How Grace Chapel and AWOP Came to Nigeria
 Today I want to talk briefly about Self-Sustaining Enterprises (SSE) and how it and At Work on Purpose (AWOP) work together to empower the poor-- by building marketplace ministries that create real jobs and a sustainable source of income and hope for the poorest of the poor.
The Rev. Jeff Greer is pastor and a dear friend of mine at Grace Chapel in Mason. We met about nine years ago when I was attracted to his church because of his vision of becoming part of a global community of Christ followers which helps others by awakening imagination, igniting passion, and unleashing purpose in life.
SSE is an umbrella nonprofit organization at Grace Chapel that provides funding and support for social enterprise businesses that dedicate excess profits for philanthropic causes. SSE BizNistries™ include New2You thrift stores in Hamilton, Mason and Clifton; Roc-a-Fellas Pizza in Sharonville; and the SpecialT Shop, a screen printing and apparel shop in Mason. The H20 Nigeria freshwater drilling project in Jos is operated with partner Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati.
Schooled at Harvard in organizational management, I knew all about business. In fact, my day job is president of SkillSource, a business consultancy. I came to Christ as an adult, and as a new convert, was looking for ways to build a career that allowed me to integrate my faith and work mores, as well as help others do the same. I wasn’t finding much out there. Let’s face it—every day we are confronted by a secular/sacred divide. As a people we welcome the separation of church and state in order to keep our government and people free from tyranny, yet as individuals we are starved to make spiritual connections with our coworkers and find significance in the work we do.
In 2003, I formed AWOP, a nonprofit dedicated to helping Christians (and those seeking Christ) integrate their faith and work mores through coaching, consulting, chaplaincy, executive roundtables, social enterprise, and events at the local, national, and international level. (Some of the group members on this trip belong to AWOP executive roundtables.)
Jeff and I both saw SSE as a perfect environment for BizNistry™ development, and the multi-building facility of Grace Chapel – a former manufacturing plant – as a perfect venue for a BizNistry™ campus.
This is where Emmanuel Itapson comes in. I can’t talk about SSE and Nigeria without talking about him.
Immanuel, who was raised in Kano, Nigeria, about 150 miles north of Jos, was a graduate Bible and Near Eastern Studies student at Hebrew Union College working on his PhD when he met Rev. Greer at a dinner party and they began to talk about solving world hunger. They came to the conclusion that Nigeria, with its widespread systemic poverty, would be the perfect place to create a test tube project to enable the population to lift themselves from poverty with fresh water, food, education, orphan care and health care for their people.
Through Itapson’s political connections in Nigeria, fundraising in Cincinnati and the government’s donation of land, the SSE campus was built in Kisayip in 2007 to begin the process of helping Nigerians to help themselves.
Nigeria reminds us that the $50 we wanted to spend on a nice restaurant can purchase a life-saving hernia surgery for a child; that the $100 we wanted to spend on an extra pair of shoes can start a micro-enterprise for a widow and her children; that the $500 we wanted to spend on a new stereo system can pay a child’s school tuition for an entire year.
Here in the U.S., we think nothing of driving to the local shopping mall, buying a $3 cup of flavored coffee, paying $10 for a movie ticket, shopping for the best price on a variety of items, then stopping in a local fast food place or restaurant for a meal. What we think of as everyday amenities in the first world are luxuries in developing nations. It’s a humbling experience to compare American lives with the rest of the world.
Seeing the desperate living conditions of these people, I realize that many of the things I thought I needed were just things I wanted. We can live well on far less than most Americans are blessed to have, and give a portion of what we have to help others build more hopeful lives.
Rev. Greer says places like Nigeria encourage us to SWAP – Sacrifice With a Purpose – so that we can let go of something we want to make sure that someone else has something they really need.
This week we’ll live out that philosophy with the initiatives we hope to accomplish.
Come back again and continue the adventure with us.
--Chuck Proudfit, March 21
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