Working for the family-owned ecommerce retailer , Miller completed a 1.5-year project that hugely increased company return on marketing investment. He has also been involved since 2013 in MEDA chapters in his hometown of Sarasota, Florida, and with the Shenandoah Valley chapter.

Though accepting of the notice that has come with the award, Miller says he hopes to make both a bigger and better difference in the years to come. His 91����Ƶ economics coursework, he adds, as well as his early and successful experiences both in the family business and with MEDA, has given him the confidence that he will eventually accomplish that goal.

“The idea of learning to lead in a global context was really important to me,” says Miller, who transferred to 91����Ƶ from Florida State University. “I really feel like 91����Ƶ would prepare me for making a difference in the world, whether it’s small or large … I’ve been raised that way and I want to start a business and grow that business in a way that I’m proud of and in a way that causes other businesses to want to join me.”

Recognition of ethical business practices and leadership among young professionals was one reason MEDA created this award in 2014. Recipients “embody an entrepreneurial spirit and embrace a desire to make a difference in the world,” according to a MEDA press release. This year, nine Canadians and 11 Americans were selected. Everence, a faith-based financial services organization, sponsored the initiative.

“We’re recognizing an incredible class of young professionals this year,” said Ethan Eshbach, coordinator of engagement initiatives, in a press release. “These individuals are exemplary leaders in their churches, communities and businesses. Their business acumen, commitment to faith and passion for service is truly humbling.”

Among mentors

Miller accepted the award at the Nov. 5 annual convention in Richmond, Virginia, which he attended as part of a small delegation of 91����Ƶ students.

He was familiar with the “20 Under 35” award because he had attended the inaugural awards ceremony at the 2014 Winnipeg convention, and met several of those recipients. Three 91����Ƶ alumni were among the inaugural class: Andrew Derstine ’11 and Scott Hackman, MDiv ‘13, both of Souderton, Pennsylvania, and Lydell Steiner, MA ‘14 (conflict transformation), of Dalton, OH.

“I had a chance to meet that group of people and I really looked up to them,” Miller said, “so it was a complete surprise to be among them this year.”

Being the youngest of the 20 recipients caused a bit of immediate anxiety. “These are people who own their own businesses and manage businesses and some of them are economists,” Miller said. “I was nervous about being with them, until I realized that they are just a few years ahead of me in terms of starting a career. It was very inspiring to meet them and see myself doing similar things in several years.”

Early interest in business

Miller has always wanted to go into business, as he grew up around several family members who involved in entrepreneurial endeavors. Among them is his father Jim Miller, a graduate of Goshen College with a master’s in organizational management from the University of South Florida.

The former pastor (he gave a at the 2014 MEDA conference) started JMX Brands in 2003. The company is a niche Internet retailer, selling over 10,000 different products on a variety of websites, including . The company’s corporate values include .

Miller began working in the company warehouse when he was 11, “packaging and other small, menial tasks,” he says. He eventually moved to the company’s information systems, writing product descriptions and most recently, took over internal management of pay-per-click campaigns in order to increase ROI.

After about six months of research and “tweaking,” Miller says he started to “realize the difference between real ROI and what companies will try to sell you on.” Six months into his management, the company made a small profit and nearly 1.5 years later that “small profit” had grown to a 400% ROI.

ROI may be one focus of Miller’s future. He’s played with the idea of founding a marketing agency that will help small and medium-sized businesses understand and maximize their ROI strategy.

“’And I have a couple of other ideas,” he says with a grin. One of those that didn’t pan out was subjected to a mock business plan in Professor ’s Topics in Business class. “Taking that class that had us create a business plan raised all these questions and eventually we could see it wasn’t going to work…a really good experience, I think.”

Whatever Miller learns and plans for his future, he’ll share with his dad. “He’s my mentor, and he loves business. We talk about it all the time. Other family members get tired of hearing us at the dinner table … but we just keep on talking.”

Orie O. Miller is a well-known name, but the reputation of this Mennonite lay leader, missionary, and businessman may grow, deservedly, in legend and stature with the publication of John E. Sharp’s long-awaited biography, ” (Herald Press).

Miller was a “20th century leader, and considering his extensive leadership in his day in many, many church institutions and agencies, it’s important to introduce Miller to 21st century leaders,” says ’63, steering committee chair of the (ACRS), a community of Mennonite elders and scholars who meet monthly for fellowship and intellectual engagement at 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ).

The biography, six years in the making, was initiated and partially funded by ACRS. Other funders include the Brethren in Christ church, and two organizations that Miller helped found, and , known commonly by the acronyms of MCC and MEDA, respectively.

91����Ƶ President says he’s looking forward to reading the biography. “For many years, I have heard fascinating stories about Orie O. Miller and his legacy from those who worked directly with him,” he said. “So many Anabaptist ministries and institutions launched by Orie have improved the lives of people around the globe. I am pleased this project was sponsored by ACRS and rooted at 91����Ƶ.”

At the ACRS May 11 Annual General Meeting, a handful of Miller’s contemporaries will share anecdotes and stories about this consequential man who, from his first pioneering trip as a relief worker to Russia in 1919, forever changed Mennonite education, business, relief work and peacemaking.

The meeting, which begins at 7:30 a.m. with coffee and pastries in the west dining room on the 91����Ƶ campus, is open to the public.

‘Visionary and hard-nosed realist’

Former colleague Calvin Redekop, the ACRS representative to the editorial committee, says Miller’s “work and leadership are difficult to condense.”

“He was a person who represented best the challenges and opportunities of his time, an unusual combination of visionary and hard-nosed realist who expected persons to be accountable,” Redekop said. “He was one of the most disciplined persons I ever knew.”

Redekop served under Miller as administrator of a post-war alternative service program called Pax. Redekop and colleague Paul Peachey ’45 had conceived this program in August of 1950, and a mere eight months later, with Miller’s support and that of MCC, “Paxers” arrived in war-ravaged Europe to help resettle refugees.*

Born in Indiana in 1892, Miller attended Goshen College before answering the call to engage in relief work in 1919 and shortly after, helping to form MCC, for which he served in various capacities, including executive secretary, from 1921-1963.

Miller helped to engage and steer Mennonite values and ministry into a global perspective, while integrating sound business and organizational principles.

He was “an incredible catalyst” with unique organizational skills, and “passionately committed to the church with a vision for mission,” says ACRS founder , who was director of an Anabaptist-Mennonite bookstore financed by Miller and other Lancaster businessmen in the mid-1960s in Luxembourg, Belgium. “He would start a project, then find the personnel and the organizations to carry it on.”

Seeing a need often meant forming an organization to meet that need: Miller was the motivating force behind the founding of many Mennonite organizations, including Mennonite Mental Health Services, Mennonite Indemnity, Mennonite Mutual Aid, Mennonite Travel Service, and several others.

Hundreds of young men were indebted to Miller – and had their lives changed forever – because of Miller’s creation and administration of Civilian Public Service, the alternative to military service that allowed conscientious objectors to fulfill their civic responsibilities.

Miller married into the shoe manufacturing business and ran it with acumen and dedication throughout his life. Yet “to the end his life, he maintained his vision for service, never allowing his considerable wealth to determine his needs,” Gingerich said, adding that Miller could have easily afforded a Lincoln Continental, but instead drove a Ford Falcon.

Miller died in 1977 at the Landis Retirement Home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, yet another enterprise he was instrumental in founding and supporting.

Keim’s work provides inspiration

A standard feature of the ACRS Annual General Meeting is a time to discuss the group’s ongoing work and vision. At one of those times, many years ago, members noted the need for a comprehensive biography of Miller that would address the full range of his personality and involvements not covered in a previous 1969 biography by Paul Erb.

Another inspiration for the Miller project was the work of the late Albert N. Keim ’63, professor emeritus of history at 91����Ƶ and an ARCS member. Keim’s biography of Harold S. Bender, a professor of theology at Goshen College and Goshen Biblical Seminary, was published in 1998.

“Harold Bender was tremendously influential on theological matters in the same way that Orie Miller was tremendously influential in shaping Mennonite influence today,” said ’64, ACRS interim director.

Miller’s accomplishments as a leader are widely recognized. 91����Ƶ houses an , which promotes interdisciplinary activities and scholarship modeled after the man’s visionary integration of business, mission, development, education, justice and peace.

In addition, 91����Ƶ, ACRS, Mennonite Central Committee, and Mennonite Economic Development Associates are in the early stages of planning a leadership conference at 91����Ƶ in early April 2016 that will highlight Miller’s leadership within the Mennonite church, according to, vice president and dean of the .

Editor’s note: In April 2015, the Pax program was chosen as the recipient of the annual Gandhi Center Community Service Award. To read about this event, click .

The challenge of money

In God, Money, and Me – Exploring the spiritual significance of money in our lives (2004), Edwin Friesen wrote: For various reasons, talking about how we personally manage money is frequently a social taboo. Some people struggle with overwhelming debt. Others feel unworthy of or burdened by their wealth. Still others feel entitled to what they have and don’t want to be challenged. We fear each other’s judgment as we voice our opinions. But talking about money with fellow believers will reduce its power over us. Together we can seek to put money in its place, a place where it serves as a tool for God’s purpose, not as a god that rules us. Friesen mainly focuses on individual financial choices in his 83-page booklet (published by the Mennonite Foundation of Canada, available from Everence). He acknowledges Christians’ traditional discomfort with amassing great wealth, summed up by 1 Timothy 6:9-10: “For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” And what about the three biblical passages that say, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God”? Yet we all need money, even if we’ve been warned not to love it, not to crave it, and to beware of being rich. So how to strike the right balance between meeting our needs – and those of others – without becoming obsessive about money and making it a false god? Here at 91����Ƶ, it took money to build this institution, with much of it coming from successful business people like Jacob A. Shenk, who attended Eastern Mennonite School in the 1920s, or from generous professionals, like eye surgeon Paul R. Yoder Jr. ’63. And it will take continued infusions of money – some of it arriving in large chunks and some of it tallied from many smaller donations – to enable 91����Ƶ to have the necessary facilities and financial aid to keep producing alumni who are doing good in all walks of life and professions. Friesen suggests that most of us need prophetic-spiritual voices, such as Mother Teresa with her vow of poverty, to encourage us “to ignore the all-pervasive cultural influences to buy and consume” and to instead “focus on sharing” and on one’s “relationships with God and others.” And yet Mother Teresa welcomed donations from supporters who had not taken her vow of poverty. For instance, she received $1.25 million from Charles Keating, a key player in the meltdown of the savings and loan associations of the 1980s, where about 23,000 customers (many of them retirees living on pensions) were left with worthless bonds. Asked to return the money to those from whom it had been stolen by Keating’s company, Mother Teresa declined to respond to the official request from a U.S. government lawyer. Yet she did send a letter advocating leniency for Keating when he was facing a prison sentence. In short, even Mother Teresa faced messy challenges in terms of money – where it came from and how it was ultimately used.

MEDA: Asking, and often answering, the hard questions

Pondering the sometimes-distant relationship between clergy and folks who generate profits, Canadian journalist John Longhurst wrote in The Marketplace, a bi-monthly published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA): “Businesspeople may be reluctant to talk on Monday to someone who was preaching on Sunday about the evils of money, materialism and consumerism,” especially if “the only time some businesspeople expect to hear from their pastors is at budget time.” Longhurst wryly adds, “Money is the root of all evil until the annual fundraising campaign kicks in. An old adage about Christians and business goes: ‘If possible avoid getting into business; but if you do get into business, avoid making lots of money; but if you end up making lots of money, the church sure needs it.’” (The Marketplace, March/April 2011, p. 4) With views like Longhurst’s in the pages of MEDA’s Marketplace journal, clearly this organization is one place where Christians who know how to make money can find people like themselves – that is, businesspeople who are interested in linking their gifts for business and finance with their religious beliefs. Some advice in The Marketplace is not too different from that in motivational business books, such as an article in the March/April 2012 issue, published under the headline “Failure need not be fatal – When everything looks bleak, remember apostle Peter.” The piece described the writer’s experience with a business that went under despite its leaders’ best efforts. But other articles in The Marketplace pose questions that might be minimized or sidestepped in mainstream business periodicals, such as: (1) Is there a business model that addresses the needs of the bottom socio-economic third of our society? and (2) What are the downsides of businesses that go public? Stephen Kreider Yoder, a Mennonite who is the San Francisco bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, gave his answer to the first question at a 2009 MEDA convention in San Jose, California: “The capitalism that flourishes so remarkably here in Silicon Valley isn’t always good at closing those [have vs. have-not] gaps.” The second question was addressed by David Steward, in excerpts from his book, Doing Business by the Good Book, in the May/June 2004 Marketplace: “The investment community can apply tremendous pressure to produce quarterly profits. This outside persuasion sometimes tempts management to think short-term, reduce expenditures, and forgo quality…. [T]he demand put on management for three-month gains isn’t necessarily good for a company’s long-term interests.” MEDA seems to enjoy cross-fertilizing thinkers who are sometimes at odds with each other, such as social-justice advocates and business leaders. In a provocative piece published in the May/June 2004 issue, two economists based at Bluffton University, James M. Harder and Karen Klassen Harder, deconstructed our common way of measuring economic performance, the Gross Domestic Product. “It is often mistakenly assumed that growth and development mean the same thing,” they wrote. “But growth does not guarantee development, nor does development necessarily require growth.” The Harders (a married couple) went on to explain: GDP calculations not only mask the breakdown of the environment, they actually portray that breakdown as gain. Much of what is routinely called growth is, in fact, merely the repair of past blunders. GDP “grows” when hazardous waste is produced and then “grows” some more when money is spent to clean up chemical contamination, purify water to make it drinkable, or treat cancers resulting from pollution. These economists argued that there are indeed limits to growth due to the finite supplies of most natural resources. “No business that wants to last can afford to ignore in its financial statements the depletion of its productive assets, yet that is precisely what the global economy is doing…. Disaster looms precisely because the current economic model has no built-in limits – no stopping point short of a crisis generated by environmental or social collapse.” The Harders asked us all – consumers as well as producers – to correct our myopic eyesight on this matter by embracing “smallness and local control.” “This will create manageable zones of mutual accountability and responsibility for self, others, and natural surroundings,” they wrote, adding that “the pendulum must swing back from the anonymous, individualistic global economy to renewed cooperation within strengthened local communities.”

Value-based alumni

Karen Gross ’75, a nursing grad, certainly embodies the small-scale approach to responsibility for self and others. She works as a nurse-practitioner one day a week, but the rest of the week she juggles three jobs in the business sector of Atlanta, Georgia. She was one of the founders of the first Ten Thousand Villages store in the Atlanta area 20 years ago. Like all stores bearing this name, this outlet is a non-profit enterprise to provide a living wage for artisans around the world who would otherwise be unemployed or under-employed. Gross handles the outlet’s finances – purchasing inventory, paying bills, and doing the payroll and taxes. She also runs “My Mama Had That,” an antique business in the suburb of Decatur, whereby she finds well-made vintage items at yard and estate sales and makes sure they get a second chance at life in somebody’s home. Finally, she helps with Sticky Business, a 12-employee enterprise that produces and installs graphics for vehicles, walls, and buildings. Karen’s husband, Joel Gross ’76, is CEO, but Karen took over reviewing the balance sheets and income statements, plus managing receivables and payables, after the business had a bout with embezzlement. “My home, church, and education at 91����Ƶ, all stressed values of commitment, integrity, and stewardship of not just one’s money, but also life work and time,” Karen told Crossroads, by way of explaining the common threads in all four of her jobs. Karen is also active in Berea Mennonite Church. In the Shenandoah Valley, Billy Leap ’86, CPA, is chief financial officer for Bowman Fruit Sales, a 450-employee apple-focused company owned by a local businessman. Leap had the opportunity – in fact, he experienced the opportunity for 18 months – of being part of a much larger enterprise, Bowman Andros Products, a subsidiary of Andros et Cie headquartered in France, whose U.S. operations are outside Harrisonburg. But Leap decided to return to doing the finances for a businessman whom he knew well, Gordon D. “Sonny” Bowman II. Under the name of Turkey Knob Apples, Bowman is responsible for the largest number of apples grown and marketed in Virginia and is No. 1 or 2 in the east for apple production. For Leap – a self-described “Valley boy”– he derives great satisfaction out of knowing each permanent employee, dealing with local banks, analyzing reports to make recommendations to “Sonny,” and driving past trees that grow the Bowman apples on his way to work in Timberville, Virginia, right beside the 35,000-square foot packing house. This is not just a place Leap works; it’s his second home. ¹ Kevin Longenecker ’91, a CPA who is the chief financial officer at InterChange Group (“warehousing logistics and development”) in Harrisonburg, appreciates the collegiality of working in a locally owned business with 135 employees, where all six of the management team members are alumni of 91����Ƶ. “Devon Anders [company president, ’88 accounting grad] has never – and would never – ask me to do something unethical. Our corporate culture is influenced by Anabaptist values. In a small, privately held company like this, it’s possible to take the longer view in building shareholder value, since we’re not pressured to deliver quarterly performance on the stock market.”

Longenecker’s father ran a small retail store near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when he was growing up – which is where he got his foundational lessons in how to approach work, treat employees, and make decisions with integrity. Thequestion, “Why do we do what we do?” was always in the air. And the answer was not simply: “We do it for the bottom line.” In Leola, Pennsylvania, Thomas Verghese ’71 runs his own insurance and financial services firm (with the help of assistant Rebecca Bucher ’86). Verghese took the unusual step of topping off an MBA earned at James Madison University in 1974 with a year back at his undergraduate alma mater, studying at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS). “Faith and values are paramount in my dealings with my clients. My training at EMC, the year at EMS, my church (Forest Hills Mennonite), and the faith community that I am a part of have provided me with a sound foundation upon which to live and work.” Specifically, as an “independent agent” who can pick and choose among products offered by various companies, Verghese says he takes care to “make sure that the recommendations I make to my prospects and clients are in their best interests in terms of suitability, cost, quality of the product, as well as timing.” Andrew “Andy” Dula ’91 is the CFO/COO of EG Stoltzfus, a construction company based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with 25 subsidiary companies. He is also chair of 91����Ƶ’s board of trustees, a volunteer position.

In a 2010 speech to the MEDA chapter in Lancaster, Dula spoke of his life journey, starting with his birth in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His parents are of mixed race and nationality of birth, father being brown Ethiopian and mother being white American. Their marriage in the Mennonite Church of Ethiopia was “no small feat in the ’60s,” Dula said wryly in his talk, which is posted on the 91����Ƶ website. Dula traced his post-collegiate journey through a short-lived family restaurant venture to the drafting and design department of Elam G Stoltzfus Jr Inc. where he carried 4×8 sheets of plywood on a framing crew the first day and huddled over a drafting table the next. Though Dula is now one of five officers in the company’s leadership team, he stressed: “Titles mean nothing to us. Our founder never liked them, nor do I, nor the rest of the senior management staff. Titles merely identify our structure to those outside of the organization. “We believe in a flat non-hierarchical structure, which empowers persons to unleash their own entrepreneurial spirit at all levels of the operation.” Dula focused his MEDA talk on the question of who we are as human beings, rather than what we do, though naturally we manifest our true selves through our work. “Like many people in business, I live in a world of doing, producing, constructing, expanding and sometimes just surviving,” he said. “We are often judged by financial metrics and measurable results, as in, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ “In the larger scheme of things, however, a more important question is, ‘Who am I becoming?’”

For Dula, what truly counts are the “stories of making just choices, going the extra mile, treating employees as partners, emphasizing our interconnectedness instead of untamed individualism, and practicing moderation instead of excess,” adding that these “are part of who I am becoming, rather than anything I am doing.” C. Conrad Martin ’80 returned to his home state of Pennsylvania in 2001 after spending 12 years working in Africa (Tanzania) and Asia (Bangladesh) on accounting, microfinance, and job-creation projects for several church-affiliated organizations. Along the way, in 1991, he earned a master’s degree in economic development. After his return to the United States, Martin discovered a fellow graduate from his era, Josephine Histand ’81, who had gone on to get an MBA and to work for the Ford Motor Company. “It was an online match. We overlapped a couple of years at 91����Ƶ – I avoided the library and she lived in the library, so we didn’t meet then,” he says with amusement in his voice. The two married in 2001, and she now works as an environmental engineer consultant. “My philosophy has always been that I feel best when I am where God wants me to be,” he says. “The common thread [for all of his jobs] is that I was working for the church. I have liked whatever setting I was in. I am not looking to be a CEO of a non-profit. My first priority is to be of service to the church.” Today he is director of finance for Franconia Mennonite Conference, handling a budget of approaching $1 million annually. He and Josephine attend Blooming Glen Mennonite Church. Like Conrad Martin, John Hess-Yoder ’74 spent a chunk of his young adult years living and working in foreign locales – two years in Laos and three years in Brazil under Mennonite Central Committee. He then pastored a Mennonite church in Oregon for three years before deciding to enter the financial planning arena. Hess-Yoder is a Certified Financial Planner, plus he holds a law degree earned through night school. The CFP is not a one-shot deal, Hess-Yoder explains. “You have to do special ethical training per year and you have to sign ethical guidelines. You can be censured by them [the Organization of Financial Planners, which confers the CFP] for quite a few things that regulators cannot get you for.” If Hess-Yoder were a customer seeking a financial planner, he says one of his first questions would be, “How independent are you?” He would not be comfortable with planners who receive commissions or extra compensation based on promoting certain funds, including in-house ones. “My best relationships are fee-based,” he says, in the manner that a lawyer is paid a fee for a specific service rendered. He adds, however, that some clients opt to have him compensated on a commission basis, which may save them money under certain circumstances. An up-and-coming associate of Hess-Yoder, Kyle Mast ’07, hopes to pass his CFP exam in the summer of 2013. Like Hess-Yoder, he prizes being an independent financial advisor: “I am not tied to anyone’s investment products. I can offer what I believe is best to my client, no matter what.” Mast says that half of his clients ask him to help them choose “socially responsible investments” (SRI) – though these entail higher management fees because of the labor that goes into carefully screening companies – and half simply want him to focus on investments that are likely to have the best returns.

Mast credits Everence, the financial-services arm of Mennonite Church USA, with doing one of the best jobs of screening companies: “There aren’t many who do the due diligence that Everence does,” he says. The current “hot button” among his SRI-focused clients who are Mennonites? Avoiding companies associated with arms manufacturing and marketing. Larry Nolt ’65, an investment manager with National Penn Bank Shares headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, says “fiduciary advisor” is a term coming into vogue. The word “fiduciary” highlights the difference between those professionals who are legally obligated to put the needs and interests of their clients first – such as chartered financial planners, chartered financial consultants, and chartered financial analysts – and others. Stockbrokers, for example, usually work on high commissions, benefit from frequent transactions (whether necessary or not), and receive outside incentives, such as trips paid by the companies whose funds they sell. Nolt suggests that prospective clients of financial services ask for “full disclosure” regarding how their advisors or planners will be compensated for their work. It may be difficult to tease out hidden charges, such as those that may be contained in insurance policies or annuities. Remember, he says, “if a product or investment sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I wouldn’t go there.” Just as most of us need to partner with healthcare professionals to stay healthy, Nolt believes that the average person needs the expertise of a well-trained, highly ethical financial advisor to manage their money. And even these advisors can get it wrong. “Almost all of us [in the field] were buffaloed by Enron,” he says. You have to have strong regulatory bodies keeping watch, he adds, “because the crooks always move to the latest area of de-regulation.” Part of the beauty of living a “discipled life” as a Christian, and as a member of a church community, says Nolt, is receiving help to curb the human tendency to take advantage of situations and to reach for the utmost profit, regardless of the cost to our fellow humans. “I view business as an agent for extending God’s providential care to humankind,” says Spencer Cowles, PhD, chair of 91����Ƶ’s business and economics department. “Business is simply a way of producing and distributing the things we need. Making a profit is a means to that end. “As a stockholder, I want my companies to do well financially, but I also want them to contribute to the social good.” If there was a common thread among the dozens of interviews conducted for this issue of Crossroads, it was this: We are called to be stewards of our resources, financial and otherwise, rather than being heedless gamblers with them; we must always consider the wider impact of the financial decisions we make. — Bonnie Price Lofton, MA ’04 1. Leap has a “Valley family.” His wife, Renée ’85, is associate director of 91����Ƶ’s financial assistance office; his elder son, Mitchell, is a 2012 graduate of 91����Ƶ, and his second son, Parker, is a sophomore at 91����Ƶ. The family worships at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church.

Bruno Dyck, ’82, holds a PhD in business from the University of Alberta and is a professor at the University of Manitoba. Dyck will present on a book he is writing, “Luke on Management.” His research looks at the role of values on how organizations learn and change. In addition, Dyck has researched church and related organizations, including MEDA, Mennonite Central Committee and various church conflicts.

Dyck’s work has been published by Business Ethics Quarterly, Case Research Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship and the Journal of Management Studies.

The event begins with breakfast at 8 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 15 in the Discipleship Center. Reservations are required with a cut-off date of Monday, Oct. 10.

For more information contact Patty Eckard, office coordinator for the Department of Business and Economics, at 540-432-4150 or eckardp@emu.edu.

This article is adapted from an address to the Lancaster MEDA Chapter. Andy Dula, a 1991 91����Ƶ graduate, is chief financial officer at EG Stoltzfus Construction, Lancaster, Pa. In June 2010 he began a three-year term as 91����Ƶ board of trustees chair.

Andy Dula, a 1991 91����Ƶ graduate and current 91����Ƶ board of trustees chair, is chief financial officer at EG Stoltzfus Construction of Lancaster, Pa.

Like many people in business, I live in a world of doing, producing, constructing, expanding and sometimes just surviving. We are often judged by financial metrics and measurable results, as in, "What have you done for me lately?"

In the larger scheme of things, however, a more important question is, "Who am I becoming?"

And to answer it I need to take account of all the influences that have shaped me. Each of the acts and scenes of my personal narrative impact who I am becoming in this theatre we call life.

Born across the globe

I was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My mother, a missionary nurse, met and married my dad, an Ethiopian – no small feat in the 60s. My early years were spent in Indiana where my father attended Goshen College.

After he graduated we moved to Philadelphia and spent four years living next door to Germantown Mennonite Church while he attended pharmacy school.

My formative years were shaped by the overwhelming generosity of that community. People cared for my brother and me while my dad studied by day and my mom worked the night shift as a nurse.

Generosity of the church

In 1975 we moved to Lancaster, Pa., where my father accepted a job as a pharmacist at the St. Joseph Hospital. Here too I experienced the generosity of the church, first at North End Mennonite and later Blossom Hill.

I have been fortunate to spend all of my life in a church setting that has been life giving and faith infusing, and has included the witness of people from a wide array of professions and life experiences.

The generosity I received had very little to do with anything I had done, but remains a part of who I am becoming. I am who I am today because people along the way have mentored me in word and deed.

Foray into business

In 1991, fresh out of 91����Ƶ, I helped to start an Ethiopian restaurant with my father and another partner. My first foray into the real world of business was an adventure in finding my own way. No boss to learn from, no previous knowledge, no experiences of best practices for running a restaurant, no established policies for accounting, managing costs or handling employees.

All I had was an education in business and the liberal arts. It was my first true immersion into doing whatever it took to keep a business alive.

I had come out of college wanting to be a mover and a shaker in the world of business; instead I was washing dishes one night and waiting tables the next. One moment I was performing payroll and the next I was dealing with an angry customer.

But learning to do whatever was needed was shaping who I am becoming.

Business can be a noble enterprise

My restaurant experience stripped me of any notion that business was a glamourous adventure in self-serving motivations and profit-seeking indulgence.

Rather, it showed me how business can be a noble enterprise of service and teamwork to develop communities that are life giving to customers, employees and society in general.

My next career move was as improbable as my first. I took a position in the drafting and design department of Elam G Stoltzfus Jr Inc. Again a real logical move – business degree, restaurateur, construction.

I spent my first spring working on a framing crew carrying 4×8 sheets of plywood one day and sitting at a drafting table the next.

‘Doing’ but also ‘becoming’

Once again I was "doing" but at the same time I was more importantly "becoming." I had no idea then how having a broad understanding of the construction industry would benefit me in the years to come.

By 1994 I was doing estimating and project management, and in 1996 started running our accounting department.

Today I carry the title of Chief Financial Officer of EG Stoltzfus and along with four others provide leadership to EG and its 25 subsidiary companies.

91����Ƶ EG Stoltzfus

Our companies are involved primarily in residential home building and renovations, general commercial construction, historic adaptive re-use of under utilized buildings, work force housing, land acquisition and development, mortgage brokering, and title insurance services.

Each year we build 200-300 homes, renovate 75 residential properties, and construct and renovate 20-30 commercial projects.

Titles mean nothing to us. Our founder never liked them, nor do I or the rest of the senior management staff. Titles merely identify our structure to those outside of the organization.

We believe in a flat non hierarchical structure, which empowers persons to unleash their own entrepreneurial spirit at all levels of the operation. It is one of the mechanisms by which we affirm each individual’s unique contribution and gifts.

My daily work involves providing leadership and support to staff, leading and participating in senior management team meetings, acquiring capital for our multiple companies from banks and individuals, starting and monitoring individual land development companies, assessing the viability of various land projects from both a marketing and financial standpoint, and providing counsel to fellow team members both at the work and personal level.

The social opportunities of business

Business truly is a social science and there are few things more draining and more rewarding than dealing with the human spirit on a daily basis. You have countless opportunities to practice Christian virtues at times when it is least expected and may even seem stupid to do so.

Why would anyone extend grace and forgiveness when someone at best has had a lapse in judgement and at worst has been deceitful in a way that wastes significant resources. It happens, and has happened to us.

Recently our company’s entire staff and spouses had the opportunity to go away to a beautiful historic resort to celebrate our 40 years in business. As we were eating dinner one evening, Colleen, who handles our Human Resources, told us about the process leading up to the retreat.

The resort had given her a list of the best rooms and asked which people from the guest list were senior managers. He wanted to make sure that we got the best rooms.

"No, no," Colleen told him. "Give the senior management team the smallest, least desirable rooms."

There was a pause and the dismayed resort representative said, "You want to give your top management team the worst rooms?"

Colleen explained that some of the people coming on this trip would never again have the opportunity to stay at a place like this. "We want them to have the best rooms," she said.

The manager later told Colleen that his staff had been impressed by the unusual room arrangements. "No one has ever requested that before," he said. "Your company understands what makes a really good company."

Contrast that with some executives who send pictures of themselves in advance so the resort staff will recognize them and give them special service.

Not ‘business as usual’

This isn’t business as usual. The ongoing opportunities I have had to be part of discussions and ultimately make decisions that are at times counter-cultural have had a profound effect on me.

Stories of making just choices, going the extra mile, treating employees as partners, emphasizing our interconnectedness instead of untamed individualism, and practicing moderation instead of excess are part of who I am becoming rather than anything I am doing.

Any so-called success I may achieve will always be more attributable to what I am becoming than to what I am doing.

The particular lens that I have been given via my childhood, my faith and my work experience, continues to shape my inner journey.

‘Vocation is a calling’

Parker Palmer in his book Let Your Life Speak says, "Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am."

That thought undergirds my daily work. Truly the integration of work, faith and life has to come from a place of truly knowing who you are. And upon knowing who I am, I can ultimately do and eventually become who God intends for me to be.

Andy Dula, a 1991 91����Ƶ graduate, is chief financial officer at EG Stoltzfus Construction, Lancaster, Pa. In June 2010 he began a three-year term as 91����Ƶ board of trustees chair.

The 2009 MEDA Convention in San Jose challenged me to think about the business profession as a calling. Many of the plenary sessions and seminars provided thought-provoking ideas or concepts and gave insight into different opportunities in business.

Learning from the economic crisis

One particular seminar that I enjoyed featured Bart Miller, a liquidity risk specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago.

Bart detailed the economic crisis from his professional point of view but also included his personal insight and criticism of actions taken by the Federal Government. He gave opinions on how the financial industry needed to change and how the landscape of business will be different.

Plenary sessions: green tech, worldwide issues, and family business

Attending the MEDA Convention allowed me to gain knowledge about a wide range of topics in business. The plenary sessions discussed the development of green technology, worldwide food production, and a family business that has improved the quality of life for its employees while maintaining profitability.

All of these sessions gave me real world application for concepts and issues discussed in my classes at 91����Ƶ.

My attendance at the MEDA Convention also allowed me to interact with professionals in different business sectors.

Making connections

I talked to the President of Goodville Mutual, the co-owners of a family-operated custom home builder, the president of a warehousing and logistics company, and the President of Hatfield.

Some of my extended family work for Hatfield or have worked there in the past, so this informal discussion led to some interesting connections and stories.

By sponsoring me, the Shenandoah Valley MEDA Chapter allowed me to gain real world insight into a career, challenged my personal views, and supplemented my education at 91����Ƶ.

During Homecoming 2009 in October, students, professors and community MEDA members experienced a great homecoming weekend when Joyce Lehman visited campus.

Appearing as a guest speaker at the business and economics’ department’s Annual Homecoming Breakfast, she shared her insights on the business world through her past jobs and her present position as the Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As a former employee of MEDA, the World Bank, and presently with the Gates Foundation, Joyce had a lot to share about microfinance in the developing world. Her experiences all over the world gave her a broad perspective on empowering the world’s poor and teaching others key business practices.

With the World Bank, Joyce spent time on Afghanistan Rural Investment & Enterprise Strengthening (ARIES), a project with the primary mission of expanding access to rural financial services. The project aimed to provide financial services to small enterprises and, more specifically, female entrepreneurs.

Prior to Joyce’s work with MEDA and the World Bank, Lehman was employed as a private practice CPA and taught at Goshen College in the Business Department. Joyce used a wide variety of occupations, cross cultural encounters, and a Mennonite education to shape her career.

br>The winning team of MEDA’s annual student competition (left to right): Lindsay Lehman, Heidi Boese and Matt Ropp

Among these students were Matt Ropp, Heidi Boese, and Lindsay Lehman who participated in the annual student competition and won.

Students from different colleges were given a case involving an actual business and their task was to find solutions to the most important barriers and challenges.

The groups are then judged and a winner announced. Heidi Boese reported that her group prepared a PowerPoint that lasted around 20 minutes and they explained their plan for the business to a panel of judges.

The convention was a good experience for her and it helped apply the material she was learning in class to a real business.

Convention a great opportunity for students

Along with putting business concepts into practice, the convention offers a great opportunity to network with Christian business owners from all across North America and to meet students from other Mennonite Colleges.

The highlights of the trip for Heidi included listening to speakers who were successful in business, meeting new people, and spending a weekend in California.

It was an enjoyable experience for the students who attended; through the seminars and various speakers it was demonstrated how real organizations become successful.

For a few of the 91����Ƶ students, the San Jose MEDA Convention wasn’t their first; some of them attended the 2008 Convention in Columbus, Ohio.

The next opportunity will be in fall 2010 at the Calgary Convention in Alberta, Canada.

When thinking about his upcoming sabbatical last year, 91����Ƶ economics professor Chris Gingrich knew he wanted to do something that wasn’t in his own backyard.

“I contacted a few different international organizations,” Gingrich said. “I basically expressed that I had a year to offer and if anyone could use my specific skills for a project, I would be glad to get involved. MEDA ended up being the right fit.”

Specifically, MEDA presented Chris with a project that would take him halfway across the globe. He was placed with a project in Tanzania that worked with the distribution of insecticide treated mosquito nets that were used to prevent malaria. The Tanzanian National Voucher Scheme (TNVS) project of the Tanzanian government promotes the distribution of these nets in the private sector with subsidized vouchers provided for citizens to purchase the nets. The goal of the project is to develop a sustainable supply chain for the nets even after the project ends.

“It’s quite a unique program in Africa, especially considering the large scale,” Gingrich said. “It has already had some positive effects, but the project also has seen its share of criticism.”

Most of this criticism is due to the remaining families who are not receiving nets fast enough, or not receiving them at all. Knowing this, Gingrich looked to research the specifics of why there was still a substantial population without access to mosquito nets. While many of the project’s critics blamed the price of the co-payments that were associated with the net vouchers, Gingrich’s research would lead him to a different conclusion.

“Price ended up being a much smaller cause of the problem than people had suggested,” Gingrich said. “Other variables like lack of education regarding malaria were more likely to contribute to individuals not buying nets.”

Most of his data were collected through the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and were crucial for his research.

“I was lucky to have such good data available to work with,” he said. “There is no way the research could have been completed within the year otherwise.”

In addition to his research, Gingrich spent a good part of September and October last year and May of this year in Tanzania. This time abroad also helped him in developing his conclusions.

“It’s easy to blame something like price when you are critiquing the situation,” Gingrich said. “In actuality, however, a mother’s decision to buy or not buy a mosquito net involves many other variables such as living environment and education. It is very much a case by case situation.”

As the project continues, the hope is that other African nations pick up this project in some form, and the idea of using the private sector to distribute nets is something that becomes favorable to a government and its people.

Now back at 91����Ƶ, Gingrich is happy to have been part of a global project such as the TNVS.

“It was very fulfilling to be part of a cutting-edge project like this and to be able to come up with some very good results through my research,” Gingrich said. “I just hope that the research will have an impact and positive changes can be made through my work. I was fortunate to meet so many of the individuals associated with MEDA in Tanzania and I feel very lucky to have had the experience.”

So realistic, in fact, that Ashley Hevener, Kaleb Wyse and Joel Kratzer were selected as the top team for their presentation made at the annual convention of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) held Nov. 6-9, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio.

91����Ƶ junior business students (l. to r.) Joel Kratzer, Kaleb Wyse and Ashley Hevener were selected as top presenters of a business case simulation at the recent MEDA convention. Photo by Jim Bishop

All three are junior accounting and business administration majors at 91����Ƶ. Ms. Hevener is from Hutchinson, Kan.; Wyse from Wayland, Iowa; and Kratzer from Kidron, Ohio.

Two 91����Ƶ teams were among five – three from Goshen (Ind.) College – who worked on the same business scenario and recommended solutions to the problem. The other team of 91����Ƶ business students in the competition were seniors Sam Buck, Woodburn, Ore.; Matt Gehman, Parkesburg, Pa.; and Ben Moyer, Doylestown, Pa.

The business case focused on a child care facility in Toledo, Ohio, that was struggling to stay afloat fiscally while also wanting to achieve greater visibility in the community, the students explained.

The students were given the problem prior to attending the convention, but weren’t permitted to seek counsel from any 91����Ƶ business professor.

“Our challenge was to study the business, determine what the obstacles and barriers were and come up with a feasible solution to the day care facility’s dilemma,” Wyse said.

“Being accounting majors, we focused on budget issues and crunched figures,” said Ms. Hevener. “We reworked the program’s budget, adding health coverage and recommending continuing education for staff,” she added.

The students also addressed the issue of “branding” – helping the facility sharpen its image – by creating public relations materials that outlined goals and services.

Each team had about 20 minutes to make its presentation and then entertain questions from the audience. The sessions were open to everyone attending the MEDA convention.

The students believe their presentation received top honors “because the marketing materials we developed made us stand out.”

All three students felt the experience was “invaluable.”

“This exercise involved some presenting techniques that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have learned,” Hevener said.

“Presenting in this venue is different than doing so in a college classroom,” Wyse said. “The observers are already in the work world.”

“I feel like I gained a new sense of differing ways to address a business problem and work at a practical solution,” Wyse added.

Not only that, but each student received $100 for being named the top presenters.

“Competitions like these are extremely valuable by providing students with problems like those they’ll face upon leaving the university,” said Walter W. (Walt) Surratt, assistant professor of business at 91����Ƶ. “They learn the value of critical thinking and exercise the tools they have learned in the classroom environment. They also learn to present their ideas and defend their positions before people they don’t know, building confidence and self-assurance in remarkable ways,” he added.

MEDA, founded in 1953, has a dual thrust of promoting business-oriented solutions to poverty and encouraging a Christian witness in business. It is a global leader in microfinance, village-level agriculture and investment fund development, improving livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of impoverished people every year.

While malaria is a devastating disease in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, it can be successfully prevented and contained, according to Faith Patrick, program manager for the Mennonite Economic Development Associates’ (MEDA) Hati Punguzo project in Tanzania.

Patrick visited 91����Ƶ on Nov. 10, 2008 and spoke to Professor Chris Gingrich‘s economic development class.

The term Hati Punguzo, which means “discount voucher” in Swahili, describes an innovative public-private partnership to distribute insecticide treated bednets (ITNs) to infants and young children who are the most vulnerable to death from malaria. The ITNs act as a protective barrier between the user and night-biting mosquitoes that carry the disease.

At the core of Hati Punguzo is a discount voucher for ITNs that the Tanzanian government provides free of cost to pregnant women during their antenatal exam and to infants during their nine-month measles vaccination. The voucher covers approximately 80 percent of the ITN purchase cost.

Local ITN retailers accept the voucher plus the 20 percent copayment (usually between 1 and 2 US$) and provide ITNs to willing buyers. Patrick explains that, “Roughly 75 percent of all voucher recipients buy an ITN, which has supplied over 5 million ITNs country-wide.”

She adds, “Retailers can also sell ITNs at the full commercial price to other people who have seen the health benefits of ITN use. Perhaps most important, use of the private sector to distribute ITNs in Tanzania shows strong potential for long term sustainability of ITN supplies, unlike other countries that freely provide ITNs using government or non-government agencies.”

Patrick’s visit to 91����Ƶ was cosponsored by MEDA and the 91����Ƶ Department of Business and Economics.

Lewis and Mary Coss receive the annual Gehman Philanthropic Award from 91����Ƶ President Loren Swartzendruber and named for faculty emerita member and long-time benefactor Margaret Martin Gehman (at left). Photo by Jim Bishop

91����Ƶ has named a Hagerstown, Md., couple its 2007 recipient of the Margaret Martin Gehman "philanthropist of the year" award in recognition of their generous support of 91����Ƶ.

Lewis and Mary Coss were recognized at an Oct. 12 donor appreciation banquet on campus "for exemplifying the spirit of generous [financial, prayer and moral] support of the university for many years."

The award, in its second year, is named for Dr. Margaret Martin Gehman, who taught art and physical education at 91����Ƶ from 1944 until her retirement in 1987. She continues to serve regularly as a volunteer on campus and with other local organizations and has been a long-time strong financial supporter of the university.

The couple established the Lewis M. and Mary L. Coss church leadership endowed scholarship in 1994 to assist seminary students preparing for pastoral ministry. To date, $28,500 has been awarded from this fund.

They have contributed to the seminary annual fund and to the Augsburger Chair, named for 91����Ƶ president emeritus Myron S. Augsburger, and have given to several capital projects, including sponsorship of a room in the seminary building and the Northlawn dormitory renovation.

They have also designated 91����Ƶ as the recipient of a charitable remainder unitrust.

Lewis and Mary have also supported 91����Ƶ through leadership voluntarism as members of the President’s Partnership Council, 1992-2001.

They have attended the past 16 donor appreciation events on campus and a similar number of the annual School for Leadership Training programs held in January at Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

Lewis is retired after pastoring at Community Mennonite Church in Hagerstown where he and Mary have been involved for 35 years. They owned and operated a furniture and appliance store in Hagerstown 17 years.

They have attended Mennonite World Conference four times, most biennial general assemblies of the Mennonite Church and have participated in more than 20 annual meetings of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA).

The couple celebrated 55 years of marriage in March this year. They have four children – Cheryl and Nelson Lehman, Twila and Darrel Eberly, Dwayne and Christa Coss, Dwight (deceased) and six grandchildren.

"We are grateful for the many ways in which Lewis and Mary Coss exemplify the spirit of generous, cheerful philanthrophy through their generous support of 91����Ƶ," President Swartzendruber said.

As a child Jason Garber liked to “play business.” By his mid-teens he owned one.

Now 21, the enterprising college senior has racked up more business savvy than some people twice his age.

Garber was six when his family got their first computer, an IBM PS2. “I jumped on it pretty early,” he says. While other children were still learning to read, he pretended he was in business and made signs with desktop publishing.

He was a natural with computers. Word of his expertise got around his home town of Hutchinson, Kan. In his teens he was spending so much time helping people he decided to start charging.

“I picked a rate pretty well at random, $15 an hour,” says Garber. “I thought that was big money then.”

As he got busier he kept bumping it up. At $50 an hour he was still “as busy as I could tolerate.”

By 15 he was president of his own company, Next Step Systems, which handled two lines of computer hardware, installed and configured networks and did web design.

Being so young in business had its perils. One day in high school he received a pink excuse slip that said “emergency.” He rushed to the school office, fearing a family crisis. Relief washed over him when he learned it was a call from a client who urgently needed help with a computer system Garber had installed the previous weekend.

Since he was too young to drive, his father had to leave work to take him to the client, 22 miles away.

“I was learning how to keep customers satisfied a great deal faster than I had anticipated,” Garber recalls.

When a national computer magazine profiled this midwestern wunderkind the editor had to ask for clarification: “Who or what,” he queried, “is 16 years old

A new pilot effort will seek to strengthen ties between Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and business students at 91����Ƶ and other Anabaptist-related schools.

MEDA, an association of 3,000 Mennonite business people, has a dual thrust of promoting a Christian witness in business and operating business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. Its efforts include micro-finance and production/marketing programs in 10 countries and business training and community development programs in a number of major cities across North America.

An agreement to work at exchanges, internships and learning/research opportunities was recently formalized by Howard Good, MEDA’s vice-president of North American operations, and Allon H. Lefever, associate professor of business and director of the MBA program at 91����Ƶ.

The agreement, which may be replicated at other institutions, will build on MEDA’s ongoing relationship with Mennonite colleges. Business students receive complimentary copies of “The Marketplace” magazine and are eligible for reduced rates at the annual MEDA convention. The arrangement seeks to expand business students’ understanding of the integration of faith, business and development, involve more of them in MEDA’s work and provide more learning opportunities within MEDA’s program.

“This process has already started [at 91����Ƶ],” Lefever noted. “We’re exposing students more deliberately to MEDA’s thrust of faith, business and development by distributing ‘The Marketplace’ directly into the classroom and making assignments based on its content, using it as a reference,” he said.

“We also want to identify areas where MEDA’s need for certain kinds of analysis can be matched with MBA students who have to do an applied project. An example would be a product from a MEDA program that needs some assessment in terms of cost structure and world demand,” Lefever added.

Plans also call for a sponsored internship program for undergraduate or MBA students; an annual MEDA-sponsored speaker or lecture series, increased connections between 91����Ƶ business students and the Harrisonburg MEDA chapter and greater awareness of MEDA values and projects in the school’s SIFE chapter (Students in Free Enterprise).

From the MEDA side, benefits include more potential student interns for MEDA projects; increased student attendance at the annual MEDA convention; and greater engagement by students with issues of faith/business/development.

“We hope to reach agreements like this with other Anabaptist-related colleges that have business departments,” said Good.