders in Training, after-school tutoring program)  is currently seeking mentors for the fall..  Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org if you would like more info. 
• The hot weather is here, and the resource center is in need of two window AC units for a family. If you are about to help, please contact Molly at mollym@missionadelante.org.  

Important dates

Observation nights: July 16, 18, 23, & 25.  Have you wondered what all goes on around here on a typical evening of programming?  Here's your opportunity to come and see for yourself!  Come to 22 S. 18th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102 at 6:30.

Working Together: The First Bhutanese Store in KCK

by Kristen Allen, Director of Community Development

At Mission Adelante we began talking and praying seriously about how individual transformation could become community transformation in the fall of 2011. As we explored how Mission Adelante can help make a community impact through empowering our immigrant friends and working in partnership to address the needs of our community, others were dreaming too. Two Bhutanese refugees dreamed of opening a store to meet the cultural needs of their community and approached Mission Adelante to share their vision and ask for guidance.

We looked through our network and found volunteers willing to collaborate on this business venture.  A successful business owner saw the potential for individual and community transformation and came forward to provide technical assistance to the two entrepreneurs. Another Mission Adelante volunteer encouraged the entrepreneurs and assisted with various activities including using a box truck to go and pick-up store fixtures the entrepreneurs found through their own network. The Bhutanese community pooled money together to help make a down payment on the building. A long-time supporter of Mission Adelante used his business to finish furnishing fixtures in the store. And on December 9, 2012, R.G. Asian store opened at 101 S. 18th Street in Kansas City, Kansas. When God’s people work together it can be a powerful, transformative thing.

Click the image above to register now for Ignite 2013!

Thanks to R.G. Asian Store, our Bhutanese friends now have access to culturally appropriate and familiar food, clothing, and other products. Customer service is a high priority, and when Bhutanese refugees ask for a new item the owners work through their network in the US and Nepal until the item is on the shelves of their store.

The store owners’ contributions to the Bhutanese community go deeper than providing cultural items -- they also focus on the needs of the Bhutanese teens. R.G. Asian store supports the KC (BEST) Bhutanese Ekata Soccer Team and encourages the young men to be responsible and hard-working. Recognizing that the Bhutanese teens face the challenges of every teen (high school, fitting in, becoming independent, etc.) and the additional struggles faced by newcomers trying to integrate into a new culture, R.G. Asian created a space in the building behind the store where teens can hang out and play games like ping-pong so the teens have a positive outlet and are less likely to get mixed up in less desirable activities like gangs. Our friends at R.G. Asian Store remind us that business can make a community impact.

We hope to build on this experience and further develop a model of for equipping and coaching entrepreneurs through our emerging Adelante Business Coaching ministry. We envision those passionate about business sharing their skills with immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs and a coaching environment where individuals on both side of the mentoring relationship are contributing, learning, and growing. This is not an effort to “do for” - it is an effort of partnership to “do with” in a spirit of collaboration and dedication to the community.  

Do you want to dive deeper into how businesses can make a Kingdom impact? Learn more about Business as Mission at Ignite 2013: A Workshop for Developing Business for Kingdom Impact on July 20th. Read more about the workshop here: http://missionadelante.blogspot.com/2013/06/ignite-2013-workshop-on-developing.html and register for this event that coincides with the formation of Adelante Business Coaching.

Adelante Missions Institute: The Gospel in Cuba- July 27@9:00 a.m.