Business and faith beyond borders

DALLAS, TEX.

At the Saturday night auction over $108,000 was raised, half of which will be used to assist hurricane victims in Nicaragua. The remainder of the auction proceeds will be used for MEDA programs around the world.

The money for hurricane victims will go into MEDA's Nicaragua Reconstruction Fund assisting with areas such as workshop rehabilitation, housing loans, lending capital and road repairs. Although most of MEDA's programs were spared from the brunt of the hurricane, many clients lost homes, workshops, inventory and raw materials; farmers belonging to MEDA's marketing assistance program lost between 50-70% of their bean crop. The agency is soliciting funds to help them and other victims of the hurricane.

In addition to the auction, participants heard presentations on the theme "Business and Faith Beyond Borders", attended seminars and participated at the general meeting. They were told that $9.9 million had been lent to 8,000 clients in eight countries over the past year; over 147,000 days of employment had been created; over 800,000 trees planted in Haiti; and a new $3.25 million rural marketing program is helping 2,000 Bolivian families strengthen their farm operations.

Participants also heard that MEDA's first North American job creation program, in Lancaster, Pa., has seen 126 businesses started or strengthened and 183 jobs created since starting in 1993. Similar programs based on this model are being planned for five other US cities.

Presentations were made by Art DeFehr, president of Palliser Furniture, Winnipeg; Keith Reinhard, CEO of DDB Needham Worldwide Inc., the largest advertising agency in the US; and Sharon Stanley, refugee minister from Fresno, Calif., a leading authority on the economic problems facing America's immigration groups.

DeFehr criticized the global financial system and explained his company's venture into Mexico. (See side bar.)

Reinhard, who grew up in the Mennonite church, is responsible for some of North America's best-known ads "You deserve a break today"). He explained how his Mennonite upbringing helped him deal with ethical issues in advertising. He explained that his agency will not do ads for products which are harmful, such as tobacco. He called that kind of decision costly, but said "a principle isn't a principle until it costs you something."

The convention concluded with a sermon by Stanley, who spoke on the topic "From Green Cards to Grace". Stanley used the book of Ephesians to illustrate how Christians can enlarge the borders to include people of different cultures. Stanley thanked MEDA for supporting job creation efforts in Fresno, where she lives, noting that employment development is a high request by refugee churches. For these churches, she said, "employment development is a crucial way to extend evangelism", a way to invite people of many different backgrounds to obtain "citizenship in the one body of the church."

Next year's MEDA convention is Nov. 4-7 in Norfolk, Va.

At this year's MEDA convention in Dallas, Tex., participants heard a speech about the evils of the global financial system from the head of a large corporation.

Art DeFehr, president of Palliser Furniture in Winnipeg, criticized the global financial system, saying "there was a time when most people with capital owned some real assets they could see and be identified with such as my furniture factory in my own community." Today, however, the world is a place where people making decisions about the economy of many countries aren't connected to the people in those countries, resulting in what he called a "world without pity".

He contrasted this with his experience at his company, where he lives in the same community as many of his employees, noting that it would be hard to cut jobs to raise share prices and then have to "look into the eyes of those affected by our arbitrary decision."

"Morality doesn't exist in a vacuum," he said. "Morality develops in context."

For DeFehr, that context is community.

DeFehr went on to say that Palliser Furniture is trying to replicate a sense of community in Mexico, where the company has opened two factories this year. "Our goal is to become part of the Mexican fabric," he said. He also noted that the company is trying to create a sense of accountability in Mexico. Many of the Palliser managers are taking Spanish lessons and the company decided to offer a wage close to what the better employers in Mexico are paying.

Addressing the issue of investing, he went on to say that today "investors simply try to find the best poker player to play the game on their behalf. Do we have any idea what these people are doing with our money? Do we really feel good if our rate of return was based on a destructive bet against the currency of a small country and we won?"

DeFehr concluded on a pessimistic note about the global economy in general.

"I look in vain for thoughtful and informed voices to present alternatives to the economic currents that are divorcing morality and the marketplace. We need prophets, but there are few in sight." John Longhurst, MEDA

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