Our Story
When I walked into my organizational headquarters in the summer of 2021, I was looking for an office to call my own. Before I knew it, I was sharing an office… with the executive director. The organization, even though it was 10 years old, still had a startup feel, and pixie dust still settled on new ideas, giving them flight.
I moved to Dallas to join a team starting the refugee business development program. While the work was exciting, it was the meetings with refugees and immigrants that were most meaningful. A mechanic working with cars felt grateful for the freedom and opportunity, though he worked 16 hours a day. A chef who could not find help with food code in his state. A man who worked his way from selling cars all the way up to owning a construction business and a retail store.
Each of them had a tragic story of what they fled. Few of them shared, and I did not dare ask. Yet, while these refugees faced obstacles, they were just as often sharing their gratitude for the opportunity here as they were grieving their past.
But over the years, a question has lingered. In many of these places, the war has moved on, while economic hardship lingers. What if people did not have to come to the US to find opportunity?
Whether it’s orphans that age out of the system and have no work, farmers who cannot sell crops at a viable price, or girls trapped in trafficking, many global problems are aggravated by economic roots. Beyond this, often the church in the global south is hindered by the fact that it cannot fund its own expansion. We don’t want to see people hungry, in poverty, exploited, or without access to life-changing truth.
We hope to be a small part in solving these huge problems.
Our Work
Launching in January 2026, our work equips Western entrepreneurs to start small businesses in hard-to-reach places where families often face economic uncertainty. Frequently, westerners with a heart for these contexts will move overseas but have little in the way of skills to help out with tangible needs. Our program builds on the experience working with refugees in Dallas and the experience of those who have gone before us. It combines a blend of business training, cultural insight and kingdom purpose, to guide people in forming intentional businesses.
We help people identify both what their community needs, and what giftings they were uniquely created to offer. We work with them through the nuts and bolts of legal questions, their business financial projections, and working out their value chain, so that they can responsibly get investment. Then we help them launch, walking them through the first year of running their business.
Through workshops and ongoing coaching, we prepare these entrepreneurs to launch ventures that create employment, strengthen local markets, and provide communities with greater stability and opportunity. As these businesses take root, they open doors for dignity, hope, and human flourishing—reflecting Christ’s love in practical, life-changing ways. We believe that Christ’s love should happen in both word and deed, and want to equip people in both.
Would you join us in that?
S + R
Launching in January 2026, S + R’s work equips western entrepreneurs to start small businesses in hard to reach places where families often face economic uncertainty. Through workshops and ongoing coaching, we prepare these entrepreneurs to launch ventures that create employment, strengthen local markets, and provide communities with greater stability and opportunity. As these businesses take root, they open doors for dignity, hope, and human flourishing—reflecting Christ’s love in practical, life-changing ways.
