Ephesus Group

God didn't invent ugly.

It happened.

Here's how to deal with it!

Enslavement	Emancipation
Top Down	Bottom Up
Large programs that affect people	People effect large programs
Others know better	The individual knows what is best
Fatalistic, rearward looking	Optimistic about the future
believes people are inherently good-	believes people are inherently fallen-
...yet makes policies that promote evil.	...but make policies that promote morality.

What we believe:

	We believe that a Christian worldview, as espoused in the Holy Bible, is the only infallible and inspired guide to life.
	We believe that the answers to problems come from the bottom up, not the top down.
	We believe that freedom of markets, rule of law for contracts and land ownership, and property rights are basic to economic freedom.
	We believe that private initiative is altruistic, is normal, and can be trusted within the proper worldview.
	We believe in transparency in accounting and accountability in relationships.
	We believe that teaching these principles to a needy world is a worthwhile effort.
	We believe that the ultimate answer to poverty is providing those in poverty with more money earned through self-reliance. This money may be best generated by increased access to appropriate solutions, markets, and technology; money earned will in turn, in time, solve the problems of health, injustice, and education.

What we hope to do:

	We desire to bring to Africa in particular, and the world in general, a new understanding of the terms "investment" "donation" and "reporting".
	We desire to establish an accountability group which can certify and verify various non-profit efforts in the world.
	We desire to give a "certification" of a project or missions worthiness according to international standards of accountability.
	We will be working with Christian schools in both financial accountability and curriculum and Christian Worldview training.

How we hope to do this:

	We hope to develop internationally accepted standards for accountability for project management
	We hope that we can teach these standards via conferences, online information and courses, and by mentoring.
	We hope that recipients of donor programs will desire and accept this oversight.

Compliance and learning are only ever voluntary. We hope to establish good works, and not to build dependencies. Aid to poor countries has existed for a long time, but unfortunately, many times has denigrated to an unhealthy relationship. We desire to truly share our burdens, and lift the burdens of our brothers and sisters.

Toward that end, accountability and accounting go a long way. For far too long, the world has seen "programs" fail. We want to start small and built strong. Indeed, there are "a billion bootstraps" out there...we aim to aid and assist those entrepreneurs who see this, and just need a chance!

Capital needs to flow into these enterprises; but how can capital flow when there no accounting and less accountability? Our main goal is to help build these functions into projects right from the beginning, and to keep them a vital part of the project over the entire life of the project.

Of course, we believe that a correct Worldview is essential for a correct life...therefore, anything not built on the Gospel will not be supported or encouraged. We are not about maximizing income; we are about maximizing the Kingdom!

Let me sum it up this way: we want to take and teach the tools to make successful entrepreneurs out of some of the most impoverished people on earth, and by doing so, strengthen the church of Jesus Christ to be self reliant and grow.

Let us work on things together!

Clark and Liz McNutt

Excellent resources:

Paul Polak talking about his book, "Out of Poverty"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSEGN-EJJho&feature=related

Prof. Hans Rosling talks about debunking myths about the third world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUwS1uAdUcI

Books for those of you so inclined:

“Out of Poverty” Paul Polak 2008 If you read one book about fixing poverty, this is it.

“A Billion Bootstraps” Smith and Thurman 2007 Gives you an idea of why Citibank and others are interested in the bottom billion.

“Serving With Eyes Wide Open” David Livermore 2006 Must read for any short termers

“African Friends and Money Matters” David Maranz 2001 Classic SIL work on ethnology

“When Charity Destroys Dignity” Glenn Schwartz 2007 A collection of his writings which will anger you in a righteous way.

And three for historical and anthropological background, and one author to ignore totally for economic advice:

“Conquests and Cultures” Thomas Sowell 2002 (?)

“Guns, Germs, and Steel” Jared Diamond 1997

“King Leopold’s Ghost” Adam Hochschild 1999

Read and thumb your nose at anything by Jeffrey Sachs. No matter how many pages it is, it can always be summed us like this: “You are rich, they are poor, give them your hard earned money”. The Glenn Schwartz book is the perfect antidote for this popular, yet very wrong, teaching. Most poor "villages" are not filled with peace and harmony; they are filled with jealousy and envy. They are not happy places filled with noble savages. To think they are is elitist and racist in the worst way.

A movie lover’s guide to Africa…

Too lazy to read? NO EXCUSE! Get these movies and hit the remote and learn something! Warning: these are not all PG movies. Neither is Africa.

To understand modern Jihad against the west, watch:

“Khartoum”, Charleton Heston, 1966

To understand that the battles in Africa are about “concessions”, that is, access to resources, watch:

“Blood Diamond”, Leonardo DeCaprio, 2006 (This is particularly relevant as 5.5 million have been killed in Congo in the last 10 years!!)

To understand pure Satanic evil, especially in Uganda, watch:

“The Last King of Scotland”, Forest Whitaker, 2006 (By the way, our Ugandan friends said this wasn’t even close to how bloody and awful Idi Amin really was- now that’s really scary!)

To understand the complicity of our purported civilized western world on the affairs of Africa, watch:

“Lord of War”, Nicolas Cage, 2006

Last, and probably least, is my teaching on the Biblical Basis of Economic Development

If elephants can learn to paint, maybe we can learn to love.