July 24, 2024 • 35 mins
Ever wondered how faith can seamlessly blend with business to create lasting impact? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Derek Kessin and Jonathan Thiessen from Heron Ventures, as they share their incredible journey from a high-flying finance careers to mission-driven lives. You'll learn how short-term missions in Guatemala and a transformative trip to Spain opened Derek's eyes to the power of "business as mission." Discover how he left his finance job in 2019 to empower economic sustainability in unreached areas, using his skills and experiences to advance the kingdom of God in innovative ways.
This episode takes you on a global exploration of how business can serve as a powerful platform for conversations about faith, family, and identity. Jonathan delves into the evolving roles of Westerners and local leaders in mission work, with a particular focus on regions like southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan. You'll gain insights into the holistic approach of integrating faith into every aspect of life, from work to stewardship of resources. Learn about the strategic alignment of talent and capital that supports global mission efforts, and the importance of finding co-laborers and investors who share this vision.
Get ready to be inspired by redemptive business models and impactful investments. Jonathan Thiessen shares invaluable advice on building investor relationships and amplifying voices from emerging markets. Derek highlights a portfolio company working with 29,000 smallholder farmers, aiming to transform the economic landscape. We also explore impactful initiatives in Moldova and Uganda that create economic stability and community growth. The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer, seeking divine guidance and connection in your daily life, and encourages a deeper understanding of our roles within God's mission.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Hello friends, welcome back tothe Unreached Podcast.
Dustin Elliott, here, your host,I get to have two guests today.
(00:48):
These guys work together at aventure capital firm called
Heron Ventures, so we've gotDerek Kessin and Jonathan
Thiessen.
We're going to talk about Heron.
Why is Heron unique?
Why would we have Heron on theUnreached Podcast?
Well, they're focused onbuilding companies and investing
in companies that often are inthe frontier portion of kind of
economic language, but this alsooverlays with unreached people
(01:11):
groups.
And so these guys love Jesus,they're all about it and they're
about bringing Jesus's namewhere he has not yet been named.
They're about sharing thegospel through the eyes and the
lens of business.
And so you know, we dotraditional missions work.
Here we do businesses missionswork.
Here we talk about thetechnology in between.
Today we're going to talk alittle bit about how we can be
(01:34):
investing among unreached people, groups, and then therefore be
in support of building kingdomthere.
So, derek Jonathan, welcome tothe show.
Hey, good morning, dustin.
Derek's first one to speak.
So we're going to start withyou, derek.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself, let the listeners get
to know a little bit about youand your story.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
To start, please, I'm 40 years old.
I live in Chicago.
I grew up in a small town incentral Illinois in a Christian
family.
I went to school for financeand economics so I wanted to
work in the financial markets.
I went to school for financeand economics so I wanted to
work in the financial markets.
I wanted to work in a dynamicenvironment that was always
changing, and so I worked for abond trading firm here in
Chicago founded by a couple ofWheaton college grads.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Let's talk about Heron.
You were working in finance.
Bond desk grew the firm andthen how did we transition and
get where we are now?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I think I was blessed , I think, to have a firm that
really cared about theirneighbor and people outside of
even just Chicago, and so we hada group of us who had gone down
to Guatemala through work acouple of times in a short-term
mission capacity.
I know short-term missions canbe a bit of a hot button topic.
(02:42):
It's probably well-earned,there's good, there's bad, but
for me, getting to go down to aneconomy that I was not familiar
with, spending time with folksthat literally live, I think,
about 11,000 people living in agarbage dump, and that
experience, I think, wasstarting to ignite something in
(03:04):
me that, hey, just working infinance and getting to think
that I'm awesome and I makemoney and all of these things
probably isn't the end of thestory, and so I think that's
really where a spark was lit forme.
I had never heard of the termbusiness as mission, of the term
(03:27):
business as mission.
That was never something thathad ever come into my context
until the church that I wasgoing to, that I went to at the
time, park Community Church herein Chicago was sending a group
of folks to a neighborhood justoutside of Madrid, spain, called
Leganese, and it's where many Ithink over 100,000 immigrants
from Morocco, mostly Muslimimmigrants, are settled there
(03:50):
outside of Madrid.
There's a lot in Barcelona aswell.
Something that this group ofpeople noticed about our church
who had sent people there before, is they're like, hey, you guys
are a young church and mostpeople that get sent over, who
do really, really good stuffwith us, they don't kind of have
the same business backgroundand the energy and the new ideas
and things like that.
Could you send some people overand help us think about how to
(04:11):
make this community center thatwe have here in the middle of
this neighborhood moresustainable?
And so that was the first timeI'd heard business as mission
and I was probably 2016 or 17.
And that was probably 2016 or17.
And from there I think it justwas kind of a snowball that just
kind of got momentum as itrolled down the hill.
And I was on the phone with awoman you all know from a
(04:36):
company called Impact Foundationin Kansas City.
She said well, derek, you knowGod owns all your assets, right?
And surely that wasn't thefirst time someone had tried to
tell me that, but it was thefirst time that it landed.
And so I think from there Isaid I am the person.
I'm an entrepreneur, I've beenworking at this company for 13
(04:56):
years.
It is time for me to go figureout what that means, and so I
exited the company in 2019.
I had had a few people connectme with different people and I
just started talking about whatI cared about, what I wanted to
do, and I didn't realize evensix months later.
Somebody was like, hey, what doyou do?
(05:16):
And I'd already kind of startedbuilding this.
I was like, oh well, I used towork at a bond trading firm and
I think for me, that's when itclicked that there was an
identity issue actually at theheart of all of this, and before
I could start something new, Iactually had to squash that and
say, hey, if I never work infinance ever again, if I never
do anything with loans, withbanks, with anything, I've got
to be okay with that.
(05:39):
And in God's goodness, afterkind of wrestling with that and
putting that to death, wherethis doesn't matter anymore to
me in terms of my identity, thenhe said, yeah, but I did
prepare you with those skillsfor a reason and I'd like you
now to use them in a differentway, and so that's kind of the
birth of Heron Ventures, whichcame through relationships,
(05:59):
everything from an 80-year-oldguy in New Jersey who said I
want to get a management companyand a fund started for emerging
and frontier marketentrepreneurs to lead with their
faith and love their neighbors,but I don't know how to run it,
let's go.
So I'm just going to pray thatsomebody comes along like that
kind of thing where we all justkind of found each other and has
(06:22):
really created this greaton-ramp to creating things that
an investor, an average personin America who's saying I know
that God owns all of my assetsand how the heck could I deploy
those in unique ways?
We're not the only way, butwe're one way that we're kind of
creating pathways and plumbingfor people to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Man, I love that you said God got you still, got you
quiet, got you listening andthen redirected you with your
gifts and your skill set intothis new vein.
Jonathan, let's pivot back overto you.
Let's talk about how you gotintroduced.
How did Heron come into play?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
So I think part of my journey connects into all of
this and the connection pointsstart way back when I was
working in Siberia andKazakhstan.
There was one kind of episodein particular where I remember
the early seeds or God beginningto poke at things in my own
paradigms and thinking.
(07:19):
I think you know I came fromvery much a worldview that saw
life in terms of sacred andsecular, and so this SSD, as
someone's called it thesacred-secular divide or sounds
a bit like a syndrome I thinkwas very much alive in my own
heart.
There's a quote from Mark Green, who leads LICC in London.
(07:41):
He says SSD leads us to believethat really holy people become
missionaries, moderately holypeople become pastors and people
who are not much used to Godget a job right or work in the
marketplace.
And it's a little tongue incheek, but I think to some
degree I was kind of in thatspace and we started in these
venture building programs.
(08:02):
We started a small network anda small fund to get people
started in business and we wereworking with a couple of larger
multinational companies, oneagricultural company in
particular, and I started doingsome business development for
them in northern Kazakhstan.
Actually, this was in 2004.
And I suddenly found myself inthese relationships with some of
(08:25):
the biggest landowners insouthern Russia and northern
Kazakhstan, sitting aroundtables with them, in these
conversations around faith andfamily.
I mean like literally within 24, 48 hours of meeting them.
We're sitting there and we'retalking about, like the big
questions of life, and I and I'dbeen in the region for a couple
of years earlier and we'd beenlooking at how do we get into
(08:49):
families, how do we have theseconversations with people around
faith.
No one understands why we'rehere.
You can't really call yourselfa missionary in the Russian
context the word doesn't workand it has all these kind of
connotations to it.
But suddenly, as I was therenow as a representative of this
(09:10):
company, I was sitting in theseconversations with people of
high influence and able to havelong discussions into the night
around the things that reallykind of matter to me questions
of identity and biblical truthand eternal destiny and all of
(09:32):
this and so I think for me itwas one of the first times where
I went oh, this is reallyinteresting.
I had seen business assomething that was at best a
platform or a means to an end.
You kind of run a business sothat you can do all these things
.
But here was, I found myself inthis place where, within the
context of business, I wasactually able to be the best
(09:54):
representative of God that I hadthe opportunity to be.
That was really kind of aformational moment for me, I
think one of the pivot momentsas I look back in my own history
, as we began to really look atwhat is happening around the
world, especially as we thinkabout the rise of the church in
(10:17):
the global south over the last20, 30, 40 years and the fact
that Brazil itself will have 100million evangelicals by 2030,
right, very different picturefrom where we were in 1958, the
1950s and 1960s, when a lot ofthe mission organizations were
(10:38):
birthed.
There's a new reality and whatdoes it mean to get behind our
brothers and sisters in theseparts of the world and
recognizing that there is stilla role for American talent to
come in and play specific roles,especially in certain parts of
the world where they're welcomedin.
There's going to be otherplaces where Brazilians are
(10:59):
going to be more impactful intaking up roles.
There's going to be otherplaces where Filipinos come in
and are welcomed and areaccepted and are a bigger part
of the narrative of what God'sdoing in that region, and so
this everyone to everywherething was a big part of our
journey.
But then recognizing that, okay, talent is only one piece of
(11:19):
the picture, as we think aboutthe growth of the church in
these other parts of the world,and we identify leaders who are
dreaming big dreams for theirnations, they're the ones with
ideas of what is it going totake to see the kingdom of God
really come alive in our context.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yeah, our role as Westerners is changing.
I think this is just one of therealities that we've got to
come to grips with.
It doesn't mean that we're notneeded.
In fact, everywhere we go,people are saying no, we do want
you guys here, we do want yourskills, your abilities, your
experience, maybe some of yourtraining and teaching.
But the idea of a long-termlegacy church planner who goes
(12:02):
in that role, I believe, hasshifted significantly over the
last couple of decades, andespecially within the last five
to 10 years, and so the stepinto Heron was really a very
natural one.
It was saying, okay, we've beenreframing the idea of how our
participation with God needs tochange the way that we engage
(12:25):
through our talents.
What about the way that weengage through the capital, the
resources that the Americanchurch brings to bear?
And that was kind of a naturalnext step as part of our journey
.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
You're operating naturally now under the theory
that God owns it all and you'recalled to steward it right, and
so we've talk about this often.
It's not go to work, write acheck on Sunday morning, let the
church go, do varsity,christian ministry, it's all his
Time.
Talent, treasure.
I'm created as an imager, as arepresentative of him, and I'm
called to be that all week long,not just at certain points of
(13:02):
the week.
It's about integrity with allthat you own, all that he owns,
and all that you're stewarding.
So you've got to shift to thatmindset.
Then you've got to findco-workers, co-laborers, in that
mindset.
Then you've got to findinvestors that are ready to be
shifted into that mindset, someof which may be operating more
(13:24):
from a position of.
I think I can do well on thebottom line here, and some may
be operating more from aposition of.
I think I can do well on thebottom line here, and some may
be operating more from aposition of I think I can do
well in advancing kingdom here.
So, derek, maybe unpack for ushow do you go about sourcing and
finding your investors and yourpartners, and then let's pivot
that into going into how do youfind your portfolio companies.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Whether it is a business that comes into our
pipeline, whether it is aninvestor that we are building a
relationship with, or whetherit's us ourselves, we are all on
a journey of like experiencingthe fullness of what that means
to be a steward, and I mean I'mwaiting for the day that I
realize what my next identityblind spot is, that I have to
(14:07):
burn to the ground.
You know, like where I'm notdone yet, god's not done with me
, and so that gives us, I think,an incredible amount of grace
towards not just ourselves andwhere we are as we like, as we
grow and look back at what we'vedone in the past and been like
man.
I wish we hadn't done it thatway.
Way, the same thing, extendedout to our investors and to our
(14:30):
portfolio companies, is thatwe're all on this journey
together.
Jonathan, I would love if youcould speak to some of the
investor relationships and whatit's like to talk to some of the
folks that come in.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I think for both of us, we recognize how far we've
come in our understanding aswe've listened to emerging and
frontier market leaders over thelast number of years and really
tried to amplify their voices.
I think it also gives us,hopefully, the right dose of
humility and recognizing that ifwe've come this far, we've
(15:01):
probably still got a way to goReally seeking people who just
want to be part of that journey.
Right, if God owns it all, ifeconomics is a science that
originates in the mind of God,then he's not simply interested
in what we give away, the 10 or5 or 2%.
He's not just interested in thesmall part of our capital.
He's not just interested in theROI on our investments, like
(15:25):
making as much money as we canso we can give more away, give
up you know our 2% adds up tomore but he's interested in the
actual investments themselves.
Our hearts are really to findpeople who are willing to step
in at a pretty early stage forus, a pretty early stage for the
(15:46):
faith-driven investing journeyand willing to, maybe even
willing to rethink some of theways that we've thought about
impact.
I think this is a big part ofour own journey saying what does
it look like when the kingdomof God shows up in a particular
(16:10):
geography.
I know typically the missionsworld has thought about impact,
the ultimate end being churchesplanted and people making a
decision for Christ and weabsolutely celebrate those
things and people making adecision for Christ, and we
absolutely celebrate thosethings.
We're also cognizant of thefact that the reality in the US
(16:33):
is I live in the Bible Beltwe've got tons of people in
churches, tons of peoplegathering on Sunday mornings.
Has that radically changed oursociety and made us into a place
(16:58):
that's truly seeing God'skingdom wholeness come out
Saturday, are holy, are owned bythe Lord, and that God has a
desire to see his kingdom impactthe sector that they're in, the
sector that he's placed them in.
And what does it look like whenthose hallmarks of the kingdom
(17:19):
begin to come alive and peoplelive like Jesus calls us to live
on the Sermon on the Mount,right, I think.
Typically in missions we've beenlight on following teaching
like the Sermon on the Mount.
We've been heavy on the deathand resurrection of Jesus, which
(17:40):
is great.
That's part of the salvationstory.
We haven't really known what todo in terms of being salt and
light, living out this longobedience.
In the same direction, I wasreading again this morning 1
Thessalonians I mean Paul'swords right.
Make it your ambition to leave aquiet life to work with your
(18:00):
hands.
And 1 Peter, 2.12,.
Live such good lives among thepagans that, though they accuse
you of you doing wrong, they maysee your good deeds and glorify
God on the day he visits us.
Just this lifestyle that Jesuscalls us to.
We're looking for investors whoare willing to kind of go on
that journey for themselves, ina spirit of humility and
(18:21):
transparency, and then saying,okay, as I'm doing that within
my company, within my businesshere in the US, what is that?
How can I share that journeywith someone in another market?
A young entrepreneurial leaderwho's seeking to live out the
life Jesus calls them tofaithfully within their context.
They're going to have verydifferent challenges, but we're
(18:43):
both journeying together inseeking to demonstrate the
reality of our faith in Christright Within our context.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Derek, maybe connect a few stories.
Let's talk about portfoliocompanies.
Let's talk about I know yourwebsite features a few.
Tell us a few stories aboutyour companies and how they're
having an impact.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, yeah.
The fullness, I think, of therelationship between a PE firm
and the portfolio companies,whether it's a majority stake or
minority stake, is really anarea that I think we're playing
in.
So an example of a businessthat we've invested in this year
is a global exporter ofinsecticide something that seems
(19:23):
kind of boring, right, wow,it's just a chemical that gets
exported.
The reality, when you look alittle bit deeper, is this
business works with about 29,000smallholder farmers.
Why does that matter?
On average, a smallholderfarmer that grows food makes
about 50% of a living wage.
So everyone along the valuechain of, let's say, coffee
(19:44):
makes money, from the brokerthat buys the beans, the people
that roast it, to the exporters,to the retail chains like
Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.
Everyone makes money and makesa livable wage and a lot of
money, except for thatsmallholder farmer, because they
don't have the power in therelationship, because maybe they
own like a fraction of an acre.
So what this business said theywork with 29,000 smallholder
(20:05):
farmers is that we're actuallygoing to look at our
relationship with the farmer alittle bit different.
We're going to invite them intothe abundance of this whole
value chain.
So what they do is they workwith the farmers to grow the
chrysanthemum flower.
The chrysanthemum flower has achemical in it, a plant-based
chemical called pyrethrin, andthat chemical can be extracted
(20:25):
and refined and used as anorganic insecticide.
Kenya used to be a largeproducer on the world stage of
this industry and the governmenttook it over and it had gone
down and it wasn't reallyproducing a lot.
Now this business now makes upabout 80% of Kenya's production
and their farmers are making onaverage, 10, 12 times more than
(20:47):
they would have made if theygrew corn, for instance, and
they get paid based on the yield.
So there is a market basis tothis.
So it's how can we help you geta higher chemical content in
your flower?
Because that's how you're goingto get paid.
So you're going to come learnhow this process goes so that
you can go back to your farm andget a higher yield so that you
get paid more, and so there'skind of this redemptive math
(21:09):
feedback loop of inviting thefarmers into the story.
They also have field officersthat cover a couple hundred
farmers each and they arespending time with the farmers.
They're out in the field, goingand meeting with the farmers,
meeting with their families, andthat's kind of where the like,
more of the discipleship aspectof the business takes place,
right, really building truerelationships with these farmers
(21:31):
.
They're forming a credit unionfor them.
Now they actually have.
They're not living in completescarcity anymore, they actually
have money to save.
So all of those things wherethey've looked at their
footprint and where you knowwhen you learn Porter's Five
Forces in the NBA, it says Ilook at everybody who I have
relationships with and I exploitthat for the benefit of my
(21:53):
business Selfishly.
That's what you learn in NBAschool.
They said I want to flip thatand how do I invite them into
the abundance of this sort ofeconomic engine?
And so they were justrecognized by the White House
they are the ninth fastestgrowing business in all of
Africa.
The way that they are justre-engineering a supply chain
(22:14):
for the good of their neighborand everyone who's a part of it
is incredible.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
There we go.
That's fantastic.
I love that.
I've heard similar storiesaround citronella and cocoa and,
obviously, coffee.
Right, there's a lot of workthe world's starting to pick up
on of.
Let's help these folks own somemore of their own land, let's
help them be more sustainableand have commerce, and let's
just call a spade a spade here.
(22:40):
If your whole generationalcontext is something starts to
go well here, then thegovernment comes and takes it,
then the government runs it intothe ground and then something
different comes along and it'soh wait, these people are coming
in with capital, with resources, with intelligence, with a
network, and they're bringingsustainable economy to my
(23:01):
community.
Yeah, um, what?
Okay, oh wait, you want to talkto me about Jesus?
I'm listening.
Tell me more about who you areand what you're bringing here
right, so you're earning again.
You're earning the right todisciple, to evangelize, to
bring that in.
Give us another story, derek.
That was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, and maybe another thing just to put a pin
in that one.
Um, one of the number onethings that farmers say about
this company is I can trust youto pay me on time.
It's probably inconceivable forthe average American to imagine
I sell my crop, I give it away,and then I wait weeks, months.
(23:40):
The broker comes back anddecides how much they want to
pay me Maybe what we agreed on,maybe not.
Maybe they never pay me Right,and so the fact that this
company is actually paying thesefarmers on time, you know,
within a couple of days of whenthey get the crops from them, is
a game to they're like.
I can trust you.
So, there, there is this elementof trust that they've they've
(24:01):
instilled as well, thank you forclosing that loop.
That's great.
Another one that's not in in,that is a part of our initial
investment fund that's in about16 different countries, is in
Moldova and it's a companycalled Unica, and Jonathan, feel
free to pepper in here as well.
I'm just going to tell thebeginning story.
Maybe you can tell a little bitabout what they do and where
(24:23):
they're going today, but thepart that really stood out for
me about this company.
So this company is within a fewminutes of the border of
Ukraine, kind of across theborder from Odessa, and we were
working with them.
So what they do is theymanufacture kind of glue press
panels that get built intoreally, really nice homes that
(24:43):
they export to Netherlands,germany.
They do it out of this oldSoviet factory and they were so
successful they had four yearsworth of orders when they came
to us.
So they said, at this rate, tokeep up with all our orders is
going to take us four years tobuild these eco-friendly homes.
And there's another kind ofdilapidated factory next door
that they could retrofit, put inmachinery and they could start
(25:04):
catching up on some of those.
So it's kind of like ano-brainer from a market demand
standpoint and we're inconversations with them about
potentially investing in theirbusiness and all of a sudden
they just kind of go dark andthis was right about the time
that the war broke out inUkraine and I can't get a hold
of them.
I can't get a hold of them andI was like man, I hope they're
(25:25):
okay.
I don't know what's going onand, of course, I have the key
to them getting what they need.
I'm the guy with the investmentthat we're in the later stages
of due diligence to say yes orno.
You would think I would be theperson that they would answer
the phone to.
Instead, they had closed downthe entire factory for days,
(25:47):
sent their whole staff to theborder and they were helping
Ukrainian refugees come acrossthe border.
They were paying theiremployees gas money to drive the
refugees to the next town tojust get them to sort of to
where they were trying to go.
They're doing 800 meals a day.
They became the sort of the hubfor, I think the the UN was
there.
The US embassy was there intheir office.
World Vision was there.
(26:07):
Operation US embassy was therein their office.
World Vision was there.
Operation Mobilization wasthere.
Everyone was using their officeas the central hub to deploy
resources, and so that just wasradical.
To me, there's nothing aboutblue pressed panels other than
the fact that they'reeco-friendly.
That looks like a redemptivebusiness.
If you look at that businessmodel, you're not like.
This is like really redeemingand restoring.
(26:28):
Other than a lot of Moldovans Ithink about half of Moldovans
in the world live outside ofMoldova, and so what they were
trying to do in growing thisfactory was provide a way for
families to stay together, sothat one parent wasn't working
out of the country, sendingmoney back to their family
that's still living there backto their family that's still
(26:49):
living there.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
They're pretty phenomenal, certified across the
European Union.
The majority of their homescurrently are going to the
Netherlands.
I think another aspect to this.
So not only do they create likea really awesome product.
But to Derek's earlier point,you know you talk about
transformation.
One of the big challenges forthe church in Moldova in
particular is you've got allthese men who are leaving.
Every year, like a third of themen leave the country and
(27:11):
either go to Russia or otherparts of Europe to work, and so
talk about trying to grow achurch when the majority of your
church leaders are leaving formore than half the year.
So not only are you opening upfamilies to exploitation I mean
a lot of the human traffickingkind of comes through these
parts of Eastern Europe andexploits women and children who
(27:34):
are left and vulnerable.
But in terms of building achurch and building a community,
if your workforce are leaving,if a lot of your leaders are
leaving on a consistent basis,you're fighting against the wind
, and so keeping people in thecountry, providing them with
good jobs, is one of the thingsthat you can do that will have
(27:58):
the greatest impact.
We believe long term in seeingthe church in Moldova really
thrive.
Sometimes it's not thatcomplicated, is it?
It's not that complicated, andthis is the thing that they tell
us.
We need more jobs.
They also tell us we needaccess to external markets.
There's entrepreneurs who arecreating incredible products,
like Unica.
They're saying what does itlook like to connect with
(28:20):
markets in the US and furtherabroad?
Let me share one other quickstory.
This is another one that maytick a couple of boxes.
Bota-bota drivers are motorcycle.
Taxi drivers in Africa are someof the biggest, most popular
ways for people to get around.
There are over a millionbota-botas in Uganda.
(28:40):
Most of the bota-bota driversdon't have access to affordable
financing, and so they don't owntheir own bikes.
Right the drivers?
They're trapped in these cyclesof financial dependency.
They're given extractive loansto kind of keep them connected
or dependent on a couple of thelarger, wealthier owners, and so
(29:02):
they're leasing their BotaBotas indefinitely.
So one of the businesses thatwe got behind in 2021 was a
financing program for Bota Botadrivers across cities in Uganda,
providing them with anopportunity to go on a 12, 18,
24 month journey towards payingoff a loan, and for many of them
(29:25):
, this motorcycle, this BodaBoda, is the first asset they're
ever going to own in theirlives.
It's amazing.
They're launching 150 to 200new motorcycles each month.
We were actually Derek and Iwere there a couple of months
ago when they launched another Idon't know what it was 40, 50
motorbikes that day from thatlocation.
They've now got 80 full-timestaff across nine locations in
(29:48):
Uganda.
And here's what I think isreally exciting.
So every week, as these driverscome back to make their weekly
payment, they're gatheredtogether.
They call it weekly tablegroups.
They get together, they get ameal and they go through the
Bible and they're studying.
What does it look like?
What does Jesus have to sayabout the daily issues in my
(30:11):
life?
And so these 90 table groupsare happening and that number is
growing.
They're happening every weekacross nine different locations
in Uganda, all around this kindof incredible opportunity for
mostly men, but some women aswell to own their first bikes.
And what's happened as well iswe just asked this question when
(30:32):
we were there those who havenow paid off their loans 23 of
those that they know of have nowgone on to kind of start table
groups within their own homes,so they're no longer needing to
come to the weekly table group.
They've now got a communityfellowship within their own
homes, and so they'remultiplying themselves.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
There we go.
2 Timothy 2.2.
You've heard me teach thesetruths.
I'll pass them on to others whocan teach them to others, right
?
So I love that.
That's a beautiful story.
Thank you for sharing that one.
I think a lot of listeners canrelate.
You look back to OperationChristmas Child and that series
we did last Christmas and justthe power of giving something to
a child that maybe has neverowned or had anything of their
(31:10):
own, and now they have a stuffedanimal or a ball or something.
But this is different.
This is I'm working to earnsomething that I can then go and
build a family with, I can thengo and support my community
with, and then man y'alldiscipling them at this table
(31:30):
weekly.
How beautiful is that man?
That is real heart change andlife change.
And, by the way, you'rediscipling the guys that are
traveling among all thedifferent tribes and villages
and areas, right, andinteracting with all the
different people.
Derek, closing us out here,tell the listeners what do they
need to know about Heron Ifthey're interested in investing
among frontier groups andunreached people groups and
(31:52):
supporting companies like this,how do they get in touch with
y'all and what would be the nextsteps?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I would say the biggest thing is you have to
have a guide if you're going toventure out into this space.
So you really do need to have aqualified financial advisor who
has the Christian lens that'sgoing to help you.
Kind of balance like what do Ido with my charitable dollars,
what do I do with my investmentsand kind of the traditional
(32:17):
vanilla things.
And then what do I do in thiskind of like private investments
area where maybe I have theopportunity to play a little bit
more redemptively.
So I would say they need toreach out to those people first.
We're the type of type we havethree private investment funds,
so the third one is launching alittle bit later this year,
maybe the beginning of next year.
They can find out about thosethrough their advisors.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Think about all the money, all the time, talent and
treasure that God's given youand how you can use that to be
aligning your life with his will.
Guys, y'all were great guests.
I really appreciate it.
I love that we get to tell theHeron story.
And then I'm going to ask oneof you a tradition on the
Unreached podcast.
We always ask our guests topray for the listeners, so would
one of you pray us out?
Sure thing.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Heavenly Father, thank you for this way of us
connecting through the airwavesand, god, we just pray for every
listener out there who was ableto engage in this story and the
many others that have comebefore and will come after.
The same way that we experiencethese light bulb moments of the
different things that you'returning on in our lives, god, we
(33:20):
just pray for that in the dailylives of your listeners and
ways that may surprise us andways that may surprise us and
ways that might surprise them.
God, we are prayerful of thejourneys that each one of us is
on and we just pray that youwould continue to shape our
(33:41):
hearts, as you're continuing toshape the world and redeem and
restore all things.
And it's in Jesus' name we prayall these things, amen.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
And amen.
Thank you again, guys.
Thank you for listening toUnreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
(34:11):
life group, small group, d group, wherever you do life, and if
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
You, you.
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Hello friends, welcome back tothe Unreached Podcast.
Dustin Elliott, here, your host,I get to have two guests today.
(00:48):
These guys work together at aventure capital firm called
Heron Ventures, so we've gotDerek Kessin and Jonathan
Thiessen.
We're going to talk about Heron.
Why is Heron unique?
Why would we have Heron on theUnreached Podcast?
Well, they're focused onbuilding companies and investing
in companies that often are inthe frontier portion of kind of
economic language, but this alsooverlays with unreached people
(01:11):
groups.
And so these guys love Jesus,they're all about it and they're
about bringing Jesus's namewhere he has not yet been named.
They're about sharing thegospel through the eyes and the
lens of business.
And so you know, we dotraditional missions work.
Here we do businesses missionswork.
Here we talk about thetechnology in between.
Today we're going to talk alittle bit about how we can be
(01:34):
investing among unreached people, groups, and then therefore be
in support of building kingdomthere.
So, derek Jonathan, welcome tothe show.
Hey, good morning, dustin.
Derek's first one to speak.
So we're going to start withyou, derek.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself, let the listeners get
to know a little bit about youand your story.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
To start, please, I'm 40 years old.
I live in Chicago.
I grew up in a small town incentral Illinois in a Christian
family.
I went to school for financeand economics so I wanted to
work in the financial markets.
I went to school for financeand economics so I wanted to
work in the financial markets.
I wanted to work in a dynamicenvironment that was always
changing, and so I worked for abond trading firm here in
Chicago founded by a couple ofWheaton college grads.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Let's talk about Heron.
You were working in finance.
Bond desk grew the firm andthen how did we transition and
get where we are now?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I think I was blessed , I think, to have a firm that
really cared about theirneighbor and people outside of
even just Chicago, and so we hada group of us who had gone down
to Guatemala through work acouple of times in a short-term
mission capacity.
I know short-term missions canbe a bit of a hot button topic.
(02:42):
It's probably well-earned,there's good, there's bad, but
for me, getting to go down to aneconomy that I was not familiar
with, spending time with folksthat literally live, I think,
about 11,000 people living in agarbage dump, and that
experience, I think, wasstarting to ignite something in
(03:04):
me that, hey, just working infinance and getting to think
that I'm awesome and I makemoney and all of these things
probably isn't the end of thestory, and so I think that's
really where a spark was lit forme.
I had never heard of the termbusiness as mission, of the term
(03:27):
business as mission.
That was never something thathad ever come into my context
until the church that I wasgoing to, that I went to at the
time, park Community Church herein Chicago was sending a group
of folks to a neighborhood justoutside of Madrid, spain, called
Leganese, and it's where many Ithink over 100,000 immigrants
from Morocco, mostly Muslimimmigrants, are settled there
(03:50):
outside of Madrid.
There's a lot in Barcelona aswell.
Something that this group ofpeople noticed about our church
who had sent people there before, is they're like, hey, you guys
are a young church and mostpeople that get sent over, who
do really, really good stuffwith us, they don't kind of have
the same business backgroundand the energy and the new ideas
and things like that.
Could you send some people overand help us think about how to
(04:11):
make this community center thatwe have here in the middle of
this neighborhood moresustainable?
And so that was the first timeI'd heard business as mission
and I was probably 2016 or 17.
And that was probably 2016 or17.
And from there I think it justwas kind of a snowball that just
kind of got momentum as itrolled down the hill.
And I was on the phone with awoman you all know from a
(04:36):
company called Impact Foundationin Kansas City.
She said well, derek, you knowGod owns all your assets, right?
And surely that wasn't thefirst time someone had tried to
tell me that, but it was thefirst time that it landed.
And so I think from there Isaid I am the person.
I'm an entrepreneur, I've beenworking at this company for 13
(04:56):
years.
It is time for me to go figureout what that means, and so I
exited the company in 2019.
I had had a few people connectme with different people and I
just started talking about whatI cared about, what I wanted to
do, and I didn't realize evensix months later.
Somebody was like, hey, what doyou do?
(05:16):
And I'd already kind of startedbuilding this.
I was like, oh well, I used towork at a bond trading firm and
I think for me, that's when itclicked that there was an
identity issue actually at theheart of all of this, and before
I could start something new, Iactually had to squash that and
say, hey, if I never work infinance ever again, if I never
do anything with loans, withbanks, with anything, I've got
to be okay with that.
(05:39):
And in God's goodness, afterkind of wrestling with that and
putting that to death, wherethis doesn't matter anymore to
me in terms of my identity, thenhe said, yeah, but I did
prepare you with those skillsfor a reason and I'd like you
now to use them in a differentway, and so that's kind of the
birth of Heron Ventures, whichcame through relationships,
(05:59):
everything from an 80-year-oldguy in New Jersey who said I
want to get a management companyand a fund started for emerging
and frontier marketentrepreneurs to lead with their
faith and love their neighbors,but I don't know how to run it,
let's go.
So I'm just going to pray thatsomebody comes along like that
kind of thing where we all justkind of found each other and has
(06:22):
really created this greaton-ramp to creating things that
an investor, an average personin America who's saying I know
that God owns all of my assetsand how the heck could I deploy
those in unique ways?
We're not the only way, butwe're one way that we're kind of
creating pathways and plumbingfor people to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Man, I love that you said God got you still, got you
quiet, got you listening andthen redirected you with your
gifts and your skill set intothis new vein.
Jonathan, let's pivot back overto you.
Let's talk about how you gotintroduced.
How did Heron come into play?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
So I think part of my journey connects into all of
this and the connection pointsstart way back when I was
working in Siberia andKazakhstan.
There was one kind of episodein particular where I remember
the early seeds or God beginningto poke at things in my own
paradigms and thinking.
(07:19):
I think you know I came fromvery much a worldview that saw
life in terms of sacred andsecular, and so this SSD, as
someone's called it thesacred-secular divide or sounds
a bit like a syndrome I thinkwas very much alive in my own
heart.
There's a quote from Mark Green, who leads LICC in London.
(07:41):
He says SSD leads us to believethat really holy people become
missionaries, moderately holypeople become pastors and people
who are not much used to Godget a job right or work in the
marketplace.
And it's a little tongue incheek, but I think to some
degree I was kind of in thatspace and we started in these
venture building programs.
(08:02):
We started a small network anda small fund to get people
started in business and we wereworking with a couple of larger
multinational companies, oneagricultural company in
particular, and I started doingsome business development for
them in northern Kazakhstan.
Actually, this was in 2004.
And I suddenly found myself inthese relationships with some of
(08:25):
the biggest landowners insouthern Russia and northern
Kazakhstan, sitting aroundtables with them, in these
conversations around faith andfamily.
I mean like literally within 24, 48 hours of meeting them.
We're sitting there and we'retalking about, like the big
questions of life, and I and I'dbeen in the region for a couple
of years earlier and we'd beenlooking at how do we get into
(08:49):
families, how do we have theseconversations with people around
faith.
No one understands why we'rehere.
You can't really call yourselfa missionary in the Russian
context the word doesn't workand it has all these kind of
connotations to it.
But suddenly, as I was therenow as a representative of this
(09:10):
company, I was sitting in theseconversations with people of
high influence and able to havelong discussions into the night
around the things that reallykind of matter to me questions
of identity and biblical truthand eternal destiny and all of
(09:32):
this and so I think for me itwas one of the first times where
I went oh, this is reallyinteresting.
I had seen business assomething that was at best a
platform or a means to an end.
You kind of run a business sothat you can do all these things
.
But here was, I found myself inthis place where, within the
context of business, I wasactually able to be the best
(09:54):
representative of God that I hadthe opportunity to be.
That was really kind of aformational moment for me, I
think one of the pivot momentsas I look back in my own history
, as we began to really look atwhat is happening around the
world, especially as we thinkabout the rise of the church in
(10:17):
the global south over the last20, 30, 40 years and the fact
that Brazil itself will have 100million evangelicals by 2030,
right, very different picturefrom where we were in 1958, the
1950s and 1960s, when a lot ofthe mission organizations were
(10:38):
birthed.
There's a new reality and whatdoes it mean to get behind our
brothers and sisters in theseparts of the world and
recognizing that there is stilla role for American talent to
come in and play specific roles,especially in certain parts of
the world where they're welcomedin.
There's going to be otherplaces where Brazilians are
(10:59):
going to be more impactful intaking up roles.
There's going to be otherplaces where Filipinos come in
and are welcomed and areaccepted and are a bigger part
of the narrative of what God'sdoing in that region, and so
this everyone to everywherething was a big part of our
journey.
But then recognizing that, okay, talent is only one piece of
(11:19):
the picture, as we think aboutthe growth of the church in
these other parts of the world,and we identify leaders who are
dreaming big dreams for theirnations, they're the ones with
ideas of what is it going totake to see the kingdom of God
really come alive in our context.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yeah, our role as Westerners is changing.
I think this is just one of therealities that we've got to
come to grips with.
It doesn't mean that we're notneeded.
In fact, everywhere we go,people are saying no, we do want
you guys here, we do want yourskills, your abilities, your
experience, maybe some of yourtraining and teaching.
But the idea of a long-termlegacy church planner who goes
(12:02):
in that role, I believe, hasshifted significantly over the
last couple of decades, andespecially within the last five
to 10 years, and so the stepinto Heron was really a very
natural one.
It was saying, okay, we've beenreframing the idea of how our
participation with God needs tochange the way that we engage
(12:25):
through our talents.
What about the way that weengage through the capital, the
resources that the Americanchurch brings to bear?
And that was kind of a naturalnext step as part of our journey
.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
You're operating naturally now under the theory
that God owns it all and you'recalled to steward it right, and
so we've talk about this often.
It's not go to work, write acheck on Sunday morning, let the
church go, do varsity,christian ministry, it's all his
Time.
Talent, treasure.
I'm created as an imager, as arepresentative of him, and I'm
called to be that all week long,not just at certain points of
(13:02):
the week.
It's about integrity with allthat you own, all that he owns,
and all that you're stewarding.
So you've got to shift to thatmindset.
Then you've got to findco-workers, co-laborers, in that
mindset.
Then you've got to findinvestors that are ready to be
shifted into that mindset, someof which may be operating more
(13:24):
from a position of.
I think I can do well on thebottom line here, and some may
be operating more from aposition of.
I think I can do well on thebottom line here, and some may
be operating more from aposition of I think I can do
well in advancing kingdom here.
So, derek, maybe unpack for ushow do you go about sourcing and
finding your investors and yourpartners, and then let's pivot
that into going into how do youfind your portfolio companies.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Whether it is a business that comes into our
pipeline, whether it is aninvestor that we are building a
relationship with, or whetherit's us ourselves, we are all on
a journey of like experiencingthe fullness of what that means
to be a steward, and I mean I'mwaiting for the day that I
realize what my next identityblind spot is, that I have to
(14:07):
burn to the ground.
You know, like where I'm notdone yet, god's not done with me
, and so that gives us, I think,an incredible amount of grace
towards not just ourselves andwhere we are as we like, as we
grow and look back at what we'vedone in the past and been like
man.
I wish we hadn't done it thatway.
Way, the same thing, extendedout to our investors and to our
(14:30):
portfolio companies, is thatwe're all on this journey
together.
Jonathan, I would love if youcould speak to some of the
investor relationships and whatit's like to talk to some of the
folks that come in.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I think for both of us, we recognize how far we've
come in our understanding aswe've listened to emerging and
frontier market leaders over thelast number of years and really
tried to amplify their voices.
I think it also gives us,hopefully, the right dose of
humility and recognizing that ifwe've come this far, we've
(15:01):
probably still got a way to goReally seeking people who just
want to be part of that journey.
Right, if God owns it all, ifeconomics is a science that
originates in the mind of God,then he's not simply interested
in what we give away, the 10 or5 or 2%.
He's not just interested in thesmall part of our capital.
He's not just interested in theROI on our investments, like
(15:25):
making as much money as we canso we can give more away, give
up you know our 2% adds up tomore but he's interested in the
actual investments themselves.
Our hearts are really to findpeople who are willing to step
in at a pretty early stage forus, a pretty early stage for the
(15:46):
faith-driven investing journeyand willing to, maybe even
willing to rethink some of theways that we've thought about
impact.
I think this is a big part ofour own journey saying what does
it look like when the kingdomof God shows up in a particular
(16:10):
geography.
I know typically the missionsworld has thought about impact,
the ultimate end being churchesplanted and people making a
decision for Christ and weabsolutely celebrate those
things and people making adecision for Christ, and we
absolutely celebrate thosethings.
We're also cognizant of thefact that the reality in the US
(16:33):
is I live in the Bible Beltwe've got tons of people in
churches, tons of peoplegathering on Sunday mornings.
Has that radically changed oursociety and made us into a place
(16:58):
that's truly seeing God'skingdom wholeness come out
Saturday, are holy, are owned bythe Lord, and that God has a
desire to see his kingdom impactthe sector that they're in, the
sector that he's placed them in.
And what does it look like whenthose hallmarks of the kingdom
(17:19):
begin to come alive and peoplelive like Jesus calls us to live
on the Sermon on the Mount,right, I think.
Typically in missions we've beenlight on following teaching
like the Sermon on the Mount.
We've been heavy on the deathand resurrection of Jesus, which
(17:40):
is great.
That's part of the salvationstory.
We haven't really known what todo in terms of being salt and
light, living out this longobedience.
In the same direction, I wasreading again this morning 1
Thessalonians I mean Paul'swords right.
Make it your ambition to leave aquiet life to work with your
(18:00):
hands.
And 1 Peter, 2.12,.
Live such good lives among thepagans that, though they accuse
you of you doing wrong, they maysee your good deeds and glorify
God on the day he visits us.
Just this lifestyle that Jesuscalls us to.
We're looking for investors whoare willing to kind of go on
that journey for themselves, ina spirit of humility and
(18:21):
transparency, and then saying,okay, as I'm doing that within
my company, within my businesshere in the US, what is that?
How can I share that journeywith someone in another market?
A young entrepreneurial leaderwho's seeking to live out the
life Jesus calls them tofaithfully within their context.
They're going to have verydifferent challenges, but we're
(18:43):
both journeying together inseeking to demonstrate the
reality of our faith in Christright Within our context.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Derek, maybe connect a few stories.
Let's talk about portfoliocompanies.
Let's talk about I know yourwebsite features a few.
Tell us a few stories aboutyour companies and how they're
having an impact.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, yeah.
The fullness, I think, of therelationship between a PE firm
and the portfolio companies,whether it's a majority stake or
minority stake, is really anarea that I think we're playing
in.
So an example of a businessthat we've invested in this year
is a global exporter ofinsecticide something that seems
(19:23):
kind of boring, right, wow,it's just a chemical that gets
exported.
The reality, when you look alittle bit deeper, is this
business works with about 29,000smallholder farmers.
Why does that matter?
On average, a smallholderfarmer that grows food makes
about 50% of a living wage.
So everyone along the valuechain of, let's say, coffee
(19:44):
makes money, from the brokerthat buys the beans, the people
that roast it, to the exporters,to the retail chains like
Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.
Everyone makes money and makesa livable wage and a lot of
money, except for thatsmallholder farmer, because they
don't have the power in therelationship, because maybe they
own like a fraction of an acre.
So what this business said theywork with 29,000 smallholder
(20:05):
farmers is that we're actuallygoing to look at our
relationship with the farmer alittle bit different.
We're going to invite them intothe abundance of this whole
value chain.
So what they do is they workwith the farmers to grow the
chrysanthemum flower.
The chrysanthemum flower has achemical in it, a plant-based
chemical called pyrethrin, andthat chemical can be extracted
(20:25):
and refined and used as anorganic insecticide.
Kenya used to be a largeproducer on the world stage of
this industry and the governmenttook it over and it had gone
down and it wasn't reallyproducing a lot.
Now this business now makes upabout 80% of Kenya's production
and their farmers are making onaverage, 10, 12 times more than
(20:47):
they would have made if theygrew corn, for instance, and
they get paid based on the yield.
So there is a market basis tothis.
So it's how can we help you geta higher chemical content in
your flower?
Because that's how you're goingto get paid.
So you're going to come learnhow this process goes so that
you can go back to your farm andget a higher yield so that you
get paid more, and so there'skind of this redemptive math
(21:09):
feedback loop of inviting thefarmers into the story.
They also have field officersthat cover a couple hundred
farmers each and they arespending time with the farmers.
They're out in the field, goingand meeting with the farmers,
meeting with their families, andthat's kind of where the like,
more of the discipleship aspectof the business takes place,
right, really building truerelationships with these farmers
(21:31):
.
They're forming a credit unionfor them.
Now they actually have.
They're not living in completescarcity anymore, they actually
have money to save.
So all of those things wherethey've looked at their
footprint and where you knowwhen you learn Porter's Five
Forces in the NBA, it says Ilook at everybody who I have
relationships with and I exploitthat for the benefit of my
(21:53):
business Selfishly.
That's what you learn in NBAschool.
They said I want to flip thatand how do I invite them into
the abundance of this sort ofeconomic engine?
And so they were justrecognized by the White House
they are the ninth fastestgrowing business in all of
Africa.
The way that they are justre-engineering a supply chain
(22:14):
for the good of their neighborand everyone who's a part of it
is incredible.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
There we go.
That's fantastic.
I love that.
I've heard similar storiesaround citronella and cocoa and,
obviously, coffee.
Right, there's a lot of workthe world's starting to pick up
on of.
Let's help these folks own somemore of their own land, let's
help them be more sustainableand have commerce, and let's
just call a spade a spade here.
(22:40):
If your whole generationalcontext is something starts to
go well here, then thegovernment comes and takes it,
then the government runs it intothe ground and then something
different comes along and it'soh wait, these people are coming
in with capital, with resources, with intelligence, with a
network, and they're bringingsustainable economy to my
(23:01):
community.
Yeah, um, what?
Okay, oh wait, you want to talkto me about Jesus?
I'm listening.
Tell me more about who you areand what you're bringing here
right, so you're earning again.
You're earning the right todisciple, to evangelize, to
bring that in.
Give us another story, derek.
That was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, and maybe another thing just to put a pin
in that one.
Um, one of the number onethings that farmers say about
this company is I can trust youto pay me on time.
It's probably inconceivable forthe average American to imagine
I sell my crop, I give it away,and then I wait weeks, months.
(23:40):
The broker comes back anddecides how much they want to
pay me Maybe what we agreed on,maybe not.
Maybe they never pay me Right,and so the fact that this
company is actually paying thesefarmers on time, you know,
within a couple of days of whenthey get the crops from them, is
a game to they're like.
I can trust you.
So, there, there is this elementof trust that they've they've
(24:01):
instilled as well, thank you forclosing that loop.
That's great.
Another one that's not in in,that is a part of our initial
investment fund that's in about16 different countries, is in
Moldova and it's a companycalled Unica, and Jonathan, feel
free to pepper in here as well.
I'm just going to tell thebeginning story.
Maybe you can tell a little bitabout what they do and where
(24:23):
they're going today, but thepart that really stood out for
me about this company.
So this company is within a fewminutes of the border of
Ukraine, kind of across theborder from Odessa, and we were
working with them.
So what they do is theymanufacture kind of glue press
panels that get built intoreally, really nice homes that
(24:43):
they export to Netherlands,germany.
They do it out of this oldSoviet factory and they were so
successful they had four yearsworth of orders when they came
to us.
So they said, at this rate, tokeep up with all our orders is
going to take us four years tobuild these eco-friendly homes.
And there's another kind ofdilapidated factory next door
that they could retrofit, put inmachinery and they could start
(25:04):
catching up on some of those.
So it's kind of like ano-brainer from a market demand
standpoint and we're inconversations with them about
potentially investing in theirbusiness and all of a sudden
they just kind of go dark andthis was right about the time
that the war broke out inUkraine and I can't get a hold
of them.
I can't get a hold of them andI was like man, I hope they're
(25:25):
okay.
I don't know what's going onand, of course, I have the key
to them getting what they need.
I'm the guy with the investmentthat we're in the later stages
of due diligence to say yes orno.
You would think I would be theperson that they would answer
the phone to.
Instead, they had closed downthe entire factory for days,
(25:47):
sent their whole staff to theborder and they were helping
Ukrainian refugees come acrossthe border.
They were paying theiremployees gas money to drive the
refugees to the next town tojust get them to sort of to
where they were trying to go.
They're doing 800 meals a day.
They became the sort of the hubfor, I think the the UN was
there.
The US embassy was there intheir office.
World Vision was there.
(26:07):
Operation US embassy was therein their office.
World Vision was there.
Operation Mobilization wasthere.
Everyone was using their officeas the central hub to deploy
resources, and so that just wasradical.
To me, there's nothing aboutblue pressed panels other than
the fact that they'reeco-friendly.
That looks like a redemptivebusiness.
If you look at that businessmodel, you're not like.
This is like really redeemingand restoring.
(26:28):
Other than a lot of Moldovans Ithink about half of Moldovans
in the world live outside ofMoldova, and so what they were
trying to do in growing thisfactory was provide a way for
families to stay together, sothat one parent wasn't working
out of the country, sendingmoney back to their family
that's still living there backto their family that's still
(26:49):
living there.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
They're pretty phenomenal, certified across the
European Union.
The majority of their homescurrently are going to the
Netherlands.
I think another aspect to this.
So not only do they create likea really awesome product.
But to Derek's earlier point,you know you talk about
transformation.
One of the big challenges forthe church in Moldova in
particular is you've got allthese men who are leaving.
Every year, like a third of themen leave the country and
(27:11):
either go to Russia or otherparts of Europe to work, and so
talk about trying to grow achurch when the majority of your
church leaders are leaving formore than half the year.
So not only are you opening upfamilies to exploitation I mean
a lot of the human traffickingkind of comes through these
parts of Eastern Europe andexploits women and children who
(27:34):
are left and vulnerable.
But in terms of building achurch and building a community,
if your workforce are leaving,if a lot of your leaders are
leaving on a consistent basis,you're fighting against the wind
, and so keeping people in thecountry, providing them with
good jobs, is one of the thingsthat you can do that will have
(27:58):
the greatest impact.
We believe long term in seeingthe church in Moldova really
thrive.
Sometimes it's not thatcomplicated, is it?
It's not that complicated, andthis is the thing that they tell
us.
We need more jobs.
They also tell us we needaccess to external markets.
There's entrepreneurs who arecreating incredible products,
like Unica.
They're saying what does itlook like to connect with
(28:20):
markets in the US and furtherabroad?
Let me share one other quickstory.
This is another one that maytick a couple of boxes.
Bota-bota drivers are motorcycle.
Taxi drivers in Africa are someof the biggest, most popular
ways for people to get around.
There are over a millionbota-botas in Uganda.
(28:40):
Most of the bota-bota driversdon't have access to affordable
financing, and so they don't owntheir own bikes.
Right the drivers?
They're trapped in these cyclesof financial dependency.
They're given extractive loansto kind of keep them connected
or dependent on a couple of thelarger, wealthier owners, and so
(29:02):
they're leasing their BotaBotas indefinitely.
So one of the businesses thatwe got behind in 2021 was a
financing program for Bota Botadrivers across cities in Uganda,
providing them with anopportunity to go on a 12, 18,
24 month journey towards payingoff a loan, and for many of them
(29:25):
, this motorcycle, this BodaBoda, is the first asset they're
ever going to own in theirlives.
It's amazing.
They're launching 150 to 200new motorcycles each month.
We were actually Derek and Iwere there a couple of months
ago when they launched another Idon't know what it was 40, 50
motorbikes that day from thatlocation.
They've now got 80 full-timestaff across nine locations in
(29:48):
Uganda.
And here's what I think isreally exciting.
So every week, as these driverscome back to make their weekly
payment, they're gatheredtogether.
They call it weekly tablegroups.
They get together, they get ameal and they go through the
Bible and they're studying.
What does it look like?
What does Jesus have to sayabout the daily issues in my
(30:11):
life?
And so these 90 table groupsare happening and that number is
growing.
They're happening every weekacross nine different locations
in Uganda, all around this kindof incredible opportunity for
mostly men, but some women aswell to own their first bikes.
And what's happened as well iswe just asked this question when
(30:32):
we were there those who havenow paid off their loans 23 of
those that they know of have nowgone on to kind of start table
groups within their own homes,so they're no longer needing to
come to the weekly table group.
They've now got a communityfellowship within their own
homes, and so they'remultiplying themselves.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
There we go.
2 Timothy 2.2.
You've heard me teach thesetruths.
I'll pass them on to others whocan teach them to others, right
?
So I love that.
That's a beautiful story.
Thank you for sharing that one.
I think a lot of listeners canrelate.
You look back to OperationChristmas Child and that series
we did last Christmas and justthe power of giving something to
a child that maybe has neverowned or had anything of their
(31:10):
own, and now they have a stuffedanimal or a ball or something.
But this is different.
This is I'm working to earnsomething that I can then go and
build a family with, I can thengo and support my community
with, and then man y'alldiscipling them at this table
(31:30):
weekly.
How beautiful is that man?
That is real heart change andlife change.
And, by the way, you'rediscipling the guys that are
traveling among all thedifferent tribes and villages
and areas, right, andinteracting with all the
different people.
Derek, closing us out here,tell the listeners what do they
need to know about Heron Ifthey're interested in investing
among frontier groups andunreached people groups and
(31:52):
supporting companies like this,how do they get in touch with
y'all and what would be the nextsteps?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I would say the biggest thing is you have to
have a guide if you're going toventure out into this space.
So you really do need to have aqualified financial advisor who
has the Christian lens that'sgoing to help you.
Kind of balance like what do Ido with my charitable dollars,
what do I do with my investmentsand kind of the traditional
(32:17):
vanilla things.
And then what do I do in thiskind of like private investments
area where maybe I have theopportunity to play a little bit
more redemptively.
So I would say they need toreach out to those people first.
We're the type of type we havethree private investment funds,
so the third one is launching alittle bit later this year,
maybe the beginning of next year.
They can find out about thosethrough their advisors.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Think about all the money, all the time, talent and
treasure that God's given youand how you can use that to be
aligning your life with his will.
Guys, y'all were great guests.
I really appreciate it.
I love that we get to tell theHeron story.
And then I'm going to ask oneof you a tradition on the
Unreached podcast.
We always ask our guests topray for the listeners, so would
one of you pray us out?
Sure thing.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Heavenly Father, thank you for this way of us
connecting through the airwavesand, god, we just pray for every
listener out there who was ableto engage in this story and the
many others that have comebefore and will come after.
The same way that we experiencethese light bulb moments of the
different things that you'returning on in our lives, god, we
(33:20):
just pray for that in the dailylives of your listeners and
ways that may surprise us andways that may surprise us and
ways that might surprise them.
God, we are prayerful of thejourneys that each one of us is
on and we just pray that youwould continue to shape our
(33:41):
hearts, as you're continuing toshape the world and redeem and
restore all things.
And it's in Jesus' name we prayall these things, amen.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
And amen.
Thank you again, guys.
Thank you for listening toUnreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
(34:11):
life group, small group, d group, wherever you do life, and if
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
You, you.
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