My name is Lil and I am just starting my Double Dip. in Ministry and Entrepreneurship.
I love surfing, music and anything adventurous really. I live on a sick little island in rural Victoria and have a super cute australian shepherd to keep me company. I am one of those people who is interested in like a million things and has lots of hobbies, and my current fixation is cards, so i’m learning lots of card tricks and games hahaha.
As a kid, I actually lived on a farm in Queensland so I’ve done a full 180 and now live a dreamy ocean life, and also prefer to freeze instead of being toasty warm in the sunshine state.
I’m super keen to meet some people and have some good chats, introduce yourself!
Yeah, neither for ages hahaha! I am honestly struggling with them all, I keep forgetting the numbers or mixing multiple tricks together, I’ll get there though
I thought your combined ministry with entrepreneurship studies were interesting and thought you might find some of his ideas thought-provoking.
Some of his big ideas:
Livingstone believed that spreading Christianity, facilitating economic development through commerce, and promoting “civilization” would help end the slave trade in Africa. He saw these “Three C’s” as interconnected.
Livingstone’s vision was influenced by earlier abolitionist thinkers like William Wilberforce, who also saw legitimate commerce and Christianity as forces for social reform.
In practice, the imperial powers distorted Livingstone’s vision in the scramble for Africa, using Christianity to pacify locals, commerce for exploitation, and “civilization” to impose colonial rule.
Today, we can redeem the spirit of Livingstone’s vision by focusing on biblical faith (not imposed Christianity), enterprise development that benefits communities (not exploitative commerce), and social transformation (not colonial civilization).
The “Kingdom Model” integrates these three elements - biblical faith, enterprise development, and social transformation - to build self-sustaining communities of believers who can positively transform their societies.
In our globalized world, the Kingdom Model needs to operate internationally through sharing knowledge, resources, and wealth across communities. It also needs to incorporate environmental stewardship.
Does anything jump out to you from this? Good or bad?
I’ve known Greg for a long time. Christian Venues Association (where I met Greg) has been a client of mine for decades. Greg is also a strong supporter of my founder journey. I’m a supporter of Kaylet Initative.
I just finished reading their latest email newsletter. I’m happy to forward to anyone that is interested. Leading story… “How Would You Deal with Being Sold Off?” (The girl avoided being sold off, and is living with her aunt instead.)
Greg was in Uganda earlier this year. He has met all these girls. He has told me about his experience and I really admire him for what he is doing.
Thank you for sharing the story of Emily. She is an example of many young girls living in the same situation. Greg’s little work sounds louder to inspire others to venture the same thing. Lil’s desire to reach out those who are in need is great for our good labor for others is not in vain. Hope to hear more stories from the other parts of the world.
In connection to the work done by Greg, I just want to share some take aways from a research writing done by Neal with the title “Krause Religious Doubt, Helping Others, and Psychological Well-Being,” that…
engaging in prosocial behaviors like helping strangers can buffer the negative effects of doubt. This is because helping reaffirms positive aspects of the self, restoring self-esteem.
The study found that helping strangers offset the effects of doubt more than helping family/friends. This aligns with Christian teachings to love thy neighbor.
More research is still needed on other coping strategies for doubt, how people choose strategies, generalizability to other faiths, etc. But this provides initial evidence that prosocial behavior could be an effective way to manage religious struggles.
The analysis of the relationships between doubt, helping others, and well-being seems sound. Examining multiple well-being measures and the differential effects of helping strangers vs family/friends provides greater insight. It’s a thought-provoking study on an important topic.
What do you think about?
