Getting Down to Business
It seems that Casey and I will be sticking around the Raleigh Area for a couple of years at least. I am currently launching a new business here in the Triangle. T1 Earthcare is a basic lawn care maintenance business and green is our new favori
te color! I haven't figured out how to greenify (which may not actually be a real word) this new venture other than running my work vehicles on Vegetable Oil powered Diesel engines. We'll get there though. I may try to offer gas free lawn maintenace which would run the customer about double the cost of the conventional mowers and 2 cycle equipment. Sort of impractical, but I'm thinking about how to make it work. For now, we'll be piecing our consciences together as we continue to burn gasoline in most of our equipment.
Earthcare probably gives you a good feel for the nature of the work but T1 is a little less self-explanatory. The T is short for Tzedakah and 1 indicating that this is the first of many Tzedakah sanctioned small-business efforts.
Tzedakah is an ancient Hebrew word that refers to a set of social practices that make an interesting blend of two of our English words that may not seem to fit together. Tzedekah wraps together the significance of Charity and Justice. If you take our western meanings of these words and sort of blend them together; then you can begin to understand the principles of Tzedakah. There are 8 levels of Tzedakah and each of them is a graduated expression of providing justice and charity in a socio-economic sense. For instance; the lowest level of Tzedakah refers to giving unwillingly and the highest level of Tzedakah is the process of helping someone to become financially independent to the degree that the helped party may turn around and give Tzekakah to another person who is in need. If I could define Tzedakah in one sentence; I would say that it is exercising ethical and gracious business practice while giving responsibly to the poor. I say responsibly because it is so easy to splash into the welfare side of things which is usually more hurtful than helpful.
You're probably wondering how a small business has a whole lot to do with helping anyone and the truth is that T1 Earthcare is really just a gateway into the world of small-business for me. As far as the government knows about; this is the first time I've set out to work for myself. I shamefully admit that I did earn unreported dollars as a youngster with a business that I named "Automassage", which involved detailing cars and airplanes. I hope that you and the IRS will forgive me. The holistic purpose of T1 Earthcare is that it will provide me with the necessary experience and funding to begin other projects in the developing world (likely Nicaragua). The greatest problems that I observe in that country revolve around poor economy and the lack of simple business knowledge. When people are not busy working, a multitude of problems present themselves. One of the leading causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa is attributed to the lack of work which leaves people bored and with little to do other than have sex.
Myself and a handful of other Christ Followers in the area have a vision to see the poorest of places improved through small business. I can't think of a better way of sharing the love of Jesus than by providing a better standard of living to the developing places in this world. This is where the person of Jesus is currently leading T1 Earthcare. I pray that our vision will be blessed and that we will have the courage to see it through.
I hope you're as stoked about T1 Earthcare as I am. Being so far away from the developing world, it's hard to believe that this is good and that God could smile at this. In all honesty, I am deathly scared that what is meant to be a beautiful thing will turn into the pursuit of wealth. A goal that will destroy everything that T1 Earthcare is supposed to be. I pray that God will protect his people (especially me) from becoming consumed with money. The problem is that I can seek all of the things of this world and make it look like following Jesus and I need to be rescued from that. Who will save me?
te color! I haven't figured out how to greenify (which may not actually be a real word) this new venture other than running my work vehicles on Vegetable Oil powered Diesel engines. We'll get there though. I may try to offer gas free lawn maintenace which would run the customer about double the cost of the conventional mowers and 2 cycle equipment. Sort of impractical, but I'm thinking about how to make it work. For now, we'll be piecing our consciences together as we continue to burn gasoline in most of our equipment.Earthcare probably gives you a good feel for the nature of the work but T1 is a little less self-explanatory. The T is short for Tzedakah and 1 indicating that this is the first of many Tzedakah sanctioned small-business efforts.
Tzedakah is an ancient Hebrew word that refers to a set of social practices that make an interesting blend of two of our English words that may not seem to fit together. Tzedekah wraps together the significance of Charity and Justice. If you take our western meanings of these words and sort of blend them together; then you can begin to understand the principles of Tzedakah. There are 8 levels of Tzedakah and each of them is a graduated expression of providing justice and charity in a socio-economic sense. For instance; the lowest level of Tzedakah refers to giving unwillingly and the highest level of Tzedakah is the process of helping someone to become financially independent to the degree that the helped party may turn around and give Tzekakah to another person who is in need. If I could define Tzedakah in one sentence; I would say that it is exercising ethical and gracious business practice while giving responsibly to the poor. I say responsibly because it is so easy to splash into the welfare side of things which is usually more hurtful than helpful.
You're probably wondering how a small business has a whole lot to do with helping anyone and the truth is that T1 Earthcare is really just a gateway into the world of small-business for me. As far as the government knows about; this is the first time I've set out to work for myself. I shamefully admit that I did earn unreported dollars as a youngster with a business that I named "Automassage", which involved detailing cars and airplanes. I hope that you and the IRS will forgive me. The holistic purpose of T1 Earthcare is that it will provide me with the necessary experience and funding to begin other projects in the developing world (likely Nicaragua). The greatest problems that I observe in that country revolve around poor economy and the lack of simple business knowledge. When people are not busy working, a multitude of problems present themselves. One of the leading causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa is attributed to the lack of work which leaves people bored and with little to do other than have sex.
Myself and a handful of other Christ Followers in the area have a vision to see the poorest of places improved through small business. I can't think of a better way of sharing the love of Jesus than by providing a better standard of living to the developing places in this world. This is where the person of Jesus is currently leading T1 Earthcare. I pray that our vision will be blessed and that we will have the courage to see it through.
I hope you're as stoked about T1 Earthcare as I am. Being so far away from the developing world, it's hard to believe that this is good and that God could smile at this. In all honesty, I am deathly scared that what is meant to be a beautiful thing will turn into the pursuit of wealth. A goal that will destroy everything that T1 Earthcare is supposed to be. I pray that God will protect his people (especially me) from becoming consumed with money. The problem is that I can seek all of the things of this world and make it look like following Jesus and I need to be rescued from that. Who will save me?
posted by Alan Wilser at 7:55 PM
7 Comments:
IF I had a lawn. I'd pay you to mow it!
Just out of curiosity, were you at the Bethel community that is about 10 miles south of Chinendega on the east side of the highway? I just got back from there this weekend.
Jerry, Yes. That is the very same Bethel. I suppose you were involved with Vision Nicaragua during this trip?
Alan,
Good to hear back from you. I wasn't with Vision Nicaragua, but led one of the construction teams from our church in Fargo, ND. We origionally built the school at Bethel in 2001, and it was used for grades K-6. This year we came back and added on 4 classrooms, so that they could accommodate grades 7-12 also. We also had time to repaint and fix up the origional school. My family sponsors two kids at this school, so it was fun to come and see them also. While we were there, we were also able to help out in a Convey of Hope food distribution at Bethel. This provided some food and clothes to about 150 people in the community.
Will you be getting back to Nicaragua in the future? Are you with Vision Nicaragua, with a different group, or on your own?
Jerry
I was working with Vision Nicaragua as a Project Coordinator during most of 2007 and I did live in Bethel for much of the year. I'm not sure if I will work directly with VN in the future, although I would like to keep up relations with them as well as some of the other groups in the region. I'll definitely be back in Nica over the coming years. I remember a group stopping in to check out the school in late November or early December but I was pretty busy and didn't get a chance to come a find you guys. I suppose you worked with Juan Carlos quite a bit. Take care Jerry.
Alan,
Our group was in Bethel in February of 2008, so we would have missed you on your 2007 trip. The main people I remember from there were Marjury and Evelyn Cano (two girls we sponsor) and an elderly lady named Julia.
Jerry
i want to be employed by "autoMassage"
plz to make this happen
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