Central Asia | Co-Vocational Entrepreneur
Opportunity Overview:
Are you an entrepreneurial business professional looking to use your professional skills in loving service in God’s Kingdom? SEND Central Asia seeks to launch pioneering, gospel-focused, co-vocational, business professionals to join our partner organization in Central Asia. You will initially learn language and culture in this beautiful, historic, but difficult location, and then enter local communities as a small business owner. As a business entrepreneur, you will have the opportunity to employ, train, and empower the local workforce, demonstrate kingdom values in a business environment, while reaching majority Muslim peoples who have almost no chance of hearing about Jesus. Through your role as a local business owner, you will represent and share about our King Jesus in the relationships you build. Deep partnership with teammates and local believers is vital to introduce people to Jesus and to encourage those who choose to follow him and become more like him.
Countries: Central Asia
Terms: Mid-Term (1 - 3 years), Long-Term (3+ years)
Responsibilities:
- Invest deeply in language learning and cultural adaptation as a foundation for future work and relational ministry.
- Work in your sphere of education with professional excellence.
- Strategize, both independently and as part of a team, and innovate to create a professional role and ministry focus.
- Participate in the local ministry team with emotional and spiritual maturity, as a faithful colleague and friend.
- Build healthy inter-cultural, team relationships with teammates from cultures other than your own.
- Take the initiative to build relationships and create a community role with cultural sensitivity and respect for local people.
- Verbalize to others your hope in Jesus as you build trusting relationships, and show the power of the gospel by living an increasingly transformed life in Christ in your local community.
- Be an encouragement to local believers, supporting their key role in spreading the gospel in their local context, and prioritizing their safety as much as possible.
- Be a lifelong learner of the local people, their language, culture, and worldview, of healthy missions practice, and of yourself.
Qualifications:
- Hold professional credentials in excellent, current standing in your sphere of business, or related field.
- Work experience and references in your area of business, or related field.
- Cultural sensitivity and a willingness to adapt your method and life to fit a new culture.
- Skilled in team-oriented ministry with fellow workers and national leaders.
- Ability to work behind the scenes and empower and encourage others to lead.
- Creative, open-minded, independent self-starter.
- Demonstration of maturity in Christlike character and recognized ability to nurture your own walk with Jesus.
- Lifelong learner in the area of ministry in a Muslim context with recognized gifting for discipleship.
- History of active ministry in one’s local, home church.
Additional Information:
We are looking for entrepreneurs capable of assessing a local business environment, considering the needs of a community, and developing and executing a business plan. There are many ways that business people can work in Central Asia. Workers who pursue this opportunity will be expected to explore business opportunities presenting themselves in the community and develop a realistic business that allows one to bless the local community and build gospel-focused relationships.
This is a hybrid support-raising/income-generating position. Support is still necessary to give the worker more freedom in the positions they can take in country and to cover ministry expenses and passport country legal requirements.
Anyone who comes as a business person will need to agree to prioritize language and culture learning for the first two years of their first term and continuing to some degree for the duration of their service.
Currently this opportunity is located in two locations, but SEND and its partner organization are trusting God to allow us to expand to more remote parts of the country.
Our Local Vision
SEND Eurasia is trusting God to expand into a new location in Central Asia, a location that is home to 59 people groups, 34 of which are considered unreached (Joshua Project). In this Central Asia location, we work closely with our partner organization to build teams of co-vocational workers that can live long-term in communities, learn language and culture, and build trusting friendships by doing life together with local people. Loving people as we work in professions that develop local communities offers us many opportunities to build gospel-focused bridges into these local communities and opens doors for the Spirit to draw people to himself.
