Andy and Janine (00:00.93)
Hey, welcome to the conversation and greetings from Harare, Zimbabwe. Andy and Janine joining you. Yeah. From the Peach Hotel in Harare. Yeah, and so this is our behind the scenes update for you. Thanks being for being a part of the Heaven Business podcast community where we're seeking to continually give you key strategies, insights, how to partner with God in the messy intersection of faith, family, and business. So, Janine, what are we doing here in Zimbabwe?
So we are here supporting our friends Tommy and Rachel Duchel who are here on the ground and have Tommy grew up in Harari in in Zimbabwe and so we he is our person a piece here. So we are here supporting them in what they're endeavoring to do, which has meant many adventures this time. So in the previous years we have come and simply done work with business people, being a little bit of a part of the church here, but this year
That extended to some exciting other adventures, other cities in in Zimbabwe. and it's been wonderful. In the background you can see in here some of the other inhabitants of this place, young people chasing the peacock who's a resident here. And so not our normal studio setting, not as quiet, but definitely beautiful. Yeah, so you've obviously been a part of Heaven and Business where we are partnering or training you how to partner with God, build better business and multiply kingdom impact.
What you may not know is that we also have a nonprofit. It's called the Hope Directive. It's been around since 2015 with an independent board that helps guide and govern us and keep us accountable. And what we do through the Hope Directive is we multiply the resources, the training, the connection, what you get in the states or beyond, we multiply that to places that would be otherwise economically limited or restricted. So one of those places is
as Janine mentioned, we're here in Zimbabwe and we're gonna tell you more about that, what we've done, what we're learning and how that impacts or what that is happening here. But then also we do the same in in Brazil. It's coming up actually a trip next month in November and also in Colombia. But the key to all of this is we take seriously the mandate that Jesus gave is when you come into a city, find a person of peace. So we're not looking to build something big ourselves. We come in behind people that are on the ground
Andy and Janine (02:24.856)
It's not our brand, it's not our logo, it's not our name. We seek to encourage, edify, build up, resource, develop, use whatever we've got to literally find those people and stay with those people, walk with them over time to help them grow, strengthen, and finish strong. That's right. So, Janine, we're in Zimbabwe. We've been here for longer than we've been here. This is the fourth time here that you've been a part of. That's right. why did we come here for longer and what have we been doing?
So last year when we came, we were actually delayed in our flight, so we had an even shorter time and I said, What if we when we come next year, what if we took longer and then we can just add strength to the church that Tommy and Rachel are a part of here. They're part of the leadership team. Tommy's dad, Tom Pastor Tom, has built and developed the church here. And I said, What if we actually extended our trip and then we could lend more strength to what's happening in the church? So we started, we landed.
And we stepped straight into a pastors and leaders synod, which was about six hundred people, I think, six hundred to a thousand in the evenings. Pastors and leaders, not only from Zimbabwe, but from other African nations, actually some from the UK and beyond, just really great instruction, practical, practical instruction, and also
Theological instruction, all sorts of things, a really great mix, and we got a chance to minister to some of the people there and to pray for people. Really, really impressed with how they're upgrading all their systems, all their things to make sure everybody's on the same page. It was very impressive. Yeah, a couple of things, the highlights there for us is we we got to do a session, actually speaking to people on drift. You don't know you even drifted. It's there's potholes in the road, that's just life.
And it causes the air to come out of our tires. If we don't get wheel alignment done, we will gradually drift further and further and further away, become inefficient, ineffective, and then what to do about that. So we presented that. Janine led some ministry. We got to pray for a lot of people and a lot of one on one encouragement pouring into people, which was pretty cool. But there were some great sessions. one was all around obviously the centrality of Jesus, so important because hey guys, if if you've seen anything on
Andy and Janine (04:44.012)
social or the news, people are getting interesting, as in all sorts of additions to the Bible. So getting back to the foundations of Jesus at the center. Then there was a session on your surname is not a spiritual gift. As in just because if you're leading an organization, whether that's a business, whether that's a ministry, your children, just because they've got the same name as you does not automatically imply that they're the best person to take this on. We've seen that good, bad and ugly. Yeah.
in both organizations, businesses and in churches. So it was so good to hear that upfront and clear. and well and I love the session too from Pastor Tom that talked about while there is still why my hands can still work. In other words, don't wait until the the business or the church is drawn out of your dying grasp before you pass it on. But actually we have a pa a plan to start to to pass on your entity
while there's still strength in your hands and so that was great to hear him and he actually got his children, both natural and spiritual p kids up afterwards and imparted to them and released them into the calling on their life, which was beautiful to see and to be a part of. Yeah, so so good. So I mean those two things right now for you, the people that you are around you, are you developing them? Are you have you released them? Have you told them and affirmed the gifting in their lives? Whatever organization it is, have you released them to go beyond you?
Or you actually just trying to make a mini version of yourself, which is really small and limited, but go beyond, and that's really cool. So that's what we did is we were part of that that synod, connecting with people in between. And then the other major thing we did is we're in Harari, Zimbabwe. if you're not familiar with that, around it used to be called Rhodesian, around the 1980s, the they changed to Zimbabwe. And there has been actually if you can just search it, Google it.
the fastest way to destroy a country under the leadership of the previous president. Super sad. So we're coming into that environment. But the people are wonderful. The warm and open, so welcoming. Resilient. resilient. Faithful, loyal. They really seem to be full of hope, even though in the natural sense, many of us would look and say that the government situation here. I mean, we've experienced some of the the not so beautiful aspects of
Andy and Janine (07:06.302)
of Africa while we've been here, we've had power cuts, which is normal, and no water at times, and then our water where we were staying got electrified, so we got shocks in the shower. We I mean, you name it, we've had it, we've had the car breakdown, we've had people trying to bribe us get us to give the you know, give us get us to give them money at toll buys on the road. We've we've had seen it all in the few days that we've been here.
Yet in the midst of all that craziness, we've seen the worst of rush hour traffic in Harari and it's pretty scary. There was a couple of moments there where I saw my life flash before my eyes as we travel through that. But the people just seem to be still full of hope for the most part. There there are definitely ones that are not in that state of mind, but the ones that are believers in Jesus seem to have a resilience and a determination to trust the Lord and and
make the best of things which is beautiful to see. So look out for a blog that I'm gonna do next week post on learned hopelessness because it's not just here, realizing that actually I have the same thing back home. And I'm gonna give some keys to one recognize it and two what to do about them when I realize I've become passive or I've shrunk back and no longer living in areas of glistening hope in every area of life. So we did that here and then we went to Bullaway. It was about five and a half hour.
Five and a half hour one way and nine hours coming back because of the car trouble. But what was that all about? So Tommy was heading up a team that was into into church, gathered a lot of pastors and leaders from around Bulawayo to do a stadium worship event. And the tagline was really like no big names, no intros, no other name but the name of Jesus. So literally, as they got
people up to lead worship. There was nobody was introduced by name. Nobody was nobody knew which church they were affiliated with. And it was this beautiful event of about seven thousand people coming together. They had put a lot of work in, so a huge choir, many musicians all working together, pastors working together. We heard reports that pastors that had never ever sat together, sat together, stood on stage together, prayed together, worshipped together,
Andy and Janine (09:23.1)
so a beautiful event, but more than an event, it was the start of something happening in the city of Bulaway, which has traditionally been not in unity, has been a part. And so we walked in really just a few days before the event. And what was fun for us as we walk into a prayer meeting that is their team, you could not tell that they were all from different churches. If I had walked in not knowing that they were from different churches.
I would have assumed that this is a team that has worked together for many years because of the level of hugs and welcome and and warmth between the team members. It was beautiful to see. Yeah, just like things like that you and I might take for granted where we get to receive and be ministered to by the Holy Spirit, enjoying the presence of God. That kind of ministry that we kind of appreciate and kind of gotten used to on a daily basis, where we went into the worship practice the night before
the actual event itself. And one of the local team, Anaka jumped on the keyboard and rather than a music practice, it became a worship experience where these musicians were on their knees. There was periods of silence. Just one of those sovereign moments of just utter devotion to God that changes people's lives. So getting to be a part of that
was just profound. It was beautiful. And what was even more profound was when we walked out of that worship practice or worship event really with the the leaders, to find out that that's not normal for them. So for us, quiet times of worship, reflective times is normal. But over here it tends to be louder praise, more exuberant. That they're not as familiar with doing what they do.
what they did that night and so for them to experience something different and step into that place, it was just phenomenal to be a part of that. My my f favorite, I mean, the stadium event was just exuberant. I mean, it was amazing to be a part of it. My personal favorite was just maybe an hour before they were about to get on stage, we stood behind this sta excuse me. Stood behind this stage.
Andy and Janine (11:41.475)
with the team and they stood in a circle and prayed for each other. And then as they split off and now they're just waiting to go up into to lead, we got to pray for people and we probably spent forty-five minutes just praying for ones and twos and threes of people that hadn't really experienced the presence of God. I'm just gonna step away and have a good cough for you carrot.
Andy and Janine (12:16.534)
I can edit that out. Sorry. I tried to control it as long as possible, but
Andy and Janine (12:29.135)
okay.
Andy and Janine (12:43.778)
So should I do that bit again? That whole bit again? Yeah, do that whole bit again.
So that start with the biscuit I loved. Yeah.
Andy and Janine (12:57.856)
Are we just still going? Yeah. So one of my personal favorite moments or series of moments was right before the the musicians, the choir went on stage. We had behind the stage a big circle where we prayed as a team. And then as they split off, there was still a while before they were actually going up to to perform, to lead us in worship. And we got to just pray for people. And so in ones and twos and threes, as the
They would see others getting touched by the presence of God. And so then they would line up just quietly and say, Well will you pray for me as well? And what became really obvious is that many people here love the Lord with all their heart, but have not experienced the depth of just I would say his kindness and his tenderness. And so as we just prayed for encounters with the love of God, many just wept as we as we prayed for them and then as
again as people saw that happening they're like I want what they're getting and so we be spent a good amount of time. In fact, one of the the team leaders came up to me and said, I think you guys single handedly prayed for pretty much everybody. It was a huge team. We didn't do that, but a number of people and I felt just the great privilege to pour into those who then led the the worship event on the stage. It was beautiful So we get to do that. I mean
Really I would say is the primary gifting is a gift of encouragement to come in. We're not the ones at the face, we're not the ones stepping out, taking that risk, but we're the ones that the logistics, the supply, the encouragement, the strategy, the insight. the feedback we've gotten is you guys are like mothers and fathers and it's just such a breath of fresh air. And for you listening to this right now, these people around you, that one sh short sentence of encouragement changes someone's life day, moment, the power of just
pausing and praying for somebody, it's it's way more significant than you realize. Whether that's an employee, a customer, hey, can I pray for you? Really, really powerful. So we did that. Other things that we've done is obviously gone and spoken in local churches. we've got some other activities now where we're going out, we got a team arriving. we are going to then do some leadership development training ministry over the next week. And then we're kind of excited that that if you haven't heard of Iris ministries, Heidi and Rollin Baker.
Andy and Janine (15:18.344)
Will and Moosey Heart. That's actually the church that we've based at in Nashville with Will and Moosey, which is the base of Iris ministries in the USA. Well, their international base is Pemba, Mozambique, just south of El Shabaab terrorist activities going on right now with over a million people displaced. And so we're actually the Iris planes coming to pick us up about a week from today.
three of those missionaries will join us for two days, so we get them introduced to the people here, and then we get to go up there and and minister, encourage, and drop off the suitcase full of supplies from the USA outreach projector and so on. So, how you feeling about that? I'm a little nervous because I just don't know what to expect. I know it's gonna be different there. You can see we're sitting in the lap of luxury here, and Pember is not gonna be like that. it's gonna be a lot hotter. We actually got
cold in Buluaway. I I was telling people before we came to Africa it's cooler in Africa, the places we're going than it is in Nashville. but I didn't expect to be rugged up in a big jacket last week and then in the heat next week. So we're expect October October. This is supposed to be the hot hottest month and it was for you that are used to Fahrenheit. It was in the forties, felt like in the thirties for us last week in in
Zimbabwe in October the in the heat of summer. So very, very unusual. Very unusual. The other thing I want to highlight and and yes, the the connections in Mozambique are going to be new and that's exciting. but we've also had some other connections here and got to meet some people that are doing amazing things. Met a a young man and his wife that are well you can tell them about the what they're doing with farmers and the co-ops that they're producing. So but just it's amazing when you are doing kingdom business
that the the divine connections that the Lord just connects you with, Hey, come and chat to this one. Hey, we're praying for this one. And when you find out what they're doing, you realise that there's an overlap and you get to pour courage into people who are doing amazing things. I just actually had s one of those people reach out this morning and say, Can we connect when you get home? Like let's let's get on a Zoom call.
Andy and Janine (17:35.489)
And what I know is gonna happen is that I get an ongoing chance to just pour an encouragement into what they're doing, which is just so much fun. Yeah, I mean the scripture that I'd use and we've seen this happen is we didn't come to you with the persuasive words of human wisdom, but a demonstration of the spirit and a power. Yeah. And absolutely it hasn't been clever strategies because we're not the ones on the ground. they don't need another clever strategy, but the biggest thing is there is the spirit of God moving through our life.
That is encouraging, edifying, uplifting people. Actually more than we realize. It's kind of like why you guys just want to meet again and again. And it's like, it's the Spirit of God on our life and you carry that same thing. Ephesians five eighteen. Don't get drunk with wine. Don't get filled up with something that's temporary, but be filled with the Spirit of God. That's the game changer, the life force within you. So just an example, Janine was referring to, one of these multiplier effects. They're taking and working with
a small scale farmers so that's kind of less than what less than three to five hectares so that would be less than what's that like less than six acres kind of thing like two and a half to this about seven less than seven of acres they're small holdings but they've gathered together a network of about a hundred and fifty thousand of these can just imagine chickens a couple of goats maybe a cow growing their own feed it's subsistence it's like
barely enough to survive and they work with them and they effectively form a co-op so it gives them buying power, genetic access, training, education, development, right through from the supply of the original orb organic product right through to end user. And that is not just doubling, but it's 15x revenue, which is a game changer for people. Not only has it changed families and lives, but then it also spills over to feed a nation.
So some super exciting things that we're getting to be and see and be a part of. So, Janine, any other comments, observations of what you've gotten to see or learn? No, I think I I would just say it I count it such a privilege. It feels like we've been away from home for so long already and I know we've got I worked out yesterday it's almost three weeks until we're home. So it feels like a long time. But when I think back to what we have done in even in the time that we've been here, we're maybe halfway through this trip.
Andy and Janine (19:59.181)
And the people we've connected with, the ones we've got to encourage. I feel privileged to be able to invest in what the Lord is doing in this place and and to see how easy it is, honestly. How easy it is just to bring encouragement. This couple that Andy's talking about that is working with farmers, they said to us the next day, we actually met with the the husband the next day, and he said, My wife was saying to me at the end of the evening.
How good it is just to be with people who love the Lord, who talk positive, who it's not a force thing, but it's just a part of your everyday life. And I think about, okay, that's for us here and we're getting to do it in this amazing place. But like Andy's been saying, for you where you are, grab some other couples, have a meal together, just a simple meal and and encourage one another, talk about what Jesus is doing. It makes all the difference. You
Don't know how much of an effect, a positive effect you can have simply by connecting with other people, telling stories of what the Lord is doing, telling stories of how good he is. It actually can change the outlook of somebody else and that changes families and nations. Yeah, and your prayers, don't worry about what you say. Just trusting the Spirit of God somehow works through you with those words and does more than you could ask, think, or imagine. So for what we're doing with Heaven and Business, how can you be involved?
Well, obviously we've got these three missionaries coming down from Pemba. Liz who manages the farm, Carol, who's the pilot, and one other who's a doctor who runs their clinic. And we're gonna host them for three days here, facilitate those connections to strengthen connections far beyond us. That Peacock in the background is adding favor to it. Yeah, he's excited about what you say. Yeah, so what can you do? If you wanna be part of that, sew into that, you can do that directly. I'm gonna post that link below into the Hope Directive. That's a non profit, so you get a
a tax deductible receipt. That's one way. And number two is you can come with us on trips. Now obviously we're careful about who we take with us into different places. we've got John, he's 24, he's coming with us to Pemba. Yeah, it's it's a we have a good connection with John. We we know him. We wouldn't take just any twenty four year old, but we know the the quality of this young man and he's going to be exposed to first time out of the US first time out of the USA. He arrives later today.
Andy and Janine (22:23.192)
Yeah, so you can come, you can apply to do that. We're going to Brazil next month. We'll be going to Colombia, Brazil, and Zimbabwe, and probably other countries next year by the the way we're seeing some of these connections unfold. So number one, you can donate, contribute to multiply the resources, training, and abilities. We're bringing a suitcase full of books to be able to give away that are tools that we place in the hands of believers all over the world that results in kingdom transformation. So one you can give, two, you can go with us. three.
You can do this wherever you are. Like Janine says, you have so much more than you realize. And when you get dropped into a place where people have so much less than you, rather than focusing on what you don't have, realize how much you do. It turns into gratitude, thanksgiving, and then you realize how much you can do. Whether that's a school, whether it's a homeless person, whether that's an orphanage, whether that's just an employee that you can literally say thank you, or whether that's your turn to your spouse and say, Hey, babe.
I appreciate you. Thank you for that we get to do this together. That's great. Any final words or let's pray for people. Let's pray for people. So Jesus, just as we've been seeing you touch people here in Zimbabwe, I ask that anybody who's watching, who's listening to this, that your love and your presence, your kindness, your tenderness would be poured out as they listen to this prayer. I pray that you would touch them and encounter them, that your love would drive away any fear, that would give them great courage.
To do kingdom exploits, to step out beyond their comfort zone and to do great things for you. Yeah, I agree. And I just pray over you right now, just that same refreshing that we're seeing pour out on people here. That you would feel that life flow flow that only comes from the Spirit of God. You'd feel his pleasure, his presence. He is the God who is with you. It's like the host. I love the names here.
The host for the hotel that we're staying at last night, his name's Emmanuel. So we had God with us. God with us. So I pray that we had honest, we had generous blessings. Remember. These cool, cool names. So I just play all of that right up front in personal with you everywhere you go. Amen.
