Thursday, March 01, 2012

Job training 301: Bless your enemies

When we started Good Soil Industries, KCB's landscaping social enterprise that provides on the job training for folks who were hard to hire,  we knew we would provide job training.  We knew we'd teach people how to mow lawns,  how to make resumes, and how to dress and prepare for interviews.

We didn't think we'd be teaching people about how to treat our enemies...
The Good Soil guys praying for our enemies.
Last week our crew returned to the van after caring for one of our customer's lawns to find that while they were focusing on their tasks some one had opened the back doors and stolen the weed whacker and hedge trimmer, $800 worth of critical equipment,  right from under their noses.  

This sort of theft isn't supposed to happen to good people doing a good thing, right?   

We were outraged at first but then we reflected a bit on what Jesus would do in this situation.  He would bless the thieves.   So as hard as it was for us to understand that teaching of Jesus,  Joel took the guys out to the truck and led them in prayer for the faceless, nameless enemies who took our stuff.  

As much as Good Soil is about job training, we also do some important LIFE training too.  We get the opportunity to demonstrate the upside down Kingdom of God, to our trainees who are so used to the abuse and "tit-for-tat" rules of the world.