written by guest blogger Rachael Kroeger and with permission from WorldWide Witness
This summer I served in a WorldWide Witness internship in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at Business as Mission (BAM). BAM is a network of global partners seeking to share resources to advance Christianity in the business world. The group wants to make business be an integral part of the church by creating companies built upon Christian principles that work to better the communities around them. It is a striving toward a “holistic gospel,” meaning that us as Christians should work to bring the kingdom of God not only spiritually, but also socially, mentally, and physically. My internship mainly consisted of working on the development and execution of their international conference that took place in LA September 15-18. I networked, networked, networked! During my time in Thailand, I sent out around 4,000 LinkedIn invites and conference invites combined, not to mention the research I did on different organizations that BAM plans to reach out to.
Rachael Kroeger, Senior Business Management major with a minor in Sociology was a BAM Intern and LA 2016 Conference Speaker.
Because I worked so much on the conference, the lead man of the project, Mark Plummer, asked that I would come facilitate the student sector of the event, as well as lead worship on Sunday morning and speak at one of the breakout sessions. My session was titled “Training, Consulting, and On Ramp Opportunities,” and it was a session I shared among three other speakers. I specifically spoke on my experiences in Thailand, what the program looks like, and what led me to take part in such an awesome project in the first place. It was incredible being a part of the conference (and BAM itself) because I was able to work with several diverse business men and women with hearts for God, and I was able to connect with different businesses and entrepreneurs from all around the world.
There were many contributing factors that prepared me to constructively participate in BAM. WorldWide Witness prepared me through my missions course with Larry Henderson and Gary Green. In it, I studied what it looked like to go abroad with one worldview and work with those from a completely different background and environment. COBA also prepared me by equipping me with adequate business knowledge and skills that was then put to use while working for BAM in Thailand. Through this internship experience, it was solidified in my mind and heart that we as Christians much approach business with a mission-minded viewpoint. I believe that mission in itself should encompass everything; in all that we do, we should be portraying Christ and His love. That being said, I believe as a society, we need to work to come out of our negative take on business. We see business as a necessary evil, where the Bible says that clearly isn’t the case. As business men and women, we must rid the world of the mindset that business is set apart outside of the church and reinstate what it means to be a Godly steward through business. I hope to be an example of this in the future through my own career path.