The Marketplace Magazine March/April 2021

March-April 2021

Where Christian faith gets down to business

Trucking’s future Industry works to get more women behind wheel of big rigs

Haiti project promotes economic inclusion Pandemic threatens Jordanian EcoLodge Agtech for a higher purpose

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The Marketplace March April 2021

Roadside stand

Cameron heads MEDA global programs Derek Cameron is MEDA’s new senior vice president, global programs.

Cameron’s career includes work as a microfinance and business planning officer in India with Rooftops Canada, a community-based microfinance program assistant with Coady International Institute and several management roles with the Cooperative Development Foundation of Canada over the course of a decade. Prior to joining MEDA, he was director of EQWIP Hubs, a joint project of Canada World Youth and Youth Challenge International to help 77,000 youth in six countries to find employment or self employment.

Originally from Scotland, Cameron did his undergraduate studies at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and his Master of Business Administration degree at Carleton University in Ottawa, where he has been based for the past 14 years. He worked in 18 countries over the course of his international development career.

His first exposures to MEDA came in 2004 while doing work with self-help groups for lowincome women in India and again several years later, during research for COADY looking at models of community-based microfinance. In both instances, he was impressed with MEDA’s leading-edge work in the area.

MEDA’s new strategic direction attracts him to its work. “Any time an organization takes stock and thinks about where it wants to head next and how it does that, I think that’s an exciting time to be part of an organization,” he said.

Follow The Marketplace on Twitter @MarketplaceMEDA

The Marketplace March April 2021

economy, hauling close to threequarters of all freight transported in the US, almost 12 billion tons.

A study by Catalyst research found that women’s job growth is driven by employment in maledominated fields. Between 2016 and 2018, women’s employment increased by six percent in industries consisting of two-thirds men.

Longhurst lauded

Derek Cameron

"While change can be an uncomfortable process, it is also when really exciting things come to the surface.”

Having long appreciated what the organization has done, he “wants to be part of writing the next chapter of MEDA.” Cameron feels that his previous work in the co-operative sector and with youth has built skills that will benefit MEDA, particularly as it increases its focus on a partnership approach to creating business solutions to poverty in the Global South. “I grew up with a partnership approach," he said.

A member of MEDA’s executive leadership team, Cameron replaces Simon Carter, who had served in the role on an interim basis.

Trucking tales As our cover story (pp. 17-20) explains, the trucking industry is taking steps to find new employees, including efforts to attract more women as its existing workforce ages out of the industry.

In 2019, the industry was worth almost $792 billion to the US 2

Winnipeger John Longhurst received the Manitoba Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding recently. It is awarded to an individual who “best embodies understanding between all religious groups.”

Longhurst, a former MEDA staffer who has worked for a number of faith-based organizations, and has occasionally written for this magazine, received the honor in recognition of an entrepreneurial endeavor.

He spearheaded a campaign to convince 15 faith communities to sponsor religion content at the Winnipeg Free Press, an independently owned daily newspaper that is one of the few that still has regular religion coverage. Longhurst has been a faith columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press since 2003.

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Comments Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith?

Send your thoughts to mstrathdee@meda.org

In this issue

Features

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Business famine in the desert

Pandemic may force permanent closure of Feynan Ecolodge, a Jordanian tourist spot that provides employment for 500 Bedouins.

Feynan Ecolodge tour guide Suleiman Hasaseen

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Attaining a better future for Haitian women and youth

Claude Clodomir, chief of party for MEDA’s ATTEINDRE project, explains how this effort aims to improve the lives of women and youth entrepreneurs in rural Haiti.

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More diversity in drivers

Groups across North America work at getting more women into the trucking industry, but many barriers remain.

Departments 22 Roadside stand 24 Soul enterprise 16 Soundbites 22 Books in brief Nicole McCulley of JB Hunt is one of an increasing number of women operating transport trucks. (photo courtesy of Women in Trucking) 3

The Marketplace March April 2021

Soul Enterp prise

Lent reconsidered through a pandemic lens It may seem fitting that the latter part of the Christian season of Lent this year coincides with the anniversary of a global pandemic.

Many people, with the exception of devout Catholics, will not pay the season much attention at all, at least until the latter part of the week preceding Easter, when some churches mark Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in addition to Easter Sunday.

Lent is a 40-day commemoration of Jesus’ sacrifice and death, paralleling the 40 days when the New Testament accounts record his fasting and temptation in the desert.

While a majority of Catholics are likely to observe Lent, those numbers drop to under 30 percent among evangelicals and 20 per cent for Protestants, one US survey suggests.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a time of contemplation and sacrifice. It is marked at Catholic masses and some Protestant services, with congregants’ foreheads being traced with a cross made out of ashes, as well as the reminder that we all came from dust, and will return to dust.

Fasting, a commonly suggested spiritual practice for Lent (a 40day period which doesn’t include Sundays,) first became associated with the Lenten season after the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, three centuries after Christ’s death and resurrection.

Outside of Eastern Orthodox traditions, adherence to a strict regimen of restricting food intake is most often discussed in modern Western society not as a spiritual practice, but as a popular diet approach.

When people do pay attention to the suggestion of fasting through The Marketplace March April 2021

Lent, it is often in symbolic token actions such as giving up a favorite food, snack or beverage, aside from Catholics eating fish instead of meat on Fridays. Others speak of giving up distractions and favorite pastimes.

Asking people to give things up may seem a difficult argument to make at a time when lockdowns have reduced the mobility and interactions of so many.

Isaiah 58 in the Old Testament calls people to a more outward looking selfless posture.

These words are just as appropriate today as when they were written thousands of years ago: Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

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The pandemic has taken a horrific toll on marginalized people around the world, particularly on women, youth, and people of color in developing nations.

Perhaps the most acceptable sacrifice that could be made this Lent season would be increasing our financial giving.

An enhanced and ongoing commitment to increased charitable gifts, both for relief and to development organizations that help enhance people’s ability to meet the basic needs of their families, is much more spiritually and materially significant than six weeks of giving up chocolate.

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uneven surfaces the sign predicted the status waiting for us. straight lines and simple turns aren’t ahead. the ground isn’t even. like life, the surface, our place of dependence, isn’t even. meaning what? a serious concern or a disruption of our preferences? actually, expectations can go unmet. often, security doesn’t seem secure. i don’t expect casualties, just adjustments, leaning slightly when needed, with curves and angles staring, not moving as they force our moves along the surface. (from embracing now: pain, joy, healing, living — a collection of poems by Chris Maxwell, 2020, True Potential Media)

Chris Maxwell served 19 years as lead pastor in Orlando, Florida, after five years of youth ministry. He’s now in his 15th year as Campus Pastor and Director of Spiritual Life at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia. He speaks in churches, conventions, and schools, and is the author of ten books, including “Pause With Jesus,” “Underwater,” and “a slow and sudden God: 40 years of wonder.” His latest book is his 2nd collection of poems—“embracing now: pain, joy, healing, living.”

Visit him at www.chrismaxwell.me Twitter: @CMaxMan YouTube Channel: The Poetry Network

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Volume 51, Issue 2 March April 2021 The Marketplace (ISSN 321-330) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114.

Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2021 by MEDA. Editor: Mike Strathdee Design: Ray Dirks

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 33 N Market St., Suite 400, Lancaster, PA 17603-3805 Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 33 N Market St, Suite 400, Lancaster, PA 17603-3805.

To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters, email mstrathdee@meda.org or call (800) 665-7026, ext. 705 Subscriptions: $35/year; $55/two years.

Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA’s economic development work in developing countries creates business solutions to poverty. MEDA also facilitates the connection of faith and work through discussions, publications and conventions for participants.

For more information about MEDA call 1-800-6657026.

Web site www.meda.org Want to see back issues or reread older articles?

Visit https://www.meda.org/download-issues/ The Marketplace is printed on Endurance Recycled Velvet and is 10% recycled (postconsumer waste), FSC® Certified to help meet client sustainability requirements, Acid Free, Elemental Chlorine Free

Cover photo of Ellen Voie courtesy Women in Trucking Inc.

The Marketplace March April 2021

Doubting your doubts A “cancel culture” of doubt and questioning is not always a good thing

By Steve Sugrim It’s easy to blame technology for misinformation.

My wife and I were talking about how common it is these days to encounter someone who is unaware of a basic fact or believes something totally ridiculous or unfounded.

When British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica was found to have misappropriated digital assets and used data in a number of unethical ways to break into computers and disrupt the US electoral process, it sparked a scandal of historic proportions. That sad story was also enlightening for many people.

The information technology guy within me marvelled at how easily they steered entire populations of people with strategic communications.

It reminded me of a technology partner that collected geo-specific data of where employees were in a building at all times. When I questioned him on the privacy of that data, he replied, “It’s not the data we provide that is the problem — it’s what they do with the data.”

The way companies and people use data acquired with technology for their agendas and personal gain is a problem.

It’s not uncommon for someone to complain about a picture on social media being digitally altered or ‘fake’. I follow a Facebook group that posts user photographs of tornadoes and storms.

You get comments on picture The Marketplace March April 2021

posts ranging from ‘observe the glorious power of God’ to ‘obviously faked — look at the pixels and lighting in the lower left.'

We have become remote judges, sitting in our chairs, staring at our screens and webcams. The cancel culture of doubt and questioning is a good thing — most of the time.

‘Doubting’ Thomas in the Gospel of John, chapter 20, walked into an upper room full of his colleagues, who exclaimed to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!”

But understand, they all had just witnessed Jesus crucified, and were hiding out in a room trying to figure out what to do next.

Thomas replied, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25) I like Thomas. He didn’t believe their statement verbatim, and in fact, challenged them to prove it. But here is where it gets interesting.

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27) Suddenly Thomas realized his doubt was not founded.

But Jesus took it a step further 6

with this statement to Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) Where are you in that statement? Do you still believe? Or do you still need to physically see God to move forward in your faith?

As people who are immersed in technology and use it every day, we have to find that balance to discern what is true and not fall into the trap of doubt and dismissal of our faith. It is super easy to Google something, read someone’s blog, listen to a podcast, spin up another TED talk and dismiss something the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you.

Is there room in your life to allow God to continue to do the miraculous? Or are you a victim of your doubts?

You can doubt your doubts.

It is not wrong to doubt. In fact, I encourage it.

But question yourself when you have a doubt. Why do I feel this way? What is driving this doubt? What do I need to pray about or read about in the Word to help me understand this doubt?

Is it a legitimate concern or am I just hearing an alternate voice from something I’ve read, seen, or heard? How does doubt line up with God’s past work in my life or what He says in Scripture? Am I just leaning on someone else’s thoughts in the media? Can I test the ‘fruit’ of this doubt and see if it is good or not?

Can I still move forward even

artwork by Ray Dirks

if I have doubts that this is the will of God? Am I leaving room for God to move in my life?

Strive to become a mature believer, sifting through your doubts and holding on to what is true, regardless of whether you can see or touch it. Go beyond Thomas. Why? “So that we are no longer children [spiritually immature], tossed back and forth [like ships

“Is there room in your life to allow God to continue to do the miraculous? Or are you a victim of your doubts?”

on a stormy sea] and carried about by every wind of [shifting] doctrine, by the cunning and trickery of [unscrupulous] men, by the deceitful scheming of people ready to do anything [for personal profit.]” — (Ephesians 4:14)

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Steve Sugrim serves as vice-president of innovation for Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Prior to joining MAF, he was a senior multimedia designer at MEDA for more than a decade.

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The Marketplace March April 2021

Business drought in the desert Pandemic may force Jordan Ecolodge into bankruptcy, erasing livelihoods of 100 Bedouin families.

The Marketplace March April 2021

Having worked with the Bedouin community in the desert surrounding Feynan for over a decade, saying that eco-tourism is a sustainable source of livelihoods, he struggles to undermine their trust by saying there is no longer any work, so “sort yourself out. How are they going to sort themselves out?”

Fifteen years ago, before Feynan came along, most of the Bedouin were still shepherds, and there was less population, he said.

“It’s a different thing when you are running things a certain way, to say — go back to no income.”

“Our losses so far are over $230 (thousand) US dollars. We’re not going to be able to continue much longer. So now, we are just taking it

one month at a time, with the hope we’ll sell enough to cover salaries.”

The reversal of fortunes that Tarazi has seen over the past year has been a 180-degree change.

“2019 was a record year for the whole tourism sector, after years of hemorrhaging,” he said.

Up until early March of 2020, bookings pointed to another banner year.

That success was recognized on the international stage. In November 2019, Feynan was honored at the World Responsible Tourism Awards in London, England with a gold award for limiting greenhouse emissions.

“We have a model for people to replicate. We’re pioneering in what we do.”

Mike Strathdee photos

AMMAN, JORDAN — If Nabil Tarazi was motivated principally by business profits, he would have handed the keys to Feynan Ecolodge over to the Jordanian government last spring.

“Had I been running a proper business, and when I say proper, I mean purely thinking of the (financial) bottom line, we would have taken that option back in April,” Tarazi said in a video interview from his home in Jordan’s capital.

Jordan’s government allows businesses to suspend operations for two months at a time, freeing firms from the obligation of paying staff salaries. Tarazi’s largest expense is salaries, as his 24 full-time staff at the lodge represent 70 to 80 per cent of Feynan’s fixed costs.

What has stopped him from taking that step is concern over the impact that would have on 500 people, close to 100 desert-dwelling families, mainly Bedouins, who provide goods and services to the Ecolodge, and do not have other opportunities to earn income.

About half of the fees that Feynan’s guests pay stay in the community.

MEDA, through its Jordan Valley Links project funded by Global Affairs Canada and the donations of private supporters, helped Feynan to become a viable year-round destination for tourists through a grant that helped the off-grid lodge install a larger solar power system. That new system powers additional fridges and freezers, fans in guest rooms, and heats water for showers.

Ecolodge founder Nabil Tarazi has tried to stay in business out of concern for his suppliers and employees.

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About 100 desert-dwelling families depend on Feynan Ecolodge for their livelihood.

Suleiman Hasaseen has spent his adult years providing tours for Ecolodge visitors.

Cancellations started around March 10, then everything shut down on March 17.

Jordan did “one of the most draconian shutdowns in the world” when the virus hit, ordering total curfews and airport closures for close to three months.

The country opened up again in June, which is a slow month for Feynan.

Some government assistance allowed him to reduce salaries for a time and take on some loans.

“We’re running with that system, but we are teetering on bankruptcy as a company.”

In December, a month that is often busy at Feynan, they sold 30 or 35 room nights in total, less than

five per cent of capacity.

That has dried up income for most of the 500 people who rely on Feynan for their livelihoods, including Bedouin guides and hosts, drivers, and women who bake bread. “Everybody’s income has gone down dramatically.

Everybody’s bleeding, and we don’t see an end in sight to the problem.”

“We don’t see anything soon that will get us out of it. There is a high likelihood of anything between total shutdown and bankruptcy in the coming months, and that leaves all the community beneficiaries in a very dire situation.”

Some tourist operations in other parts of the country have not been hit as hard, as their locations lend themselves to day trips by people wanting to get out of the city. Feynan’s location in southern Jordan makes day trips from Amman impractical. It takes three hours to get from the capital to the Ecolodge, including half an hour off-road in pickup trucks.

To date, Feynan has survived on low-interest loans. “We never made profits to the level of losses that we’ve had,” Tarazi said. “Even in recovery, by the time we recoup the losses of this year, it’s going to take us three or four years.”

A best case scenario for foreign tourists returning to Jordan would be October, “and if my prediction is correct, we will not survive until October," he said.

“In the back of my mind, 9

there’s some glimmer of hope that we will see movement in MarchApril, and if we do, it would help a bit. But even if we get people, it’s going to be really trickling.”

The lodge is doing disinfecting, distancing, and using personal protective equipment, he said. “If tourists come back, I know we can handle them and be safe.”

Jordan’s government is covering less than 20 per cent of payroll since December. “We were hoping that support would be much, much more, and at an earlier stage.”

To continue the lodge’s operations on a shoestring budget until the tourism sector recovers, “we’re probably looking at $150,000 (in new capital) to allow us to stay afloat.”

“I can guarantee that if nothing happens by May-June, there’s no way (to stay open).”

An Amman TV station recently recorded a program on Feynan’s plight. Tarazi has slashed prices, offered new promotions, and hopes that will result in some local visitors.

People can now fly into Jordan if they have an approved COVID test, but “I don’t think people are in a mood to travel from outside, and with the risk of getting sick in a foreign country.”

“Nobody in their wildest dreams would have imagined a small virus to cause the total collapse of the world economic system, and obviously tourism is the biggest sector to get hit from that.”

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The Marketplace March April 2021

Telling the MEDA story in southern Ontario Niagara woman helps revitalize MEDA hub after visiting Tanzania project This is the first of a series about MEDA hubs across North America.

The hubs, more than a dozen volunteer-led groups, organize events and activities to build awareness about MEDA’s work creating business solutions to poverty, to network and to hear people share stories about faith, work and entrepreneurship as a calling.

For Maria Klassen, seeing was believing when it came to understanding the value of MEDA’s work.

Klassen, a retired schoolteacher who lives in St. Catharines, first became aware of MEDA when her daughter, Kristin Neudorf, was working for MEDA as an intern in Tanzania in 2006.

Klassen visited her daughter in Tanzania and observed the work MEDA was doing with bed nets to prevent the spread of malaria.

“I was just blown away by how well everything was organized,” she recalls. “I saw the whole process from beginning to end… I went to the clinic, where the mothers were with the babies, and I went to the pharmacy where they sold the nets for next to nothing. Just very impressed.”

Three years later, Klassen attended a MEDA fundraising dinner in Waterloo, and was sitting at a table next to then-president Allan Sauder. They discussed how she might become involved. Sauder connected her with Howard Good, who at the time was MEDA’s vicepresident, engagement.

Other St. Catharines residents, The Marketplace March April 2021

L-R: Maria Klassen, Dorothea Enns, Rick Janzen

including charitable gift planner Darren Pries-Klassen (now president of Abundance Canada) and businessperson Dorothea Enns were also part of the effort to re-start regular meetings in the Niagara Peninsula. (MEDA staff from Waterloo had held some meetings in the early 1990s.)

The Niagara group’s first event was Sept 22, 2009 at a local farmer’s converted barn.

The focus of Niagara hub meetings over the years has been local speakers telling their faith and work stories, Klassen says. Over

Breakfast networking in St. Catharines 10

the years, hub activity has grown from one to four annual events, three breakfasts plus a tour of area businesses that have included a greenhouse, a chicken farm, a winery, and the Niagara Christian Gleaners group, among others.

“I guess our focus is a Christian sharing their story of faith and work.”

Meetings often include a MEDA moment, a short update on new projects or emphases, and sometimes have featured a visiting overseas project staffer, such as Catherine Sobrevaga of MEDA’S Myanmar project.

Breakfast gatherings are held at Sweets Café, a St. Catharines restaurant that opens early specifically for a group that averages between 25 to 29 people.

Current hub leadership, in addition to Klassen, includes David Brubacher, a retired pastor and renovator; Chris Mullet Koop, an egg farmer and grape grower; Dorothea Enns, who operates a tire business along with her husband; and Randy Klaassen, a St. Catharines pastor.

Right around the time the pandemic struck, the Niagara hub was looking forward to a visit from Dorothy Nyambi, MEDA’s president and CEO. That visit had to be postponed, and the hub has been largely dormant since then.

Klassen is uncertain how long it will be before the hub will be able to resume holding regular gatherings

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Towards greater opportunities for rural Haitians New MEDA project targets women, youth for training, economic inclusion Haiti is one of the most difficult countries in the world to do business.

Last year, the World Bank ranked the impoverished island nation 179th of 190 countries in terms of ease of doing business.

That’s nothing new, says Claude Clodomir, who heads up MEDA’s new ATTEINDRE project.

ATTEINDRE is a French word that means to attain. The project is a five-year, $12-million effort funded

by USAID and donations from MEDA supporters, focusing on economic growth activity tied to resilience.

“Haiti’s always been a very tough place” for business, said Clodomir. He had worked in Haiti for more than 11 years with the World Council of Credit Unions and CHF International prior to joining MEDA last September.

For the vulnerable people who are the focus of the ATTEINDRE effort, “regardless of how the country is doing, micro-enterprise activity doesn’t stop.”

A micro-enterprise is a business activity with one to three employees and annual revenue of less than $12,000 US. Three-quarters of the ATTEINDRE project’s outreach, 22,500 of the enterprises the project plans to work with, will be in the micro-enterprise space. Of the remainder, 15 per cent will be small companies with between three and 10 employees. Ten percent of efforts will be on medium to large-sized

firms with more than 10 employees.

Big businesses are much more susceptible to instability, he said.

“That group of women that has to sell a cow to market, they’re going to do it regardless.”

Even in a country plagued by political turmoil, where corruption and access to skilled labor are major bottlenecks, the microenterprises MEDA’s project will target still manage to function, because they have no other choice.

Micro-enterprises cannot afford to suspend their activities, so their need for credit and business support services will continue.

Gender bias is a huge barrier facing women. “That really is a reflection of the core of Haitian society and how it works.”

MEDA’s value add in ATTEINDRE is gender and social inclusion, he said. “That’s the mountain we’re going to have to climb, to evangelize our partners to be much more aggressive at reducing exclusion.”

Reaching this goal will involve not only gender equity and social inclusion training, but also financial incentives for partners to work with “clients who may not be as (financially) attractive as their normal baseline clients.”

“This project is serious about inclusion,” he said. It will focus on helping women and youth (aged 1835) who have been excluded from the existing financial services ecosystem get greater access to financial and 11

business development services.

Reaching that goal will involve both new products and services and reaching new markets through leveraging local capital.

As many as 70 per cent of the enterprises reached will be women-led.

Many projects target specific value chains at the outset.

ATTEINDRE is taking a non-specific, exploratory approach. “It’s really wide open, and that’s one of the best things about this program.”

Traditional USAID projects have focused on agricultural value chains, commonly mango, coffee, and plantain. Not defining target sectors at the outset will allow the project to work with value chains that are “equally high in potential”, such as the artifact (local crafts) sector. “That’s a gem no one has looked at.”

Tourism and tour guides are also possibilities.

While agriculture accounts for 27 percent of GDP in Haiti, “there’s a whole lot (of other work) going on in the micro-enterprise area.”

ATTEINDRE will work with 15 or 16 partners over the next four years in connection with a projected $5 million grant fund.

Haiti’s Central Bank, Banque de la Republique de Haiti, has given its blessing to the project by signing a memorandum of understanding with MEDA. The agreement provides some authority and respect, as it is a sign that the ATTEINDRE efforts are in line The Marketplace March April 2021

Claude Clodomir heads up MEDA's ATTEINDRE project in rural Haiti.

with national priorities around inclusion, he said.

The project will target six rural areas where 30 per cent of the Haitian population live: two in the south, one in the centre and three in the north.

Employment in most Haitian agriculture value chains is largely female, but investments in enterprises run by women or youth are much lower than they could be.

Financial incentives will help financial institutions move into new markets, new areas and start “testing their products with people who are otherwise excluded.”

The challenge is finding the most investment-worthy clients among excluded populations and creating opportunities.

The Marketplace March April 2021

Most women involved in agriculture work in the retail side of business, not the more lucrative sectors such as processing. “We have to create the opportunities for women, to put them in the much more interesting parts of these value chains.”

In cocoa, of 10,000 farmers involved in a value chain, 2,000 will be male farmers, 500 will be male processors. “The rest will be women resellers. That’s the low-value, subsistence, day-to-day activity.”

Using incentives to move women into different parts of the value change is where a project can really make a difference.

Loan guarantees are not a primary part of proposed incentives. These do not tend to 12

make a major impact in changing the long-term behavior of financial service providers, he said.

Creating new markets and providing opportunities for producers is a more sustainable way to make lasting change, he said.

Business development support for artisans will be part of this process.

Facilitating export potential for items such as local crafts is key, “and that really comes with the partners that we choose.”

Natural fibres such as sisal are used to make lamps and household decorative items. These are in demand in the US as some sectors are trying to get away from use of synthetic fibres.

“Globally, people seek Haitian work.”

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Measuring opportunities to give back Former youth pastor’s agtech firm has a purpose beyond making money As a young boy, Randall Schwartthe bills. “I call it tent-building, ladder and whack a rubber mallet zentruber loved to build things out just like (the Apostle) Paul, that’s on the side of the bin. of Lego and take machines apart how I was able to support my true Assuming that he would when they quit working. passion, and the thing I went to find a solution for the man’s “Receiving my first computer school for, ministry.” problem with a quick internet was a life-changing experience,” In 2014, with a growing family to search, Schwartzentruber was he recalls. support, he started a job doing smart surprised to learn that no costAs a young adult, he spent home automation, getting some effective solutions existed. That close to 10 years working in youth extra schooling and certification to discovery led to a 1.5 year process ministry for The Gathering, a become qualified for automation of “ordering various components Kitchener church plant. engineering. “That experience online and tinkering on the kitchen Now, as the co-founder and is what uniquely positioned me table” in the evenings after his four CEO of BinSentry, a fast-growing for what I am doing now, which children had gone to bed. agricultural technology firm, he is running an Internet of Things Eventually, he began to make gets to combine his passion for agricultural sensor company.” progress on a solution, and decided discovery with his to leave a secure love for mentoring job to start his own people to be all that company. they can be for the Early on, it glory of God. wasn’t easy. “After “My current spending time place of work has trying to solve this become the place problem, I can that I do ministry, confidently say, we and that is also understood why no exciting.” one else had done Raised in this up until that BinSentry’s monitoring system helps farmers measure feed bin levels without Haysville, a hamlet point in time.” using a mallet.

20 minutes west of BinSentry had Kitchener, he spent a lot of time In lay terms, the Internet of to experiment with hundreds of on his grandfather’s farm, with Things puts sensors to work to sensors, as most didn’t work for tinkering and automation becoming perform mundane tasks. more than a few weeks without an increasing passion.

Schwartzentruber’s journey being overwhelmed by bin dust.

Even while working as a into full-time entrepreneurship The solution they settled on youth minister, he looked around began when the owner of a feed (Light Detection and Ranging or at things the church needed and mill described not having a way to LIDAR, systems also found in wondered about how to automate track on-farm inventory as one of self-driving cars) uses low-power, routine activities. the largest business challenges. battery operated cellular sensors, Outside of the church, he Historically, the way people with solar charging backup. worked several days a week at a determined how much feed was Canada’s largest telecommunTavistock cheese factory to pay left in a bin was to climb up a ications company rolled out a 13

The Marketplace March April 2021

Bin Sentry co-founders Nathan Hoel (left) and Randall Schwartzentruber with their agtech creation, a wireless system for monitoring on-farm feed bin levels and transmitting data back to feed mills.

network that would handle the data from these sensors just as BinSentry began selling its devices.

“We ended up being in the right place at the right time with the right skillset.”

When he started BinSentry, Schwartzentruber knew that companies with two co-founders have a greater chance of success. So he prayed for guidance and ended up turning to a childhood church friend, Nathan Hoel, a software architect who is now BinSentry’s chief technology officer.

Hoel was happy in the job he had, and initially rebuffed Schwartzentruber’s offer. Two months later, he reconsidered and came on board. “That’s really when BinSentry took off.”

While the two men’s values, vision, and mission for BinSentry The Marketplace March April 2021

align perfectly, “the way we think about problems is completely opposite” and leads to great solutions, Schwartzentruber said.

Wallenstein Feed, one of Ontario’s largest feed mills, was BinSentry’s first customer “and definitely a huge proponent of what we were trying to do in the

“My current place of work has become the place that I do ministry, and that is also exciting.”

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Mathew MCarthy/Waterloo Region Record

early stages of our company’s founding.”

In 2019, Bin Sentry won $100,000 at the Forbes Innovation Summit, which showcases agricultural technology companies.

BinSentry was one of two firms selected out of 300 applicants from around the world to win the top prize at the Indianapolis competition.

BinSentry entered the contest as a way of raising its profile. “It was quite an experience to have your solution validated in that kind of way,” he says.

Helpful as the money was for a young firm, the attention that the contest, and Schwartzentruber’s subsequent opportunity to speak on a panel at a Forbes-sponsored event, was even more important, in his view.

That recognition generated instant credibility that “goes a long way in the ability to sit down with potential customers."

Several partnerships have allowed BinSentry to grow rapidly.

In September, they announced they had secured $10 million (Canadian) in venture capital funding. Weeks later, they unveiled a deal with agribusiness giant Cargill to distribute their product.

Staffing has almost doubled to 23 in recent months and could hit 40 by year-end.

BinSentry has its own salesforce to market its product to Cargill’s competitors, and is starting to grow into South America. It has sold over four thousand systems and expects to place 10,000 to 20,000 by 2022.

While the company has a long sales cycle, it might become cashflow positive (more money coming in than going out) over the next 12 to 24 months. Getting a large poultry or pork firm to put BinSentry’s

product on all of their bins could push BinSentry forward quickly.

“A lot of things have to go right in order to get that level of saturation with a customer.”

COVID-19 and market reaction to it are the big wild card in how things will unfold in the short term, he said.

Being a CEO is at times difficult and anxiety-inducing, and Schwartzentruber realizes there are moments where he just has to trust the Lord.

“The excitement to be part of something that God is building to provide opportunities to people within our organization and outside our organization as well is probably the single most motivating factor.”

BinSentry’s current focus is on scaling up, so the company’s opportunity to shine Christ’s light is in valuing employees and their contributions, he said.

He wants to help employees understand that their work is a

A different view of managing growth Many tech firms want to keep their staff for a long time.

BinSentry takes an opposite approach. “We try to hire people and train them, so they can go out and do exactly the same thing that (co-founder) Nathan (Hoel) and I are trying to do,” Randall Schwartzentruber says.

Not that he is hoping to push staff out the door, but if staff gain skills at BinSentry that lead them to a dream of starting something new, he will be happy for them. From a Christian perspective, the former youth pastor’s dream is to make disciples in business who share the BinSentry vision.

“We’re trying to multiply the vision that we have, of building businesses that are driven by a purpose that is more meaningful than just generating profit, but is instead driven by a goal of making the world a better place.”

He hopes that a number of companies are spawned by BinSentry’s

vision. “I truly believe that if we do that well, success will naturally follow that.”

Schwartzentruber recognizes that he has benefited greatly from entrepreneurial mentors in the KitchenerWaterloo business ecosystem and wants to provide the same mentoring to other young entrepreneurs. “Personally, I cannot wait to have the opportunity to pay that forward.”

He is excited about building Christfocused businesses that, in addition to making a profit, “want to make a difference in growing the Kingdom of God on earth.”

He believes that God wants to entrust wealth to people who can be trusted to use it for Kingdom-building charitable purposes.

Young people need to understand that "there is another way that you can do business, that glorifies God and generates wealth at the same time," he said.

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way of participating in an act of worship.

“If we are able to create a space where they are able to use those skills, gifts and passions to create a better world, then they are worshipping.”

Creating a space where individuals are valued, heard, where they are given an opportunity to be worshipping through their work is a major motivator for Schwartzentruber.

“Of course, our visions are bigger than that. We want to be able to take the wealth that the Lord is enabling us to generate and go and create opportunities for other people outside of our organization.”

The company has discussed being involved in missions trips, building homes for people, or perhaps working in sustainable agriculture in developing nations, plans that have been put on hold due to the pandemic.

“We are a company that prides itself on being creative.”

He is excited that BinSentry’s business journey may allow people “to shine the light of Jesus in this world,” but uncertain where that journey will lead.

“That willingness to surrender what we are building here is the reason we have got to where we are at.”

Whether or not employees are people of faith, they get excited about a corporate mission “that is driven by meaningful purposes,” he said.

Investors in the company were asked about their openness to BinSentry’s vision, including its inclination towards being charitable. The team of investors who are backing the company buy into BinSentry’s values, and understand that “being true to that vision is how you attract the right employees.”

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The Marketplace March April 2021

Soundbites

Persistence pays off for Zoom’s creator Online meeting platform Zoom has become a lifeline for many during the pandemic.

Company founder Eric Yuan’s life journey is a testament to resilience and perseverance.

The billionaire tech CEO moved to California’s Silicon Valley from China in the late 1990s, after being denied a visa seven times, according to Entrepreneur magazine. His initial efforts to launch what has become a daily tool for hundreds of millions of people were rejected by potential investors.

Undeterred, Yuan dug deep for motivation. He created a screensaver for his computer which read: “YOU ARE WRONG” as his response to naysayers and a way to keep going.

Repurposing fast food waste Fast food junkies who dislike the associated waste will be heartened to hear about a new program at Brazilian McDonalds restaurants.

Trays for hamburgers, fries and sodas look the same as their plastic predecessors, with one big difference.

They are mostly made from food waste and non-recyclable household garbage.

Israeli company UBQ Materials produces the trays, which Arcos Dorados, the largest independent McDonalds franchisee in the world, is rolling out to minimize its use of virgin plastic, Fast Company magazine says.

Arcos Dorados began a plastic reduction program in 2018, eliminating 1,300 tons of plastics by the end of 2019.

Building pallets and people Several US pallet manufacturers are paying close attention to employee needs, a story in Christianity Today magazine suggests. McVantage Packaging, Pallet Service CorpThe Marketplace March April 2021

oration and Hay Creek Pallet all have corporate chaplaincy programs, staffed by two chaplains in the case of Wisconsin-based Hay Creek.

Minnesota-based Pallet Creek has five core values: balance, innovation, respect, commitment, and humility (BIRCH). To make this more than a slogan, they ask employees to fill out a BIRCH card when they see a co-worker demonstrating one of these values.

Managers discuss the cards at weekly meetings, and quarterly public recognitions are offered, along with small gifts.

Alabama’s McVantage Packaging converted a run-down motel on its property into a halfway house for recently paroled men. Company founders the McKinney family went on to start a non-profit that helps parolees find jobs and housing.

Remembering Sadie Alexander In a year when the US has sworn in its first black, female vice-president, here’s a notable anniversary of another historic achievement by a lesser-known trailblazer.

A century ago, in 1921, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander was the first black woman to graduate with a PhD in economics in the United States, only the second AfricanAmerican to earn a PhD. 16

Unable to find a university to hire her to teach, she worked for an insurance company for several years. She went on to become the first black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the first AfricanAmerican woman to practice law in Pennsylvania.

She was known for writing about racial and economic justice for the working class and was appointed to US President Harry Truman’s Presidential Commission on Human Rights after World War II. US economists are now beginning to revisit her ideas, The Economist magazine reports.

Fair Trade’s future?

Christian History magazine often provides fascinating deep dives into a topic relevant to the church’s development from the earliest days.

A recent issue, “When the church goes to market — How Christians have influenced economic life” is no exception.

A story in that issue — Alternative economics – the fair trade movement — retells a tale familiar to many Mennonites. In the late 1940s, Mennonite Central Committee worker Edna Ruth Miller Byler began selling needlework from Puerto Rican women from her car trunk. That early, itinerant advocacy and sales effort grew to become the Self Help chain, eventually Ten Thousand Villages.

A concluding paragraph of the story summarizes a modernday struggle within the fair trade movement, which “faces conflict between those who wish it to grow through labelling and certifying for the mainstream market and those who feel this focuses too much on the Western consumer and not on marginalized artisans.”

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Increasing opportunity in the transport industry Multiple groups work at getting more women behind the wheel REGINA- Jordan Ewart doesn’t like to use the word truckers.

Professional drivers is the preferred way to describe the people who operate the big rigs that ship goods along our highways, says Ewart, a policy analyst for the Saskatchewan Trucking Association.

That nuance may seem like a small thing. But making changes to create a more welcoming, diverse industry is crucial in coming years, says the Regina native, whose postsecondary education included a bachelor’s degree in international development studies and a major in conflict resolution studies at Menno Simons College in Winnipeg.

Across Canada, “it wouldn’t be crazy to say that 25,000 new drivers will be needed over the next few years,” 7,500 of those in Saskatchewan, he said.

That reality underlines the importance of elevating the image of the transportation industry so that it is seen as a profession.

About 87 per cent of these drivers will have never previously worked in the sector, which has the highest average age of any occupation. Ewart is working to increase the number of women among those new drivers.

Retention is a large issue in the industry, in Saskatchewan partly due to a lack of rest stops in many prairie regions. Between 17 and 18 per cent of the province’s truck drivers voluntarily leave the industry every year. For Canada

Shelley Uvanile-Hesch has been a professional driver for over 30 years.

as a whole, that turnover rate is less than 15 per cent. In the US, voluntary turnover among all

Jordan Ewart 17

drivers is more than twice that rate.

“For the most part, the women that are doing (professional driving) are having success. There’s just so much more to do to attract more.”

Research by Trucking HR Canada found that 97 per cent of drivers are male, and only three percent, or 11,000 of 400,000 professional drivers, are female.

Most of the women who get jobs behind the wheel are indigenous or newcomers to Canada.

US studies suggest that between seven and 10 per cent of people driving 18-wheelers are women.

In Saskatchewan, employment in the transportation and warehousing industry is 87 per cent male and 13 per cent female. The sector is a primary employer in the province, directly employing about The Marketplace March April 2021

Shelley Uvanile-Hesch started the Women's Trucking Federation of Canada as a networking and mentoring group for female drivers.

15 per cent of the population.

Short-haul and urban routes are more appropriate for people who have responsibilities at home at the end of their shifts, so the industry is working more to tailor itself to the individuals working in it, he said.

Switching out trailers and drivers to ensure that people can get home is becoming more common.

“Employers are likely going to have more success bringing in women if they can bring in that work-life balance piece.”

Recognizing the need to get more women working in the industry, Ewart and the Saskatoon YWCA have done a pilot program this winter to provide training for women who want to become The Marketplace March April 2021

transport drivers.

Women Shifting Gears, a threemonth program, was funded by the provincial ministry of immigration and career training.

“I’d like to do this without a global pandemic,” Ewart said, noting that they accepted less students than originally planned.

The program was designed to attract low-income, vulnerable individuals, people who have barriers to employment.

Success in the program will result in not just more women drivers but also employability skills for all of the students. “There’s kind of a human dignity side to this as well.”

Some people who aren’t well18

suited to driving may get a warehouse job and work their way up.

Asked about how his work is an expression of his values and faith, Ewart said he recognizes his privilege, that not everyone will have the same opportunities as Jordan Ewart, a 29-year-old white male.

“I believe in equality, but equity is just as important,” he said.

“I do believe that we can build these women up and give them the skills to succeed.”

The COVID pandemic has presented many challenges for the program, which was intended to be in-person and interactive but is now partly happening through computer screens. Ewart’s role is liaising with employers and helping students get

into the job market.

Part of the pilot program puts students on driving simulators and teaches them about federal regulations. “If transportation wants to keep up with other industries that are facing (labor) shortages, we need to recognize the benefits of diversity,” he said.

“We have a long way to go.”

Training on a driving simulator Plans are in the works to Other organizations agree. develop a similar training program Training programs for women and specifically for indigenous people. others have taken place in Alberta “There’s lots of interest.”

and British Columbia, and there are rumors of a new initiative starting in Ontario later this year.

Shelley Uvanile-Hesch is chief executive officer of the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada. Since she started the organization in 2015, it has grown from 65 to over 700 members.

The Baden, Ontario woman, who has been a professional driver for 30 years, started the WTF after realizing

Many barriers keep women out of transportation industry Discrimination, rates of pay, as well as training and insurance costs all limit women’s participation in the transportation industry, observers say.

Jordan Ewart of the Saskatchewan Trucking Association thinks that violence and anti- harassment legislation being mandated for all federal carriers should help turnover decrease.

The biggest barrier to more women entering the industry is image, says Ellen Voie of Women in Trucking. “Women don’t think of themselves in a truck.”

WIT has taken a number of efforts to make that connection for women, including creating a Girl Scouts transportation badge.

When it comes to stemming the departure of women from the industry, Voie is succinct. “I think pay needs to go up more.”

She is not surprised that one carrier who pays drivers a salary based on a 40hour week, puts them up in hotels so they can get a decent sleep has almost no turnover. “To me, that makes so much sense.”

For many companies, paying drivers by the mile, or sometimes the load, is the norm.

Getting funding to attend truck driving school can be a major barrier, says Shelley Uvanile-Hesch of the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada.

Canada does not recognize driving as a professional skilled trade.

Whereas US drivers can get their licences for a few thousand dollars, Canadian courses cost between $10,000

and $14,000.

Many training courses are less than 12 weeks in length, so people taking them do not qualify for student loans.

“For people working a minimum wage job and living paycheque to paycheque, they just can’t save up the money to go.

Usually, they don’t qualify for a loan at the bank to go.”

Another challenge Canadian women face after getting their licence to drive is struggling to get hired due to a lack of experience.

Insurance rates are exorbitant for Canadian drivers with less than two years experience, which makes companies reluctant to hire newcomers. “In some cases, that’s an area where the government needs to step in more,” she said.

In the US, some large carriers will pay the cost of a driver getting their commercial licence in exchange for working for the company for a set period on graduation.

Women in Trucking gives scholarships to women towards the cost of training.

Issues around health, wellbeing and work-life balance are all considerations the industry needs to address, UvanileHesch said: “We’re long past the place where people want to be on the road for three to four weeks or longer before coming home.”

Mental health is becoming a major issue. Since the fall, five drivers have committed suicide while out on the road.

“We have work to do.”

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Some companies offer benefits and employee assistance plans, but the workers need to be at home in order to access them. “You can’t get that behind the wheel of your truck.”

She wants to see mental health first aid training to become mandatory in all workplaces. The COVID pandemic has increased stress and loneliness for drivers. “There’s no interaction other than through a phone.”

Some drivers have not been home since the beginning of the pandemic, because they have spouses or children with underlying health issues.

Lack of washroom access is also a big problem in many areas. Drivers can be at a shipper-receiver dock for six or seven hours “and they won’t even let you go in to use the washroom.”

While some drivers have deluxe vehicles that they can shower, cook, eat and sleep in, most cannot afford these.

Uvanile-Hesch’s current truck costs $180,000 and does not include those conveniences.

One of Canada’s major grocery chains recently laid off 150 drivers, people who will be replaced by lowercost workers without decent wages or benefits, she noted.

Uvanile-Hesch and her husband drive as a team, something she says is common in the industry. But that approach can take a personal toll. "A team environment, for the spouse, can be very hard on the relationship, because one person is sleeping, and the other person is driving.”

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TheMarketplace MarketplaceMarch March April April 2021 The

most trucking associations are focused on carriers. “We have a need for mentorship and networking among women in our

industry,” she said.

Ellen Voie, founder and CEO of US-based Women in Trucking (WIT), agrees.

Facts about women in trucking The average age of a female driver is 50, someone who has raised their family and is now out on the road.

In 2019, women made up 10.2 per cent of US rig drivers, 24 per cent of managers at trucking companies and five percent of diesel technicians, says a study of 884 carriers by Freightwaves and the Women in Trucking Association.

Hewlett Packard research found that women apply for open job positions if they believe they can respond to 100 per cent of the criteria. Men respond as soon as they feel they meet 60 per cent of the requirements.

Women take fewer risks as drivers.

Men are more likely to be involved in crashes that occur on curves, in the dark or while passing other vehicles, a study

The Marketplace March April 2021

by the Social Issues Research Centre found.

Accidents involving women occur at lower speeds, resulting in less loss of life and less damage to equipment.

Women truck drivers are safer than male counterparts in every statistically significant safety behavior, with men 20 per cent more likely to be involved in a crash than women.

Women are often easier to train because they are more eager to learn.

Over 83 per cent of women who answered a survey about why they joined the industry said they were introduced by a family member or a friend.

Women drivers typically log more miles per month than men and have lower voluntary turnover rates.

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WIT, which Voie started in 2007, has 5,000 members in 10 countries. Over 90 per cent of members are in the US, with Canada making up the second largest cohort. The organization represents women and men who work in various aspects of the industry, including carriers.

When she started the nonprofit, “women weren’t really being accommodated,” she said. Uniforms, trucks, and other equipment were all made for men, and there weren’t even women’s washrooms.

“The industry really wasn’t offering a level playing field for women.”

Women in the industry leave their jobs at a lower rate than men, she said.

While voluntary turnover in the industry as a whole is high, women are more likely to stay in a job if they have a friendly dispatcher to work with.

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Podcasts provide a welcome respite from screen time Everywhere you look these days, there’s something new to listen to in the form of a podcast.

Several reasons could explain the surging variety and popularity of these online audio offerings.

For people too blurry-eyed to read after days of online meetings, and tired of binging Netflix or Disney+, well-done podcasts can soothe while they entertain, inform, or inspire.

At the same time, barriers to entry, in the form of the cost of microphones, audio recording equipment and online hosting, continue to drop.

Some days it seems as though the Canadian best-selling author who joked about being the only person on the planet without a podcast is only exaggerating slightly.

There are podcasts for every taste and attention span, it seems.

People who like to garden, but only have a few minutes to spare, can check out Melissa and Gary Will’s Empress of Dirt — Two Minutes in the Garden, which, despite its title, tends to run between five and six minutes in length: meda.org/empressofdirt At the other end of the spectrum, author and motivational speaker Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead podcast, which features conversations with such notable people as authors Simon Sinek and Jim Collins, or former US President Barack Obama, comes in at between 90 minutes and two hours. meda.org/BreneBrown Here are some other podcasts that have caught The Marketplace’s attention recently: British newspaper The Guard-

ian has a wide range of audio offerings dealing with current affairs, politics, science, music, film and books, among other topics. The Small Changes podcast from 2018 features a series of one-on-one interviews with people who’ve seen a problem in the world and set out to change it — often in small and unexpected ways.

The series is pithy and not a huge time commitment. meda.org/ Guardian For a market-oriented slant on the week’s news, another British publication, The Economist, has a lot to offer: Give Money Talks, The Intelligence or Editor’s Picks a listen at meda.org/Economist

Among the more noteworthy podcasts for entrepreneurs: People looking for inspiration in the form of lessons from familiar names can check out Entrepreneurs on Fire: meda.org/Entreponfire In a similar vein, for people who have time for a longer listen, there is Rachel Hollis’s RISE podcast. Listen to Hollis at this link: meda.org/Hollis Bizchix is a podcast designed for women entrepreneurs, hosted

by MBA and coach Natalie Eckdahl meda.org/Bizchix 21

US National Public Radio’s How I Built This explores stories behind well-known companies: meda.org/ builtthis Linked In’s co-founder Reid Hoffman hosts Masters of Scale, an exploration of how well-known companies have scaled up. The show promotes itself as being the first American media program committed to gender balance for guests: meda.org/MastersofScale Spirituality and religion: The Faith Today podcast, hosted by Karen Stiller, co-editor of the magazine of the same name, provides a series of 20-30 minute interviews around issues in the Canadian church from an evangelical perspective: meda.org/FaithToday In the US, Christianity Today offers 10 different podcasts, focused on such areas as prayer during COVID, discipleship, preaching, the nature of church leadership and discussion of major cultural events: meda.org/ ChristianityToday Some of the most consistently interesting sermons come from Bruxy Cavey, teaching pastor of The MeetingHouse: meda.org/ MeetingHouse Music: Broken Record provides a series of fascinating conversations with popular musicians, with hosts Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam: meda.org/ BrokenRecord For people whose tastes run more toward classical music, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre explores both the famous composers and the current performers: meda.org/ NACclassics

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The Marketplace March April 2021

Books in brief

Understanding Gen Z, Work & Worship, learning to write charitably Zconomy: How Gen Z will change the future of business — and what to do about it By Jason Dorsey and Denise Villa. Harper Collins, 2020 (288 pp., $29.99 US) ver’s licence, let alone buying a car.

Online research often involves “Google-Tubing” — a favored descriptor of the YouTube video platform — and seeking the opinions or endorsements of friends, family and celebrity online influencers.

Their preferred approach to seeking and applying for jobs, as well as deciding whether to stay in a role, all require employers to ditch analogue norms and adopt intuitive online processes.

A fascinating read for anyone who cares about reaching the next generation.

In Zconomy, Dorsey and Villa explain how Gen Z — people born between 1996 and 2012ish — will reshape business and the work world.

The book will explain the implications of things that you may already know — the first generation to lead fully digital lives spends a lot of time on their phones — and many things that marketers, employers, product developers and sales teams need to internalize and act on, soon.

Gen Z’s attitudes towards money and spending may come as a surprise. Debt-averse, they often prefer thrift shops over boutiques, but also favor quality and brands that embody their values.

Increasing numbers of this generation see little value in getting a driThe Marketplace March April 2021

Work and Worship: Reconnecting our labor and liturgy By Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Wilson Baker Academic, 2020 (292 pp., $29.99 US) In the early church, there was no separation between worship and work. Quite the opposite in fact.

Many early Christians “carried a wide variety of work products with them as they gathered for worship,” note the authors of this historical examination and modern critique.

The connection between faith

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and work was forged by Israel’s worship practices, a people who worshipped their way into an integrated life.

As that connection disintegrated in modern times, false notions of a distinction between the material and the spiritual resulted in a divorce that prevents people from worshipping God with their entire being.

The authors, theology professors whose writing is as profound as it is practical, explain why this separation must end, and offer many useful ideas on addressing the problem. “Theologies of work need to be practiced, embedded and embodied in communities of worship,” they argue.

This book is a great resource for worship leaders, pastors and anyone who wants to lead a life of integrating work and worship.

Charitable Writing: Cultivating virtue through our words By Richard Hughes Gibson and James Edward Beitler III Intervarsity Press, 2020 (248 pp., $22 US) This useful volume will both surprise and ultimately satisfy anyone who purchases it hoping for style advice. It focuses not on gerunds or Oxford commas, but rather the grammar of faith.

Drinking deeply from a well of Christian theologians through the ages, the authors outline three spiritual threshold concepts for anyone who sets their finger to a pen or keyboard: Listen humbly, argue lovingly, keep the time of writing hopefully.

Love, originally known as charity — caritas in

Books in brief

Latin or agape in the Greek — in this context, they remind us, is not a feeling, but rather a baseline inclination to guide our conduct.

It is the most difficult, and at the same time most important virtue to practice and live out.

There is a fascinating discussion of the need to get past the common “argument as war” approach. The book outlines a number of alternate metaphors, including argument as dance, culinary preparation, barn raising or conversation.

Well worth reading and revisiting, Charitable Writing is as relevant to “church staffs and workplaces” as it is to those who write every day as their primary vocation.

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The Marketplace March April 2021

The Marketplace March April 2021

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