The Summer of 2015 saw Elevation executives traveling to Nairobi, Kenya; Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Paris, France to promote, advance and partner global entrepreneurs called to building multiple bottom line businesses - businesses that don't just strive to be highly profitable but also strive to elevate their countries.

Kenya and Rwanda

In June, Chris and Kristen King along with their three children, Charlie (9), Mary Grace (6) and Luke (4) spent two weeks in Kenya and Rwanda.  Chris was the keynote speaker and Kristen was the Master of Ceremonies at a conference that brought business and ministry leaders together to develop strategies to encourage entrepreneurship and sustainable development.

Chris delivered an address at the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi entitled, "Rainbows Come True" that spoke of the power of transformative capitalism. Chris reminded the audience, which hailed from five African countries, that “dreams and dreamers still change the world.”  The King Family was hosted by Lift Up Limited, an East African organization helmed by Jean Paul Ndagijimana, that is striving to train, equip and resource African entrepreneurs to grow multiple bottom line businesses.

While in East Africa, the King family hosted a forum dinner for real estate leaders, toured the Genocide museum in Kigali, Rwanda, visited with and heard presentations from a refugee group from Burundi and toured many multiple bottom line businesses.

Haiti

In July, Chris King traveled to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti with Joe Leininger of Resource Land Holdings, Alejandro Longoria of Guggenheim Partners and Chuck Allison of Spring Valley Farms in order to participate in and serve as a keynote speaker for a conference in Port-Au-Prince that brought new entrepreneurs and ministry leaders together to discuss the power of entrepreneurship.  Chris spoke at the Saturday night banquet at the Oassis Hotel in Patienville, Port-Au-Prince and challenged the audience to imagine a new vision for the island nation that was entrepreneurial, sustainable and hopeful. Chris referenced his previous month’s trip to Rwanda and spoke of how that nation had risen from the ashes of a genocide that killed 800,000 people in 100 days in 1994 to become one of Africa’s safest and least corrupt nation states while experiencing  annual GDP real growth of  seven percent.

The conference was hosted by Leve Kampe Mache, an organization that trains future entrepreneurs according to Biblical principles in cities all across Haiti.  In 2014 and 2015, nearly 650 people participated in training programs.

While in Haiti, the Elevation traveling party spent an entire day with Dr. Valentine Abe, the legendary African acquaculturist who came to Haiti nearly two decades ago and is responsible for building one of the Caribbean’s largest and most productive tilapia hatcheries.

France

In July, Michael and Tammy King traveled to Paris, France where Michael served as the keynote speaker at an entrepreneurial conference hosted by Le Nouvel Horizon in partnership with The Nehemiah Project.  Le Nouvel Horizon is an organization founded by Assembly of God Pastor, Gabriel Oleko, who was born in Congo, educated in Belgium and now leads a congregation located just blocks from the Eiffel Tower. Le Nouvel Horizon provides entrepreneurs biblical training on how to build a “Kingdom Business.”

Michael spoke for thirty minutes at their 1^st annual Dinner Gala at Le Restaurant “L’ile” located in the Parc de l’ile St. Germain, in the south of Paris.  His speech was entitled, “Le Monde est votre Huitre” translated in English to mean, “The World is Your Oyster.”    During this time Michael challenged the audience of over 150 to recognize the needs not being met in their communities and to build businesses around those needs.  Speaking in French he explained,  “En 2006 a Elevation nous avons observe qu’I y avait un manqué de logements aux Etats-Unis consideres propres, abordables et sans danger.  Et a ce-moment la, nous avons eu un reve et un grand but fournir un meilleur logement de qualite.”  Meaning, “In 2006 at Elevation we observed there was a lack of housing considered clean, affordable and safe in the United States.  At that moment we had a dream and a plan to provide better quality housing.”

It was a powerful night and Elevation couldn’t be more excited about Pastor Gabriel’s leadership and accomplishments to date.  Le Nouvel Horizon’s vision remains to equip, accompany and support leaders of new businesses to incorporate biblical principles in their entrepreneurial pursuits.

All three trips were fruits of a multi-year partnership with Nehemiah Project International Ministries, an organization working in 21 countries. Nehemiah seeks to transform culture and bring positive change by lifting up and training entrepreneurs to grow businesses that are rooted in Biblical principles and designed to be models of generosity, corporate social responsibility and strong stewardship.  For more information on Nehemiah Project International Ministries and its talented leader, Patrice Tsague, please visit nehemiahproject.org.

 Click below to view clips of Chris and Michael's speeches.