In August, I visited Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan primarily to attend Joseph Project organized by Dutch Nature, a missional business started by American missionaries some 20 years ago.
The leadership of Dutch Nature attended SfK's BMT early this year and DN wants to be part of SfK Network. SfK has made an investment in DN Holdings in July 2022.
Joseph Project is a collaborative effort among many stakeholders to empower local pastors to be self-sustainable so that they may be able to focus on their ministries.
I met Sung Jung who was one of three people who started DN and is now leading the DN Impact Division. He is a Korean American.
After a day-long conference about what Joseph Project is and how God has been blessing it over the past several years, we started visiting several businesses and sites. The first visit was at the headquarters of DN.
DN consists of Oasis Agro, the chicken feed mill, Nature Pro, the engineering solutions company, and Royal Dutch, a broiler supplier. Oasis Agro is the cash cow and two others are trying to stand on their own.
At the JP, I ran into a godly man who started and ran a successful missional business in C nation. Bill Job is an exemplary BAMer whom we all should learn from and imitate. It was a great joy to see him again.
When SfK made an investment earlier this year, there were two other investors. One of them was a Christian family represented by a young man below. We had a good fellowship.
We visited a few other businesses that are working with DN in its supply chain. One of them was a local pastor who was running a pilot operation for chicken broiler business in a 40-foot container. His testimony was inspirational.
Another business we visited was a soy seed supplier. Its business line is planned for expansion where DN will play a role.
One of the directors for DN was a former school director. Apparently, he is good at numbers and plays an important role in DN's finance books.
I had a separate meeting with the Chairman of the board, Kevin, middle, and another director, Mark, who happens to be a friend of mine in the BAM ecosystem.
Another partner with DN is Integra, They collect cow manure and produces bio gas as an alternative fuel to farmers. DN plans to merge with Integra.
We also visited a new land and facility that DN has recently acquired with the funding raised, in which SfK participated. It was a big facility that has a railroad connected so that the facility may have access to the port far away. Thus, it could be a global or regional distribution center for DN's products. One of the unique facilities that the property has is an old-Soviet-era bomb shelter that was huge, where an operational headquarter may be established during the war time.
We visited a few clients whom DN serves and their stories will be covered in a separate blog post. - Jeffrey
No comments:
Post a Comment