Become a Work Mentor

Recently, we wrapped up the first phase of an experiment – getting 10 people started on a “gig economy” platform called Upwork. You can see it at Upwork.com. Our vision is to create a network of people in Bukavu earning a good living working for companies around the world.

Greg’s business has hired people in the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, UAE, South Africa, and rural Vermont. It’s a great way for people to put their talent to work and for companies to get a small part of someone’s time.

Although the concept is simple, helping people in Bukavu learn to be successful on Upwork is quite time-consuming and challenging. Think of it as trying to teach a 6-month-old child to run. You can’t. It’s impossible. Their muscles and balance are underdeveloped. Fortunately for parents, they don’t have to break down the actions in the process of learning to run and teach each action. It happens naturally.

In our Upwork effort, we must determine the sequence of actions to help them progress. We are calling this experiment “EHI” which stands for Exporting Human Intelligence. (It would be tough to export any products from eastern Congo.)

We have had some early successes. One member of the group has earned an extra $1000 in just six months. A good full-time salary there would be $2000-$3000 per YEAR. Other members have earned income doing website development, administrative tasks using Microsoft Word and Excel, and document translation.

The Opportunity

Developing relationships with people in the Congo has been a huge blessing. People working with this ministry have enjoyed watching Jesus answer prayers and provide for His people. Those relationships have helped us become more like Christ in all of life. 

We would like to develop a team of a few people to collaborate and work one-on-one remotely with a Congolese person to help him/her develop in his/her work and earn money using Upwork. We call these people “work mentors.” 

We will take a crawl, walk, run approach. You will encourage the person to whom you are assigned. You will pray for them. You will help them brainstorm on ways to get “unstuck.” (Ultimately, we are depending on Jesus to provide.) The relationship building can be done remotely using Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. 

We need people with intermediate or better skills in fields like web design, graphics, video editing, Excel, computer coding, digital marketing (SEO, email automation platforms, PPC, etc.). We could also use people with “niche” skills that could be taught to someone using internet-based training (for example, someone with experience using a software platform like Mailchimp or Hubspot). Not sure if your skills would be helpful? Just ask. 

Here’s how easy it can be. We have a young man who has some computer coding expertise. One work mentor reviewed his resume and made some suggestions. He also suggested putting some of his work on Github. People helping people – on different continents – a beautiful thing.  Now he is earning money in the gig economy. 

For more information, please contact Greg Herring.

Become a Content Creator

When we started traveling to DR Congo in 2008, we taught people how to start businesses that could employ other people. There was just one big problem. People in the Congo thought that business was bad, and profits were evil. (They have good reasons for these views; there has been much exploitation of the people for more than 100 years – by outsiders and government officials.) As you might imagine, that mindset makes starting a business quite difficult. 

We decided to add some training on worldview to our small business formation training. Through Jesus’ leadership and our study of the Bible, we developed four principles from Genesis chapters 1-4. 

What an impact those principles have had! 

They completely changed the mindset of the Congolese people that we trained. 

There is great truth to the verse that says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”  The Congolese people that we trained were set free. Their lives are different. 

There are many other areas where we would like to set the Congolese people free using principles from the Bible. 

The Opportunity

Through the years, we have developed a lot of content. We also have many ideas for further content development – specifically Bible studies. 

We focus on Bible studies because we want the Congolese people to encounter Jesus and grow through His Word because “the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword …” 

We need people to take our specific ideas for Bible studies and develop the questions and narratives for those Bible studies. Then we will test the Bible study with our friends in the Congo. After the final changes are made from the tests, we will distribute the Bible studies to people in the Congo and beyond using our marketing technology. Finally, we will pray and watch Jesus change lives through His Word. What an opportunity! 

For more information, please contact Greg Herring.