Usually I am not a huge fan of Nietzsche, but this is particularly terrific.

“What induces one man to use false weights, another to set his house on fire after having insured it for more than its value, while ¾ of our upper class indulge in legalized fraud . . . what gives rise to all this? It is not real want – for their existence is by no means precarious . . . but they are urged day and night by a terrible impatience at seeing their wealth pile up so slowly, and by an equally terrible longing and love for those heaps of gold. . . What was once done ‘for the love of God’ is now done for the love of money.” (Nietzsche, The Dawn of Days)

Thanks to Andy Nedlechev in Europe for digging this one up…

We are moving here to help a friend with his company; a company I strongly believe in; a company that is changing its world as it changes the lives of its partners and employees.

It’s been quite the journey to get here. And I start today.

Finally.

Here’s to the start of career number two.

----A Palm Fruit----

It had to be a script from a movie. In one scene I was chatting with high-powered fund managers and Singapore “Wall Street” Executives, and in the next embarking on an Indonesia jungle speedboat ride through former headhunter territory, being chased by a massive storm surrounded by haunted, fog-covered islands that looked like they were meant to lie unexplored so as to protect humanity from the angry beasts within.

Such was my recent trip to Asia.

I arrived in Singapore at 1:30am Monday morning after flying for 2 straight days. Dead tired, I pulled myself out of the plane and walked out of the jet way. Sitting right outside of the gate was Dr. Suparno, a long time friend and soon to be new boss. We cleared immigration then made our way to his mother’s home, finally getting to bed at 3am.

A short four hours later we were up and ready for the “road show” – a series of meetings where we showcase the company to fund managers from a variety of different fund management companies.

We were going from one high rise skyscraper to another, each with a seemingly more amazing view than the previous.

----SIngapore's Financial District at night

I have never experienced anything like it. It seemed surreal. Actually, this whole year has seemed surreal; from asking to bride to marry me, to leaving Crown – a ministry I have known and loved ever since graduating from college, to now preparing to change continents, climates, and cultures as we move to Indonesia.

I have to admit that many times it has felt like an out of body experience. I was looking down on myself from above wondering if I really knew what I was doing…

But God’s peace transcends all understand, and He’s been especially generous with it lately.

After finishing four days of the “road show”, I had the joy of picking up my future bride, Rocio, from the airport. How cool it was to introduce her to a sampling of my life of jet lag, planes, trains and cultures.

Oh how many times before I had longed for this while sitting alone in an airport somewhere. I remembered a time in Zambia, when I had joined up with a 12Stone mission trip for a while before leaving a few days early. After visiting Victoria Falls, having just seen the most breathtaking, beautiful spots in all of creation, I found myself sitting at the Livingstone airport, longing for someone to share in all the beauty, adventure and excitement.

----Victoria Falls----

Now in Singapore with my bride to be, I was reminded of how thankful I am to God for providing a companion.

After we had spent a few hours in Singapore together, we began our journey to see the heart of the business I will be joining there.

It was a one and a half hour flight to Jakarta, followed by a lot of scurrying to make it to the domestic terminal from where our next flight was to leave. We arrived at the airport 15 minutes before takeoff.  Out of breath from the mad dash through the airport, we got to our gate 5 minutes before departure…and a full 2 hrs before our seriously delayed flight would actually leave.

Ha. Hurry up and wait.

----Rocio in two hemispheres----

The delayed flight finally left and took us, quite literally, to the center of the earth. Pontianak is one of only a couple cities located directly on the equator.

And we felt it. It was HOT.

From Pontianak we traveled another 1.5 hours by car, being thrown this way and that by the broken pavement until it seemed we had lost our way.

Then the cars stopped and out we stepped onto a rickety dock that had me “counting the cost” of each step. Rocio had the privilege of using her first “squatty potty”, and if you haven’t had the privilege of using one, be very glad.

----Pushing away from the dock----

Tied to the dock was what would be our little home for the next 4 hours. The little speed boat sat 8 people in benches across, and there were 8 of us.

We precariously made our way from the dock to the teetering boat.

As we pushed off and started the engine the guys on the dock began yelling at us in Bahasa. The boat operator quickly stopped the engine and pulled an eight-foot log out from under the boat.

Wow.

This was going to be an interesting trip…

We made our way down the two-boat-width channel, under bridges that we barely fit through, and ended up in a much larger, slowly moving river.

----The banks were chocked with vegetation----

While flying through the glass-like water at 50+mph, I couldn’t help but think that the water would be perfect for wakeboarding. Um, with a really thick bodysuit…you know, one that can withstand snake bites.

A couple hours down the river, it emptied into a bay. We hit the bay right at about the same time the storm did.

As did the fog and rain.

And we lost our vision.

We knew there were several larger ships in the bay that could easily crush our little 18 foot boat, so we had to navigate our way to shallower waters.

But which way was the shore?

Thanks to three iPhone compasses, simultaneously pulled out, we found safe harbor near to the shore, where we waited out the storm in safety.

Note: The previous sentence was almost omitted to avoid the accidental opportunity for apple addicts to worship.

Though the storm passed, it left behind a cloudy eeriness, like a mixture of awe and terror.

I couldn’t help but dream of “King Kong” islands and ghostly worlds, yet to be discovered for good reason.

----Troubled waters, creepy storm clouds, mysterious islands----

We passed through the bay and found the river that would lead us closer to the plantation. The choppy water turned clear again and my visions of wakeboarding returned.

Slashing through and around the narrow bends, we were sure to honk at every corner, hoping any unsuspecting and unseen vessels would hear. This was my favorite part of the journey. As we traveled further and further upstream, the banks of the river began to close in, as if preparing to swallow us whole.

It was during this part of the journey I began to imagine the headhunters (gone now for a few decades), peering through the thick jungle, blow dart guns ready to send their fury into our necks, putting us to sleep before we were seasoned and tenderized. It felt like the set of an Indiana Jones movie, I kept leaning over to Rocio and saying “This is so cool!”

I’m sure she got sick of it.

Just before the river had its chance to gulp us down, we alighted at another little dock, but this time more sturdy, holding our weight without loudly groaning its complaints.

Having been “windblown” for the past 4 hours, I felt itchy as my blood fed the capillaries that had been starving for attention.

Still not having completed our journey, we hopped into the two pick-ups that were there waiting for us. The last hour to the plantation would prove to be the most difficult for me. The jostling and jolting from the unpaved roads worked it magic on my stomach, leaving me thrilled and victorious to have finally completed the journey; my feet planted on something that wasn’t moving.

The plantation had an austere feeling to it. Stately trees towered overhead and for miles in all directions. It made the place seem more like a sanctuary.

----It was so quiet amongst the trees----

After washing up and dropping our stuff in our rooms, we went down to the mill.

Quite a feat of technology, the mill has the capacity to produce 60 metric tons of crude palm oil per hour.

----This conveyor belt brings the fruit into the mill----

We watched the trucks bring in the fruit, dumping them in the distribution area where they were emptied into bins. The bins carried them through to where the fruit was separated from the bunch, and then the fruit was crushed and turned into oil. Just like that.

We only were able to spend one day at the plantation, but it was great to meet some of the 2000 employees. It’s going to be so cool to join up with this effort.

----Leaving the plantation by boat----

Knowing what we were in for made the trip back uneventful, and, after another flight delay, we made it safely to Jakarta.

The last few days of our trip was spent in Jakarta looking at potential places to live, and potential jobs for Rocio. I think we found some great candidates for both.

The trip itself was representative of the “rollercoaster” adventure on which we are getting ready to embark.

Engagement. Marriage. New home. New job. New continent.

This is how it’s supposed to work right?

Untitled from Matt Elsberry on Vimeo.

It’s been a great last two weeks on this, my first Crown trip as a volunteer. The leaders in these nations are bringing it.

----Palm Fruit Bunch----

So my friend Matt Hall was out here last week for his Anesthesiology boards (yeah, he’s a doctor). Jokingly, he kept ribbing me about the company I was joining, asking if we let the kids in our sweat shops take breaks for water.

Haha, Matty.

Nonetheless, our humorous banter that day made me want to share a little more of the story. Let you know that we have no “sweat shops” and the dignity filled work we grant is helping a ton of people.

Because the company went public today, I can actually share more information.

Global Palm Resources Holdings Limited (visit our website) is now a publicly listed company on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX). We were just able to raise S$46.5 million through our initial public offering (this is about $34 million in US Dollars).

We have around 2000 employees and another 1400 families that are given land through the Plasma Program. Find out more about this program and how we care for our employees here. The company is so well respected that over 80% of our employees have been there for 7 years or more. Wow.

And they are not children.

Dr. Suparno who runs the company likes to talk about how our profit ultimately comes from above. He and I worked together to write up the rationale behind the logo. It’s on the website here, but I’ve also included it below:

----Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands----

So that’s it.

I’ve accepted the offer from Indonesia and starting in August I will be the Vice President of Sustainability and Stakeholder Relationships for my friend’s Indonesian company. We will be there for at least two years.

I can’t mention too much more about the organization until they finish the IPO process (I described it a little in my last post), but Rocio and I are thrilled to be embarking on this adventure together. And we are expecting many visitors. The island of Bali is right next door after all.

Last week Rocio and I were there, checking out housing and looking at potential jobs for her. We both feel like we have had special direction and insight from above, and we are excited to have to depend on each other in a new culture/country/continent/climate.

Change anyone?

Some pictures from Indonesia:

----A couple of the islands----

----We saw a ton of these hats while we were on the rivers----

----Wow.----

----Jakarta, the city we will call home----

]]> http://mattelsberry.com/decision-made-were-changing-hemispheres/feed/ 10 http://mattelsberry.com/no-more-crown-so-whats-next/ http://mattelsberry.com/no-more-crown-so-whats-next/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:48:14 +0000 Matt http://mattelsberry.com/?p=1235

----Oil palm trees are different than regular palm trees----

As you may have read in my latest blog post (http://mattelsberry.com/its-time-to-part-ways-with-crown/), I am no longer with Crown Financial Ministries. And while my time there has been most memorable, it’s time to move on to what’s next.

I have been talking with a good friend of mine who owns a oil palm plantation in Indonesia. He has been incredibly successful in business, and is getting ready to take his private company public next month.

This may sound blase at best, but wait until you hear…the rest of the story.

Many oil palm plantations are destructive to the environment as well as to the employees they use to make a profit.

Not this one.

My friend’s company operates under a “triple bottom line”.

People. Planet. Profit.

People

When the company employs people they go well beyond the established minimums most companies are required to pay people. In fact, they build villages, complete with houses, education, health care, sanitation, clean water and a ton of other benefits for their employees and their families. Every dollar invested in the company helps more people escape the bonds of poverty through dignified work.

Planet

Instead of buying forested area and cutting down trees, this company buys existing plantations and seeks to redeem them, making sure to steward the environment that they have been entrusted. They have even joined the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, an organization that seeks to hold it’s entities accountable for the way they operate.

Profit

The goal is to accomplish all the above while making money. And the more profitable the company becomes, the more people will be able to pull themselves out of poverty while more of the environment is cared for. Also, other companies, seeing what happens, might be compelled to do more of the same.

It is with this company that I am considering employment.

I will be traveling there tomorrow for two weeks to formalize the offer and decide on employment.

More info to come.

Til then, your prayers are greatly appreciated.

I was recently told that my position at Crown Financial Ministries was going to be eliminated and I would have the option of staying with the ministry and taking on the Caribbean. While this was an incredibly attractive offer (especially during this unusually long and cold winter), it would also require taking my fund-raising efforts from $35,000/year to $120,000/year.

With much prayer and consideration for our new marriage, Rocio (my fiancee) and I both felt it was time to part ways with Crown. We don’t know what God has next for us, but your prayers for this transition are coveted.

I will miss my time with this great organization. Since college, it’s been all I’ve known. I leave behind a joint effort with hundreds of personal prayer and financial supporters. Together God has used us to do great things. Here’s a quick recap of some of my favorite memories during my time at Crown:

Interning with Dave Rae – The former President of Apple Canada housed me and poured his life into mine for a couple years, and I still root for the American’s against his Canucks. The ungrateful audacity of me. Smile.

Meeting Larry Burkett - I don’t think I’ve eaten Fruit Loops since.

FX03 – Our big plans were never fully realized but Chancy Burrell, Hope Welborn, Liz Hart (Kelley), Tim Krauss and Marianne Ramsey (Krauss), Megan Pawlos (Pacheco), Joanna Royal and I made for a heck of a summer experience for 8 college students, and a cool short-term missions program came out of it.

Traveling with and being mentored by Dr. Dick Wynn – This man still is my hero. It’s a goal of mine to make it to more countries with Rocio then I have been to with Dick Wynn. This will take some time.

Interns – Elicia Olsen, Ashlyn Ward (Bishop), Anna Soliven (Rosado), Michele Scott, Felix von Keyserlingk (Germany), Alex Morrison, and Christina Wolverton made a huge impact while they were here. They raised their own funds so they could serve people with God’s truth on stewardship. And there’s one more…Enkhtuya Purvee (Mongolia) is about to serve with Crown Taiwan.

Andrés Panasiuk’s call out for the nations to thank and pray for the United States in their language – We had just finished praying for the nations at the 2004 Crown Reunion. Following Andres’ lead, the nations then turned and thanked God for us. Humbling, unifying and awe-inspiring, I was right next to my friend Richard Samuel from India. The way he passionately cried out to God in Tamil made me weep.

12Stone’s Small Group’s round-the-clock prayer support for my Pakistan trip – For the first and only time I remember, I experienced fear before an international trip. I mentioned this to my co-leader, Jessica Roberts (Brothers). She recruited 24 people from a couple of the 12Stone Single’s Small Groups to pray for me 24-7 while I was there. This completely overwhelmed me.

Like-minded discussions with Chuck Bentley on how to help Crown serve the poor – We’d get so into it, he seemed to always have to postpone or cancel a meeting or two. His pressing has helped grow my passion for serving people in poverty. So grateful he would give his time so generously to me.

Dr. Suparno’s devotional on stewardship and the Cross – He patiently and powerfully pointed out why all stewardship ultimately points to the cross. His humility and passion for Jesus has marked me.

The intern from Hawaii that was my opposite – When Anna Soliven (Rosado) started her internship, she made a point of saying her gifting was to help make inefficient things become efficient (I might have said my gifting was to make efficient things become inefficient). She’s put up with countless tangents and “tools” of creativity over the past 4+ years, and she has given and sacrificed much for the people of Crown ignite! and our global field staff. As a brand new mother, her son and whatever else she lends her attention to will be blessed.

——————————————————————————–

Wow. And that was just a snippet. God has been incredibly generous.

If you’re one of my friends who have worked or volunteered at Crown over the last 9 years, I’d be honored to hear some of your favorite memories (or your perspective on mine above).

----My cousin Jennie----

So I have a dear cousin who lives in Sudan. She’s actually my mom’s cousin’s daughter.

And she’s freaking awesome.

Just last week she posted about how she helped this victim of sex-trafficking escape Sudan and make it back to her home country. The young girl’s story is unbelievable. It’s definitely worth a look, a prayer, a pass-a-long to friends, and a donation to help her do even more.

Here’s how it starts:

——————————————————————–

Picture this.

You’re a fifteen year-old girl in a developed nation. You attend high school, practice piano, and participate in after-school sports. You’re dealing with all the drama of teenage relationships, having recently broken up with your first boyfriend, when your mother tells you she wants to take you to another country to visit some extended family…(click here to finish reading)

----The Burj Al Arab in Dubai----

I had lunch with a good friend from Dubai yesterday. We had only met in person once before briefly, but have shared countless emails and Skype conversations.

Though we wouldn’t end up meeting for another year, we were in the same room (along 600 other people) in Mumbai, India in 2004 for Crown’s Business by the Book Conference. This gentleman was a junior consultant with Ernst and Young in India and had decided to attend the conference with a friend.

Inspired by the idea of running a business by biblical financial principles, these two friends moved to Dubai to launch their company. He reminisced on the early start to the business:

Early on it was incredibly rough going, my wife and I shared a house with a single gentleman and another couple, and only my wife was able to bring in income during the difficult beginning.

But start they did.

Today they are rolling. With already over $23 million in revenue, they just landed by far their biggest client yet. The most impressive thing about their business is that they are able to reach into places the outside world would never have access to. They reach in with business and they reach in with Truth.

This is all possible because they found their “value-add” niche through business. When they do business in a place, they leave it better than they found it. In other words, they contribute.

Pray for my friend and his business. Know that as their bottom line increases, so does the kingdom’s.