After struggling to start his own business, Savann applied for a job at DPR and was hired onto the wait staff.  Having been recently married, he was very focused on providing for his new wife and starting a family.  Soon, we learned that they were expecting their first child.  The medical insurance provided by DPR enabled them to go to the health clinic for a safe delivery of their baby boy.  Consequently they did not have to go to the local money lender to borrow the funds to pay for a hospital delivery.  This allowed them to bring home their child without a crushing debt that so many families endure in this situation.  We are gratified to help this new family get off to a good start.

Joining the DPR staff from the very beginning, Thearath is energetic, devoted to making our business successful, and anxious to learn. She has been particularly committed to the training from Michelle Murray and took special interest in the weekly Bible studies that each staff member has the option to attend. She recently gave her life to Christ and has been growing in her faith and understanding of the Word of God. We are privileged to have Thearath on our team and pray that her walk with the Lord will grow deeper and her witness will have an impact on her fellow staff members and the community around her.

*not her real name and photo – to protect her identity

When I first saw her, I didn’t realize that I was looking into the face of poverty.

On one of my early trips to Cambodia, I was walking along an urban street and noticed this street vendor frying and selling rice cakes from her cart.  I had been warned not to eat food from street carts, but I was compelled to patronize her little business.  The cost for two cakes was 500 Reil (about 12.5 cents – and that was the tourist price).

Munching on the cakes with a small amount of leafy vegetable inside, I quickly did some math in my head to figure out the profitability of her sale.  Considering cost of goods and other overhead, she might have made a couple of cents on my purchase at best.  With some more figuring I calculated that this young woman, most likely a mother, makes around a dollar a day.  Even double that amount places her below the poverty line by third world standards.  When I offered her a few hundred more Reil as a tip, she looked confused because tipping isn’t part of their culture.  I gestured that it was a gift, and she hesitantly but gratefully thanked me, “aw khun” she said and smiled.

What is Poverty?
Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job; it is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.  The poor are also the most vulnerable to extreme forms of exploitation like human trafficking and slavery.

Business as Mission
My concept of effective ministry was changed by my encounter with the young woman selling rice cakes.  Knowing that the immensity of the need in that one community alone far exceeded my resources, I wondered if there was a way to address the root of the problem.  Traditional charity creates dependency and is not a sustainable solution to poverty.  So later, when I discovered the Business as Mission (BAM) movement that is sweeping through the Church and human relief organizations, I was captivated by the possibilities.

As you probably already know, I have subsequently been privileged to partner with some good friends to form an organization called Marketplace Ministries Worldwide.  Through MMW, we built and opened a restaurant (Divine Pizza & Ribs) in Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia.  There we provide jobs, skills training, and transformational development to eager Khmer people.  It is a Holistic ministry, showing the love of Jesus to people in need by ministering to each of them as a whole human being. This means addressing physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.  It has been remarkable to see the effects of giving someone “a hand up instead of a hand out.”  By providing jobs that pay a fair wage, we can immediately extract a family from the crushing grip of poverty.  Being able to offer this kind of opportunity to people in the name of Jesus has been one of the greatest thrills of my life.

Transformational Development
With our emphasis on sustainability, reproducibility, and empowerment, we sent Michelle Murray, an American expatriate fluent in Khmer language and culture from 10 years experience as a church planting missionary with the Evangelical Friends Church, to be our “business missionary” at DPR.  There she manages operations, provides training in vocational and life skills, and shares the Gospel through word and deed with our staff, vendors, suppliers, customers and neighbors.

We need your help
As we near the end of the first year of operations for Divine Pizza & Ribs we are incurring some unexpected costs and also need to raise additional support for Michelle.  Please consider a one-time gift or even better a monthly commitment to support our business as mission.  A little bit from a lot of people goes a long way.

We are grateful to our supporters who have already pledged and provided the vital funds needed to bring this ministry platform into existence. As always we depend on you to pray for us and for the staff at DPR. May God richly bless you as you have blessed us.

Shalom,

Jeff Davis
MMW – Board of Directors

“Hello lovely customers please welcome to Divine Pizza and Ribs. We have a lot of food you want don’t forget come here!!!!! Thanks xxxxxx” – Hong

The above comment was written by my night shift Cashier/Supervisor, on the Divine Pizza & Ribs Facebook group. He is a young man of 27. The 6th child of 7; he has 2 brothers and 4 sisters. Unique is the best word to describe him. He still has both of his parents who are in their 60’s. They were farmers in the Prey Veng Province, which is probably why they survived the Khmer Rouge period, with their lives and their family still together. Prey Veng province is to the west and south of Phnom Penh.

Hong is the only child in his family to complete high school, and therefore shoulders the burden of being the main support for his aging parents. So the fact Divine offers health insurance, which can cover his parents because they are his dependents living in the same house, has helped him with this responsibility. His other siblings are factory workers, and he still has two sisters that live in Prey Veng and are farmers with their husbands.

He learned English the old fashion way, by being bold and courageous and just talking to people, making many mistakes and improving through the help of tourists and local expats. He has worked in other restaurants along the riverfront, but was seeking to move up and gain some supervisory skills, because his dream is to open his own store.

It has been my privilege to spend time with this young man, who always has a quick smile and a kind word. As we work together developing his skills, so that hopefully he will someday open that shop; he continues my education about all things Khmer. It is truly a mutually beneficial relationship.

I find that life is full of opportunities. Some I capitalize on, and others I let go by without a second thought. Our brains are amazing; making instantaneous decisions that help to protect us from harm, or also making other instant decisions that may cost us opportunities for growth.

Near the restaurant we have many bus companies, and we’re trying to figure out a way to capitalize on the tourists/travelers who pass by. I decided to offer a box lunch, and to sell small packets of nuts. So, we purchased a table and got a sign – and didn’t see much response. My staff was ready to throw in the towel, but I wanted to give it more time to get going. We did some research and got the timetables for the bus companies and made a purposeful push with time, effort, and advertising. Sales started to grow.  Sela, our guy outside, received a good deal of feedback. He compiled it and gave me his suggestions. First – get a case instead of a table, and sell some bakery items.  Chakriya suggested selling coffee to go. Now we are doing a regular morning business near the buses.  After the morning rush, we move the case to the front of our restaurant and make a few more sales throughout the day.

It made me think of how often I am willing to give up on something in my spiritual life, because I don’t give it a chance, like we were tempted to do with the bakery case. Persistence, patience, and being open to listen to God can garner the same kind of positive results in my spiritual walk.  Hmm – a simple lesson from God through our bakery case.