When you think of the word “missionary”, what do you picture in your mind? Roughing it in the dirt, long skirts, and those speakers who come to your churches once a month asking for money? Missionaries have historically been known for giving up their life to reach the nations and living with radical faith. The earliest missionaries actually used to pack up their belongings in their coffin and set out for their life of missions, knowing that they would most likely be buried wherever they were sent to.
While we have so much to thank these missionaries for, and even though their stories are still inspiring the Church today, we want to propose a new model. A model of legacy, sustainability, and hope.
Besides a few select years where we felt God leading us to live completely by faith for our finances, Marked has always been supported by monthly partners and donations. We’ve always spent time speaking at churches and getting the word out, looking for people interested in partnering with our vision.
But we've started to see a missing link.
We started to see missionaries coming back from the field to “retire” with nothing in their bank accounts and no idea how to sustain themselves in America. They spent years doing incredible work, but came back discouraged, with no way to support themselves or their families. We started to ask ourselves what it meant to live a sustainable life, one that would create longevity and health for families on the field.
What we didn’t realize at first was that Micheal’s years in the business world was not completely lost in the missions world. We thought that this was a complete 180 degree pivot from that world, but now we’re starting to see these two worlds come together.
Now we’re envisioning a new model.
Imagine a situation where healthy and thriving businesses partner up with non-profits and missions organizations, and become a consistent source of income for missionaries. Imagine people that are called to missions having these crazy ideas that they turn into business plans, and this plan propels their call to the nations forward. We’re envisioning a model of sustainability, where non-profits aren’t stuck begging for money, but they begin to strategically build wealth. We’re dreaming for a reality where we can put over 100% of donated funds back into our missions work, because we’ve invested time and energy into businesses that multiply dollars.
This is the reason why we’ve invested so much of our time writing cookbooks, launching a coffee line, and creating a media company. It’s not because we’re distracted. It’s because we’re thinking strategically about creating sustainability for Marked. We’re dreaming of offering young adults in Mexico jobs that will keep them off the streets, and helping families stuck in poverty start businesses that will change the game for their future.
Our dream is for missionaries to have the ability to leave an inheritance to their children’s children, because they decided to think strategically about their finances. For sons and daughters to take their place at the table, instead of waiting for scraps to be thrown to them. We’re believing that there is a partnership of entrepreneurship and missions that will change the world.