Living a Steadfast Life Today

As a highly respected authority on the equities markets, often when Bob Doll joins us we have the opportunity to hear about the world’s financial markets and how he integrates faith and work. But at this year’s Global Cohort Gathering, we had the privilege of hearing Bob’s thoughts on living a life centered on the Gospel and how he has exemplified a life steadfast to the Lord. As we’ve journeyed with Bob, we’ve watched him navigate the ordinary, as well as through numerous triumphs, health scares, economic crises, and more. Throughout it all, we’ve seen someone who is immovable in his character and consistent in his journey with God.

Beyond all his myriad accomplishments, we asked Bob to share with our cohort members how he has cultivated a life that is consistent and committed to God and His mission. In true Bob Doll fashion, he shared seven simple yet profound principles to chew on.

1. Be reminded that our work is a holy calling. God has created an intersection of our abilities, our interests and the people around us. We need to recognize the redemptive nature of our work and as Christians in the marketplace, realize we  aren’t just the people who finance God’s work. For Christians in the marketplace, Bob reminded us this means “we have a phenomenal opportunity and responsibility.” He went on to quote Billy Graham, who famously said "I believe one of the next great moves of God is going to be through the believers in the workplace.”

2. Remember our standard for work because God, whether in creation, sustaining, salvation or sanctification, is a worker. We are made in His image and have “the ability, the responsibility, the goal of being excellent at our work as He is.” Our God cares deeply about what we do with our waking hours, and the majority of that time is spent at work.

3. Be a hearer and a doer of the Word. It is simple. Love God. Love God’s Word. Love God’s people. We can’t work for our salvation but once we are made righteous before the Lord, it is good deeds that naturally come if our faith is genuine.”

4. Prioritize the eternal. We are all on this planet for a short time, but in eternity forever. Like David Platt reminds us in his book Radical, the key is believing that the world is not our home. If our lives are going to count on Earth, we must start by focusing on heaven. To keep this at the top of his mind, Bob keeps three questions on his bathroom mirror that he asks himself daily - Am I going to have a Christ-like attitude today? Am I maintaining a “passing-through” mentality, because this is not my home? Am I going to have an “own nothing” perspective?

5. Be purposeful about longevity. Determine early-on what your priorities are, and develop the daily disciplines to set yourself up for a lifetime of faithfulness. This includes spending time daily in the Word and surrender to God, developing a deep dependence and interdependence on other believers, demonstrating faithfulness in giving, and determining as Romans 12:2 puts it, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind to ensure you aren’t conformed to the image of the world.

6. Pursue music. Martin Luther reminds us that while a sermon appeals to the intellect, music appeals to the intellect, the senses and the memory bank. Music transports us, and as it runs through your mind over and over. Perhaps one of the most poignant lessons we can learn from Bob is this “I have memorized more scripture through music….I commend music to you in some way, shape or form, but make sure it's good [theological] music.”

7. Ponder the lessons learned from COVID. How have you used this season, ordained by God, to honor Him? What unexpected joys have you found in this season of church at home? And how have you intentionally stewarded your resources to serve the poor - poor in spirit and physically poor? “Life is short. This episode has impressed upon me the importance of each day. Use it well.

Bob was asked how he remains humble in the midst of so much success. His reply? “Well I don’t know that I’m always humble, but I guess the center is to understand that it’s not of me. It’s of God...I think humility starts from recognizing who God is and therefore who we belong to.”

“Bob Doll is no stranger to Resource Global. He has walked alongside us, me, for years as we fought to establish this ministry and launch our cohorts. He epitomizes what I want all of us to be - he is a God-fearing man who loves the Lord and walks in humility.”

— Tommy Lee, Resource Global President

Building Lives & Transforming Communities

An Interview with Rudy & Bao Yan on using their marketplace skills for Kingdom Work

Resource Global Singapore Cohort 2020: Husband and wife Rudy and Bao Yan are leveraging their professional architectural training and entrepreneurial strengths to accomplish amazing Kingdom works. In this interview, they share their journey on being missional with their business – and their goal to transform marginal communities.    

What led your thinking towards integrating faith and work, and being missional with your business?

After graduating, I (Rudy) worked in large architectural companies. After 7 years, I started asking God if there was anything more to my profession and my faith. In 2014, at the peak of my career, I resigned to pursue God in a mission school. I bought a one-way ticket to Africa where I was part of Heidi Baker’s Iris Global Ministry. We lived among the poor community – HIV stricken, lepers, widows, orphans, child soldiers and child brides. This proved to be life changing.

My eyes and heart were opened to poverty of epic proportions. It was no longer statistics to me. Poverty has a face. Poverty has a name. It has smell, and it has context. This brought about a paradigm shift to how I would later intersect my life, my profession and my faith. I became cognizant of my skills as tools of transformation.

After 3 months in Africa, I returned to Singapore and was determined not to live life the same way and thus Genesis Architects was born in 2014 and based in Singapore.

How did you envision that Genesis Architects would be different?

I wanted Genesis Architects to be used by God as a vehicle for purpose-driven design. The practice would strive for design excellence commercially, but it would also be equally focused on working on mission-aligned architectural projects that would transform lives and communities in developing countries. Architecture, in a simple expression, is humanitarian. It provides roofs over families, classrooms for children to secure a better future. Thus, we established our branch office for Genesis Architects in Rwanda.

Share with us some of your pro-bono projects?

In Rwanda, I teach at the University as a Visiting Lecturer and we started to hire and train some of these architectural graduates. The missional purpose was to empower them to transform their own nation - and we firmly believe that Rwanda shall be built by her people. In the recent Resource Global Online Class, Michael Ramsden shared that true leaders build capabilities, not create dependencies. This really resonated with us.

Our current projects in Rwanda include a blind school for 300 children - providing them with a safe environment for learning; and a vocational school for tribal communities to be equipped with literacy and practical skills - providing them with opportunities for modernisation. Telling them that God loves them is not enough, we should also give them practical ways of coming out of poverty.

In Mozambique, we are involved in designing a full-fledge university under Heidi Baker’s Iris Global Ministry. Our contribution is cross-disciplinary - from the masterplanning, to the architectural and interior design, landscaping, as well as fund-raising. The aim is to empower and equip the next generation of Africans, by offering a comprehensive range of courses from medicine, law, engineering, business administration, marine biology, maritime studies, and a theological school.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, we are partnering with a non-government organizations, including Justice Rising, to design prototypes and build 40 primary schools in rural areas. These schools are supporting child soldiers, child brides, and refugee children. Our works also include raising awareness. So far, 18 schools have been completed.

We also have works in Southeast Asia. The Living Waters Village in Kalimantan is home for about 700 children who were orphaned or abused/ abandoned by their parents. We are helping them design several facilities - from an air strip, to a 1200-seat auditorium, and elderly care facility for the older family members of the children to be cared for in the Village. Pastor Ronny Heyboer ,who founded the Village, wants the children to honour their parents as it’s commanded in the Bible.

I also lecture at the Singapore Polytechnic and, in 2017, started accepting interns, and focuses on students at risk. We expose them to our pro-bono humanitarian projects and we have seen how interns respond positively to the entire experience. Realizing how their skills can be used to make a difference in people’s lives have given them added meaning and purpose.

What have you learnt or how have you been changed through all these experiences that you have?

One thing we have learnt is that we must stay true to our call and our core beliefs. It’s easy to focus only on economic gains. We want our practice to glorify God, and build projects that will really transform lives.

We see God’s hand in the fruits of our work. In DR Congo, children used to be trained as soldiers to kill in exchange for food. The vulnerable get sold off as child brides; the defenseless coerced against their wills. In our schools, things are different. We provide the children with meals, love, and education for a better future.

We also see how God provides for us in our businesses. Once, when we were presented with a pro-bono University project, we weren’t sure how our involvement would look like – as a pro-bono project of this scale would require a lot of time and resources without the revenue.

We prayed, and felt God’s peace and leading to take this up. And when we did, God really surprised us - within the same month, we landed our biggest commercial project yet - a resort island project in The Maldives.

On another occasion, when we felt led by the Holy Spirit to hire and train genocide survivors who were architecture students from Rwanda. We knew it would also cost us a big sum of money. And praise God that when we obeyed Him, He provided. Soon afterward, we were awarded a very unique project - to design a production studio for a singer-songwriter in Taiwan and, through that, the funding for our African interns was secured.

Whenever we say yes to a missional project, God would never fail to provide. When we step into His vision, His provision always comes. It shows that we serve such a great, generous, and faithful God. Abba God wants us to serve our brothers and sisters without being short-changed ourselves.

For Christian business owners, I would say the most important thing is to sincerely seek God. Don’t embark on your own ideas, but seek God and listen for His assignment and leading. Do not despise what is in your hands, these are clues to the assignments God may have for you. And do not despise humble beginnings, it could be as simple as feeding one person and this is already delighting God’s heart. Remember that God’s economy is different from man’s economy. God is a God of abundance and can open heaven above for our businesses. God’s laws and economy work differently. The Bible says He measures the entire universe by the span of his fingers. That’s how big God is, and He can provide - just not always in the form and manner and timing that man can think of.

How can people contribute to the pro-bono projects that you are involved in?

We have various pro-bono projects in Africa and Southeast Asia. Perhaps God will put on people’s hearts how they can play a part to be used by God to impact lives and transform communities. It could be lending their direct expertise to help the schools, or contributing financially to help with the construction or operations (running the programmes and providing meals for the students), or any way that the Holy Spirit would inspire and lead. We would love to welcome like-minded individuals and corporations to come partner us in these Kingdom projects and experience what God is doing through and for His children and glorify Him.

Please visit www.genesis-architects.com if you are interested to learn more about our practice, or are looking to develop/ design your new space!

Wrestling with Failure at Work

“More than other idols, personal success and achievement leads to a sense that we ourselves are god, that our security and value rests in our own wisdom, strength, and performance. To be the very best at what you do, to be at the top of the heap, means no one is like you. You are supreme.”

— Tim Keller in Counterfeit Gods

A month before attending the 2019 Global Cohort Gathering, in Saddleback, CA, (where Christian global leaders all over the world are gathered to learn, connect, and be challenged to make impact in their global cities) I was drafting the most painful document I have ever had to write; I was writing an incident report at work. The incident involved one of our most strategic clients; and I was on the hook for a mistake that I did not catch (picture an infielder missing a pop-fly). It is difficult to overestimate the toll this had on my spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing. To me, writing that report meant that I was forced to admit that I had failed, that I was incompetent and that I was worthless. I had worked hard to be the best performer on my team, to be the guy you could rely on and I was proud of my “exceptional performance” evaluation. This failure stood in direct contrast of who I thought myself to be and, more importantly, whom I wanted others to think I was.

While at the gathering, I heard several speakers talk candidly about dealing with failure at work and I was convicted by their anecdotes. Bob Doll gave a lecture entitled “Failure- The Stepping Stone to Success” that provided me with much needed guidance. To provide context, Bob was the Chief Equity Strategist of a large asset management firm and has used his God given gifts to attain what many would consider a highly successful career. In his lecture, Bob discussed a time in recent history where he was asked by his previous firm to retire early and the impact it made on his life. It is difficult to imagine attaining Bob’s level of success only to be let go at what would be his “prime career years”. But his response was not to wallow in failure or to blame God for misfortune or engage in destructive self-loathing. No, instead he used his situation as an opportunity to further engage with Christ, his community and his family- what an amazingly faithful response! Ultimately, God blessed him with the opportunity to continue using his financial expertise, but his initial response represents the posture we, as Christ followers, should model in the midst of failure and success in work.

Upon reflection, I’ve come to realize how much my sense of identity was based on success in work. This realization came as a surprise to me (shocking I know). I didn’t think I was idolizing my work, yet it wasn’t until failure at work sent me into a spiral of self-degradation that I realized my priorities were grossly out of order. This, I think, is at the heart of Bob’s lecture; it is difficult to know we’re idolizing success until it is ripped away from us, which then forcibly creates the stepping-stone to success. Success in this context is not about promotions, bonuses or societal praise; it is the stepping-stone to further reliance on God for our joy and worth. We are free from performance evaluations because we can never be “exceptional” before God. We are all hopeless and complete failures when it comes to our worthiness of God’s love yet He gives it anyways. This is the radical promise God makes to His people that is the source of our joy, that God looks at us and sees his Son.

Hunter Daniels works in the finance industry and was part of our Chicago Cohort in 2019.

Redefining Beauty

By Reina Ang

On May 31 st , I had the opportunity to sit and listen to Jessica Rey in her session about “Faith, Hollywood, and Fashion” for Global Cohort Gathering 2019. I was personally incredibly excited to be in her session as I’m also working in both of the creative industries she’s involved in: entertainment and fashion industry.

Jessica Rey is an actress, mostly known from her work as White Wild Force Ranger in the TV Series Power Rangers Wild Force. She is also currently the Founder, CEO, and designer for her modest swimwear brand called Rey Swimwear. During the session, Jessica told her story about how while doing her MBA program, she got offered to do castings for commercials and TV series that ultimately led her to a main role in Power Rangers Wild Force. Her experiences in Hollywood and its lifestyle led her to see the need of different and wider perspectives on what is the definition of beautiful for modern women. After much struggle and rejections, she successfully launched Rey Swimwear, a modest swimwear based in Los Angeles.

The fashion and entertainment industry are two very unique industries that have so much influence on dictating what is deemed beautiful in society. But at the same time, within these industries themselves, diversity and inclusion comes especially slower. As I was listening through her session, I was very convicted on how much influence the people in these industries can bring in term of redefining what is beautiful and how much I could’ve done as the part of it. Two of Jessica’s statement stood out to me the most.

““Only 4% of women feel beautiful. My goal is simple, how do I help make it 100%?””

As heartbreaking as it sounds, it’s true. Beautiful is a big scary word for most women. We find ourselves constantly trying to conform to certain set standard unconsciously, never fully satisfied on how we look. The pursuit of improving oneself is good, as long as it doesn’t come from self-hatred. As someone in fashion and entertainment industries, am I doing my best to help this cause or am I actually further enforcing this habit of placing our identity in this unrealistic beauty standard through my work? Am I forcing my own perception of beauty onto others, rather than God’s perspective of it? That brought me to her other statement.

“Your mission is not to make others know who you are, but to make others know that they are made in the image of God.” My goal and mission shouldn’t be centered around me and who I am. It should be about God and according to God’s Word. And what is God’s Word about body image?

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” - Ephesians 2:10 God’s message is loud and clear. We are made according to His image and we are His masterpiece. God sees us that way and that’s the goal, to help men and women to see not only their true beauty, but also their God-given dignity.

Reina Ang is part our Jakarta Team. She is also a professional model in Jakarta.

Modern mentoring: Why is it important and how is it different?

Merriam-Webster defines a mentor as a trusted counselor or guide. 

“The number one thing employers can do to demonstrate their investment in a young person becoming a leader is to train and develop them, including coaching and mentoring,” stated Lindsey Pollak, The Hartford’s Millennial Workplace Expert. 

Many millennials seek purpose in their work. Helping them to explore their God-given vision and the talents they possess early in their career increases their job satisfaction and enables them to make an impact throughout their life.  

Lifeway research found that 68 percent of church-going young adults identified the opportunity to receive advice from people with similar life experiences as very important. Young adults place high value on connecting with people who have more life experience than they do.

As we find regularly at Resource Global, today’s emerging leaders of faith frequently desire to make a difference through their careers and in their communities, cities and the world. They long for a like-minded guide who will come alongside them and help them think through strategic questions and provide relevant resources as they navigate the marketplace. 

Is mentoring biblical? While you won’t find the word “mentoring” in the Bible, we see many examples of mentoring relationships taking place throughout scripture. Jethro mentored Moses, Moses mentored Joshua, Naomi mentored Ruth, Eli mentored Samuel, Samuel mentored Saul and David, Elijah mentored Elisha, Elizabeth mentored Mary, Priscilla and Aquila mentored Apollos, Jesus mentored the disciples, and Paul mentored Timothy. In Titus older women are instructed to train younger women and Paul implies that older men should teach younger men by example.

So how is modern mentoring different from traditional mentoring?

First, the focus is on what the mentee wants to learn, not on what the mentor knows. Mentees bring their most important questions and mentors engage with them to help foster growth in the desired areas. Mentors may recommend resources, assignments, and contacts in their networks who have particular expertise or experience. The mentee is an active participant throughout the process.

Second, the relationship is characterized by authenticity. Mentees are seeking a more experienced person who will share their work and life experiences with transparency—the good, the bad, and the ugly. This occurs when the relationship is a safe place to discuss ideas and both parties share experiences that include stories of successes and struggles, how they have processed them and what they learned.

Finally, mentors benefit in the process. Mentors aren’t just giving, they also receive. In my own experience as a mentor I am inspired nearly every time I connect with my mentees—by their heart to make a difference, their lives of faith and by their thoughtful engagement with God, their work, and the world around them. I learn new things as I engage with different perspectives and experiences. Time flies and I am always thankful for the opportunities I have in mentoring. 

So what are you waiting for? Jump in and become a trusted guide for an emerging leader in your organization, church or community. You’ll be providing a valuable service and you may just find you receive much more in return. 

Christine Gorz helps Resource Global with connecting and developing our mentorship pool for our cohorts. She formerly was the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Moody Bible Institute. She has also done marketing in the Christian music industry in Nashville, Tenn. She and her husband, Chris, live in Chicago and she loves mid-century design and a good cup of coffee.

100% Jesus, 0% Me - Interview with Abraham Viktor

During Tommy Lee’s last visit to Jakarta, in January 2019, he was able to meet with several Resource Global (RG) cohort alumni, including Bram. The two caught up after connect group, and shared the latest updates across Bram’s life (both professionally and personally) since his time with RG.  

Bram grew up in Jakarta, and received his accounting degree from University of Indonesia (UI). He always had an enterprising spirit so before his final year in school, he attempted to launch his first startup with a few friends: a Kaya jam company. They had a great formula, but struggled to find the right factory for production. Eventually, he had to make the difficult decision to move on. The experience would be the first of a couple of “professional failures,” through which Bram learned much about the world, faith, himself, and God.

After graduating, Bram found himself on his second startup - this time in the construction industry working on lightweight building blocks. However, after much time, and significant monetary investment, a series of unfortunate events lead to the closure of that startup too. This second failure was much harder on Bram. He found himself low on cash, and felt like the weak link in a group of friends who had gone into banking or consulting, were rising the ranks, and making good money.

Looking back, he recalls how this devastation was partially influenced by his own family’s financial crisis when he was younger. That experience had taught him to be driven by monetary gain in his own decisions. Desirous of more stability, he took a step back and decided to pursue work in investment banking and consulting. He went first for an internship with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), before eventually moving into investment banking. He remembers fondly that first paycheck, and the feeling of security it came with. However, he also remembers the disappointment he felt shortly into his tenure as he began to feel restless, thinking: What am I doing here?

Throughout his early career struggles, Bram recalls feeling God convicting him to rely not on his own desires and ego, rather on God’s plan and design. He also recalls how he always pushed those convictions aside, deceived by his own pride. However, the more restless he felt at work, the more he reflected on his failed startups, and the more he found himself turning to God.

In an act of faith, Bram asked God to purify his heart. In reconciling his desires to those of God’s for him, he found renewed clarity. Suddenly, he felt God impressing upon him that he should be working in financial inclusion. He took a leap of faith, and left his cushy investment banking job. That very day, he stepped into creating his next venture: Taralite.

Through much faith and hard work, Taralite is now a key mover for financial inclusion in Indonesia, providing micro loans and and micro funding to underserved people. They also lease their algorithm to banks for more efficient processing and greater financial inclusion across the country. Most recently, Taralite has been acquired by OVO - a large mobile payments player in Indonesia. Bram sees the move as synergic, allowing the team to work with mentors with more experience, as well as expanding Taralite’s own market share and impact on Indonesia as a whole.

Around the time Bram was working on Taralite, building it up into what it is today, he had experienced several other milestones as well. These milestones informed many of his decisions, and continue to shape his career and faith journey today.

First, he got married - to a woman he says is greater than his equal. “She humbles me,” he says - describing how his pride and self-righteousness often causes him to lack grace, whereas her own deep desire and honor for truth make her the opposite: humble, kind, gentle.

Second, he participated in Resource Global’s first cohort - an opportunity he credits for giving him clear and encouraging mentorship. The Christian guidance and focus on bringing the gospel into the business sphere helped him in many a decision, especially in the Taralite’s early days.

Third, he had a clear epiphany about finances. Whereas his upbringing and “the Old Bram” led him to focus on simply gaining wealth, the Bram of today who remains stayed on the Lord realized that money is a blessing from God. This blessing, he believes, is one that must be shared, and enjoyed. Ultimately, he says “my life and even my finances don’t belong to me. [They] all belong to God alone.”

And last of all, via redemption through, and trust in, Christ, Bram has received 2 priceless gifts from his turbulent professional experiences to date: humility, and trust in God’s sovereignty. Humility because, whilst he continues to struggle with pride, he remembers that he has never succeeded when he has insisted on doing things by his own strength. And trust in God’s sovereignty, because when he looks back at the last few years (his career trajectory, his marriage, his time with Resource Global, and his failures), he sees how God’s providence was upon him through it all.

“When I failed the second time, it felt like the lowest point in my life, it felt like I’d never get close to where my friends were. But somehow God just cared for me, equipped me, strengthened me. And it’s all God’s work. When I look back, it was 0% Bram, and 100% Jesus.”

Lemonilo: Adventures Beyond Expectations

On the afternoon of January 22, 2019, Tommy Lee paid a visit to past cohort member - Johannes Ardiant, at the Lemonilo headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. Surrounded by the cheerful green and yellow murals, and beautiful paintings by local artists, the two sat down to catch up on faith, friendship, business, and responding to God’s call.

Lemonilo - the brainchild of Johannes and Shinta Nurfauzia, is a healthy home staples brand. Their hero product is healthy additive-free instant noodles in a country where instant noodles are King. This is, after all, the place that brought the world Indomie, and boasts street food dishes like InTerNet - a mixture of instant noodles, telor (egg), and cornet (corned beef). However, analogous to Johannes’ own eclectic background and professional journey, Lemonilo wasn’t always about food. In fact, its journey (from healthcare to health food), which closely mirrors Johannes’ (from engineering to politics to business and more), is a reminder that God’s call often leads to adventures beyond our own expectations.

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Johannes was born and raised in Jakarta, but studied in Singapore for university at the National University of Singapore (NUS). From an early age, he had a passion for politics, but somehow ended up in degree programs related to Computer Science. The decision had been made in response to pressures from family and the market that demanded for more engineers. After university, he took on a PhD program again related to Computer Science, but found it lonely, and knew deep down he was meant for something else. After his struggle through the program, he worked at International Business Machines (IBM) for a time, before finally admitting to his own political passions and aspirations. After IBM, he took on more finance and consulting roles across entities such as Tusk Advisory and the Indonesia Infrastructure Finance, until which point he found an opportunity to go back to school.

From 2013-2015, he took his passion for politics with him to Harvard University, and studied a Masters in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Governance. However, upon returning to Indonesia, instead of doors opening in politics, he saw doors opening in other areas to help the public as a private citizen. With his friend, Shinta, he started Konsula then - a healthcare tech startup that sought to connect Indonesians with doctors. Public health was a cause that he felt the Lord impressing upon his heart, even as he wished for inroads into policy. It then occurred to him, perhaps serving the public from this private sphere, was actually an inroad. After over a year of building the company, he felt a strong call from the Lord to think of an area he could help that was more organic to the Indonesian people. Something that they needed everyday, but weren’t even thinking about. This is where the idea for a health food startup came.

The statistics were clear: in 2015 alone, Indonesians consumed 13.2 billion instant noodle packets. That is 55 packets per person, per year, as a general average (counting even infants). The logical conclusion was that Indonesian adults ate instant noodles multiple times a week, despite what most in the developed world might consider common knowledge of how unhealthy instant noodles are because of the preservatives used. In late 2015, reports were surfacing of people developing cancer linked to their frequent consumption of instant noodles. Considering Indonesians’ dependence on the staple food, Johannes saw an opportunity there to provide a healthy alternative. With that seed planted, Konsula slowly grew into Lemonilo.

Since then, Lemonilo has launched a second instant noodle flavor (now with both mee goreng [fried noodles], and curry noodle soup), and is well along the path to launching healthy cooking oils, and other pantry must-haves. Johannes has found himself in a leadership position yet again in an area that was not his initial expectation: health products, instead of politics. However, he’s clear that, while it may not have been what he expected, he is learning that “God is teaching [him] the hard way” that doors will open and close according to God’s will.

As a leader in this new area in his life, Johannes says “the hardest thing is the draining work, the meetings,” but it is all worth it when rewarded with the blessing of mentoring others and sharing one’s values (something he feels he lacked as a young professional). He also credits Resource Global with a lot of the strength and confidence he has pursuing his work with a Christian perspective. For his cohort, their retreat exposed him to Silicon Valley’s challenges for people of faith - the money, idolatry, relativism, and more. He considers this an important component of his maturity today as a Christian business leader. On top of all this, to cope with the pressures of his work, Johannes says he leans on the personal mentorship he received from Resource Global with Ken Baugh (Saddleback Church), as well as time in the Word. “Being rooted in the Word, focusing on one passage per week, meditating on it…[also,] instead of just spending one prayer a day, taking short breaks throughout the day to converse with God,” these are the things he leans on most when times get rough. For him, now, he no longer mourns for his own dreams (such as a political career). Rather, he feels confident that God will open and close the right doors, at the right times, and his job is to faithfully heed the Lord’s direction.

Serving God Faithfully in all Things

An interview with Lukas Limanjaya, Founder of Kalm. He was in our Second Cohort in Jakarta.

On Tommy Lee’s last trip to Jakarta from January 20-23, 2019, he had the opportunity to catch up with and interview past cohort members. One of these was Lukas Limanjaya - a sprightly, young business leader with a passion for counselling, improving mental health and well-being, and reducing stigma around mental health disorders.

During the interview, Lukas cited his past as formative in both his grounded faith, and his calling to help broken people cope with and heal from that brokenness. As a young child, he lived in Surabaya - the second largest city in Indonesia, and was raised by his grandparents. At around the age of 8, his parents - who were living in Jakarta, running the family businesses, decided it was time to move their children in with them. Lukas soon found himself and his siblings transplanted to the bustling national capital, and were immediately put into a Christian private school (Sekolah Pelita Harapan - known as SPH).

During those first several years in Jakarta, the adjustment for Lukas was significant, and home life was not ideal. His parents fought often, and Lukas felt acutely the brokenness of the world. To cope, Lukas turned to school. He says, “God’s providence stuck him at home” as he struggled to run off and get up to shenanigans with his friends outside. Instead, he found himself holing up in his room and running to his books, and his studies, to avoid the stresses of his family life. He credits his teachers and counselors at school for their constant support. Most of all, he cites that the key determinant to his success today is how God’s divine purpose brought people into his life to teach him that “Option A” (what he describes as the obvious choice, or other people’s expectations, or the way you’ve been brought up) is not the only option. There is always an Option B. And often Option B is the true option God has for you: His true plan for your life, the one you neither want or expect.

Going for Option B, however, requires what Lukas calls both an external factor (a spiritual mentor, for example), and self-reflection. After all, these types of choices sometimes require a leap of faith. Especially if it’s not what you initially envisioned. To Lukas, the crucial element here is humility. “Being humble isn’t about low self-esteem,” he insists. To him, humility is about knowing who you are, and who God is. “God shows me how big He is as I know him.” Knowing God, and knowing who you are in relation to God (how big He is, and how small you are, and how He protects and covers you) humbles you, and prepares you for his plans for you.

“Being self-reflective comes down to being humble. Being self-reflective means being reflective on who God is. When I acknowledge that everything is a gift from God, it’s ok to be proud of the things I am good at. At the same time, when I acknowledge God is there for me, means it’s ok for me to admit my weaknesses too.”

After university abroad, and a short stint working in the tech industry, Lukas returned to the United States to study a Masters of Arts in Counselling and Biblical Counselling from Westminster Theological Seminary. When he finished, he returned to Jakarta at the end of 2017 armed with the right tools to begin his new business venture: PT Sanubari Senantiasa Sejahtera. It was into this business that he took his passion for helping the broken. His journey starting this, coincided with his time with Resource Global - a time he credits for “emboldening him to keep moving forward in the path God has set for him.” The encouragement he received from his fellow Resource Global cohort members, reminded him that as young professionals, they were all in a similar boat. Whether taking on family businesses, working on new and challenging roles in their current companies, or venturing out on their own, all of them were experiencing many difficult firsts. The sensation that he was not alone, and that others were pushing themselves and supporting one another in Christ, gave him energy to continue.

“When I look back at my life, and I see my challenges and hardships, I don’t see wow look how great I am I went through [all this] and look at where I am right now. When I look back I see those ways that God tells me how I never was alone. I never walked through it alone. The only reason I survived, is that God brought me people, and He was there through those people, and that’s what brought me to my life at this point.”

Since then, Lukas and his business partner, Angela, at PT Sanubari have launched their app: Kalm, a mobile application that allows Indonesians to connect with counselors, offers tips for dealing with mental health issues, as well as encouragements to get you through the day.

As he described his advocacy, Lukas highlighted the muddled view on mental health and wellness as a key point he’d like to change.

“In the business world, if a person has a heart attack from overwork we say ah he worked so hard, what a strong man. But if a person gets anxiety or burnout or depression from overwork we say, ah so weak. Maybe we shouldn’t trust him. And unfortunately, it’s a mindset not only in the business world, but in churches too. Pastors, elders, people serving. We say because they’re doing the Lord’s work they must be perfect. But they’re under immense pressure too.”

His passion for the cause is clear, and it is with these thoughts that he continues to lead the charge on destigmatizing mental health, and pushes forward to help Indonesians who struggle. Still, as with any new venture, days have not been without their uncertainties.

Lukas remembers talking to a fellow Resource Global cohort member who was giving him advice on what not to do when kicking off a startup. Some of the advice that came up included avoiding products that required one educate the market with something completely new. At that, Lukas was immediately dejected. He thought to himself: oh no all the things I was told not to do, I’m doing right now. When he expressed his fears, he was encouraged instead, reminded that: “if you know and feel God brought you and told you to do it, if you have to fail, just fail faithfully.”

“That really changed my mindset,” said Lucas. “I don’t have to prove God called me to do this. Whatever I do, I just have to be faithful. Even in failure, fail faithfully that it honors the Lord. That lifted off so much burden from me. I don’t have to make my company successful. I just need to do things in a way that is faithful.”

These simple, yet powerful, words reminded Lukas of the truth that as Christians, our success should not be defined by what the world considers success, but by our service to the Lord. Just as God is faithful to us, so should we remain faithful to Him in all things. This revelation freed Lukas to work without worry, and to know that regardless of how “successful” his company becomes, he needs only to go forth in faith and rest assured in God’s promise of love and grace.

For Lukas, in the end, it’s not about success today, tomorrow, or in this lifetime now. It’s not even about his success as an individual and the number of other people he helps with his projects. It’s about an eternal purpose that serves the Lord faithfully, and becomes part of a tapestry that weaves God’s plans together into one beautiful, big picture. “Even if you fail, fail faithfully. Everything we do is to honor God”.

Struggles of Working in a Family Business

Working in a family business is like an irony. People would think that because it's our own family company, we have a lot of rooms to grow and move around and change things as we deem important. But truthfully, it's harder than it looks. Here are some of the struggles I've encountered:

1. Passing the baton

My father is a self-made man. His family came from nothing and being able to build his own entire company until having what we have now, is something he values so much. It’s his baby. Maybe it's even where he puts his identity in. So that being said, I felt there were a lot of difficulties for him on giving up control and authority. Company structure became messy and I wasn’t the only one who was having trouble positioning myself in the company. The employees were also confused on whom they had to report to, because the business was slowly being passed onto his kids.

But seeing from his point of view, he saw us as kids who weren’t ready to be passed on the family business. This create a lot of tension, because trust was now at stake. My father might have felt that as kids we will never be “man” enough to run the business, but we as kids, we wanted our chance to prove to our father that we were capable. But there was nothing that we could do except to wait (impatiently), until he felt that we were ready.

Sadly, when things at the company are bad and you just want to wind down at home and not talk about business anymore... you still have to sit at the dinner table with family and still discuss business, which makes it hard to separate business from personal feelings and family.

2. Bringing education to the workplace

I was blessed to have the opportunity to have my university education in America where I was exposed to Western ways of thinking and mentality. I took business as my major, so when I went back to Jakarta, I wanted to implement a lot of the same things in the company to make it more forward. But with the different culture and years of an immersed tradition within the company, it wasn’t so easy to penetrate it. It would take a lot of time to make our employees and employers understand why we would want to shift some of the ways we traditionally do it.

But all  that said, I have realized a few things: honest communication is very important, establishing boundaries and positioning ourselves in the company is also key, and taking things easily, or in other words, argue your arguments, but when it’s done, make sure it’s a clear and finalized before you leave it.

3. Depending on God

Finally, my foremost important takeaway from working in a family business is that it makes me understand more about having God as our center as the most important thing in my life. We can get caught up with work and businesses or talk about it neverendingly, which can make it our identity. But without God as our core foundation, we will be easily shift and forget what exactly is the entire purpose of work. Working in a family business requires a lot of patience, and when we try with our own strength, it will never sustain. But with His love, it’s not impossible.

All of these times, it never occured to me to put my faith and trust in Him within my workplace, gosh ..it never really crossed my mind to do so. Maybe because it was too far of a reach that even thinking about it was just ...off. But one thing that God revealed to me at my time at Resource Global was when He helped me understand that His heart is never pointed to only one part of our lives, but to all extended parts; and seeing people from different nations and cities having the same heart that wants to glorify God with their work was another proof that nothing is too big or too far reached for Him.

Velencia Bong, Jarakta Cohort Member 2018

Meet Julia Tan

Resource Global is an organization I started nine years ago to take the vision God had given me to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. Resource Global is committed to resourcing and releasing the next generation of Christian leaders and professionals within an interconnected network for Gospel movements in major global cities.

One of the people I have gotten to meet and who has been part of our cohorts has been Julia Tan.  Julia is an extremely bright and talented individual.  She is one of the future leaders in that city.  Julia is the Head of Corporate Development and HR at Liputan Group in Jakarta and the Head of Project at DoctorShare and will be speaking at our annual Icon Conference in Jakarta this year.  

I want to share two videos with you: