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Dallas—Between trips to Nepal and Honduras, Travis Hester sipped coffee in the student center of Criswell College. For Hester, coffee represents an open door into hearts that need God’s life-changing love.
An independent contractor for Baptist Global Response, the entrepreneurial 38-year-old Criswell PPE (politics, philosophy and economics) student is spearheading a design to impact how BGR responds to the needs of impoverished peoples worldwide while proclaiming God’s love.
After closing a recycling business and retiring its debts during 2007’s economic downturn, Hester and his wife, Julie, prayed for direction. Pastor Jimmy Pritchard of Forney First Baptist advised pursuing God and education.
Some Criswell graduates also invited the Hesters to visit them in Honduras, where Hester agreed to manage an agricultural project on lands belonging to a seminary for a year. The project produced food but changed few lives.
“I went to share the gospel and see transformation in the community,” recalled Hester. For him the old adage “Teach a man to fish … ” appeared woefully inadequate as the surrounding culture remained unengaged and overtones of paternalism spawned local resentment.
“Much of Honduras is trapped in well-intentioned dependency upon NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and non-profits,” said Hester, who determined to engage locals in a mutually beneficial way while also glorifying Christ.
In Honduras, Hester contracted with a small coffee NGO to do analysis; through those contacts he encountered Ebenezer Church and its Cultivadores del Reino—Kingdom Growers—outreach.
Cultivadores del Reino developed after traditional efforts by Ebenezer Church to evangelize surrounding Honduran communities failed. With many successful coffee farmers in the congregation, the pastor and elders realized coffee could create opportunities to share the good news of God’s love.
“The mission became ‘Let’s talk to people about quality, pruning, fertilizer and engage the lost that way,’” Hester said. “I was very much a learner from them.”
Hester appreciated how Cultivadores del Reino integrated work and ministry so much that he patterned BGR’s coffee initiative after its model.
Hester’s knowledge of a Peruvian NGO refined the vision that would eventually interest BGR. Hands for Hope, a knitting initiative, involved the talents of women in the crowded barrios of Trujillo, Peru. With the addition of microfinancing to provide alpaca instead of cheap, synthetic yarn and access to higher-end U.S. markets, Hands for Hope has improved the lives of hundreds of impoverished Peruvian women.
“The key was adding value to a skill the women already possessed,” Hester said.
When the National University of Trujillo rejected Hester’s research proposal for an economic development project, Hester contacted BGR to present the model, which had been reviewed by Christian leaders, economists and professors, including Criswell’s Dr. Joseph Wooddell, who expressed enthusiasm for its emphasis on sound business practices.
“Jesus said to help the poor. We ought to do that while we share the gospel. We have a heart for the poor, but we need to have a mind for the poor so that the things we do help rather than hurt,” said Wooddell, noting the shortfalls of traditional “fair trade” practices that often do more harm than good.
Hester’s model identified components of communities: people, environment, product, market and income, providing methods to analyze and engage communities in areas of felt need. BGR contracted with Hester in 2013 to focus on the implementation of development, microenterprise and microfinance tools on the mission field. Target people groups included more than coffee farmers.
“Now I am working with handicrafts and chicken farm projects in Asia,” Hester laughed.
“The world is getting harder to reach. There are countries you cannot go to as a religious worker, but Christian business people can go to facilitate development projects.”
The BGR coffee initiative fits with a vision for the nations, Hester said. Globally, 250 million people are involved in the coffee industry. Coffee is grown in 70 countries, many in the 10/40 window.
“The coffee industry has grown 17 percent in the U.S. in the last 10 years, with increasing interest in direct trade. It’s just a matter of how we tap into this growing industry,” Hester said.
Hester likened missionaries to brokers working with farmers, with a U.S.-based company providing the market.
“A missionary in, say, Honduras, lives in a village where he builds relationships with farmers,” Hester explained. “He promotes quality standards, keeps track of the coffee year and communicates information on crop conditions. He is known as a direct trade representative sourcing coffee. He monitors milling and drying. He provides microloans to farmers for seedlings and fertilizer.”
Hester believes the development of cooperatives to process greater volumes of coffee and reduce business costs is essential to the BGR effort.
“By linking area farmers together in cooperatives, you create an economy of scale,” Hester said. “This is happening with Cultivadores del Reino, where 200 farmers depend upon a cooperative in a small area. We are duplicating this elsewhere in Honduras, working with missionaries and national partners.”
Plans are underway for the coffee initiative to spread across Central America to Africa and Southeast Asia, Hester added.
What’s next?
“An army in our pews wants to be involved in missions. They cannot go overseas, but they deeply desire to do kingdom work. We must mobilize that talent,” Hester said.
“We need help with distribution, warehousing, marketing and packaging. We will offer a good product, not something purchased only for reasons of fair trade or sympathy.”
Hester and BGR are looking for roasters in the U.S. willing to buy and roast the coffee for sale. Negotiations are underway with a chain of Christian stores to market the coffee.
“The work of our hands is worship. People are created in the image of God. When we empower them to achieve their creative capacities, we reach them on a fundamental level. Our verbal testimonies become more powerful because we have recognized them as individuals.”
Unlike brokers who find other sources, BGR partners will help farmers raise crop quality. Also essential will be the development of group savings plans and microfinancing, which Hester started in August in Honduras.
“Participants support their communities,” Hester said. “They maintain control of the money; it does not go out of the community but is dispersed through an application process.”
Thus, Hester hopes to empower people. BGR will also provide grants to cooperatives. A pilot grant and microloan awarded to Cultivadores del Reino facilitated its purchase of high quality, late-harvested coffee from farmers who would otherwise be subject to unscrupulous buyers.
“That coffee is on its way now to be roasted, packaged and sold in the U.S.,” Hester said. He plans for these business relationships to lead to connections of a more spiritual sort.
Plans are in the works for additional BGR enterprises in handicrafts, aquaculture, specialty foods and other agricultural projects worldwide, with ethical brokers who are also believers sharing good news along with good business sense, improving people’s lives and reaching hearts for Jesus.
