The pic above is a few of us Business as Mission students enjoying our first dinner together. I am quite impressed and astounded at the variety of backgrounds of the students attending this course from pastors who support their church by selling fish in Cameroon to retired commercial real estate brokers looking for their next move. Kyung-min the guy on left is trying to convince me to go to b-school with him in the Fall at Michigan. He just finished 4 years in the automotive industry. I apologize for not sending an update sooner. While sitting in the airport in Bangkok, I learned that I was not accepted to Stanford business school, so now I have been scurrying to get apps out for other b-schools that have a strong social enterprise community. That's quite frustrating since it has taken away time to spend connecting with people as much as I want. Pray for grace on that. Also I want to say Thank You to my financial and prayer supporters for helping me get here. So far I've

I'm departing Wednesday morning for Chiang Mai, Thailand. And with all the funny timezone issues I'll be arriving Friday morning even though the trip takes less than 24 hours. To recap on why Thailand: Christians are discovering that business can be used to promote justice, peace and love. It is possible to pursue profitable enterprise and share the love of God with others at the same time. The concept has been around for centuries, but in recent years it has a label: Business as Mission . Some of the veteran practitioners of Business as Mission are gathering together in Chiang Mai, Thailand to mentor those who also have a heart for using business to serve God. After considerable prayer and reflection, it has become obvious that I should attend this 6 week program for several reasons: To Use Village. Village could be used to promote some of the entrepreneurs and their companies that I'll be meeting in Chiang Mai. More Useful Darian. God can use me more effectively as I

New development! Now that I’m done licking my wounds from 2007, it’s time to move forward on the dream. YWAM is offering a course on Business as Mission , essentially how to run companies in a cross-cultural setting, and I’ve been accepted to attend. We’ll be attending lectures taught by entrepreneurs who have been running companies successfully overseas. Part of the 6 week course is in fact a field trip to already successful enterprises. Considering how much talk there is about sharing Christ through business, it will be refreshing to meet entrepreneurs who are actually doing it. I’m headed to Thailand on Jan 24 for the 6 week course. I am hoping and praying that this adventure will lead to deep insight into the world of international business and ministry and possibly some meaningful employment between now and when business school starts in the fall. The application is all done, thank you Josh and Chris for the recs, now the biggest hurdle is the course fee of $350

2007 was painful . Managing a remote team all in separate locations was painful . Running out of money to spend on Village was painful . Watching my condo sit empty for months and burn through my savings was painful . Falling in love with a girl dating another guy was really painful . On the other hand getting to know the social entrepreneurs at the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford was wonderful. Connecting more with my roommates, and friends who have been helping me with Village has all been great. But, except for some new and stronger relationships with friends, 2007 was pretty painful . Through all this pain, though, I learned a great deal about management and relationships. Regarding management you can summarize the lesson as don't let ambition and impatience compel you to skip steps. But more importantly, I learned a key thing about relationships: stay focused on what is right, and what is going well. As Tom Rath explains, it fills other pe