CBF Offering for Global Missions – Uganda Impact Story: Arcade from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship on Vimeo.
What possible connection could a real estate banker from Alabama have with a chicken farmer in Uganda? As it turns out, quite a lot.
Lee Surtees was making a good living in banking, finance and real estate while raising a family in Birmingham, Ala. But what he really longed for, he said, was to be involved in something more “eternal.” So when his longtime friend Jade Acker, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel working in Uganda, called with an unusual proposal—to invest money in refugee-entrepreneurs—Surtees jumped at the chance. “I had been praying for some time how I could use my business skills in a more missional capacity,” recalled Surtees.
Acker had just the right match—a mock Shark Tank connecting U.S. investors with potential businesses operated by refugees. Jade Acker and his wife, Shelah, are founding directors of Refuge and Hope, a multifaceted ministry for refugees who come to Uganda seeking safety and opportunity.
Read more at Chickens, Sharks and a Banker.