Jim: This episode of iWork4Him is brought to you by SaferNet Online. Safernet.com.

You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: And we are your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. And our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. So what does that mission field look like in your workplace? We're gonna find out right now.

Jim: Yeah. The first week in November, iWork4Him and Follower of One.org will embark on our second Marketplace Mission Trip. We invite every one of you to join us. We would love to get to know you. We'll provide a link in the show notes today and on our website. iWork4Him.com, that's I work the number 4 Him.com.

iWork4Him, came into existence because of the realization that our workplace is, in fact our mission field. We wanna walk alongside each one of you as we all discover that our workplace is our ministry place and is in fact a mission field full of lost and hopeless people who desperately need to meet Jesus.

The people that you work with aren't likely to ever darken a church's doorsteps, but they are going to go to work, and so do you. Join us on the upcoming Marketplace Mission Trip and watch your workplace transform before your very eyes. Mike Henry joins us today to talk about taking our Marketplace Mission Trip, what it looks like, what it feels like, and he has brought a guest along too to share his story.

Mike Henry, welcome back to iWork4Him.

Mike Henry: Thanks for having me, Jim and Martha. I appreciate it.

Jim: What's a My Marketplace Mission Trip? Mike, what's it like?

Mike Henry: It's like work except that you use a few minutes every morning to set your mind toward Jesus and to let him direct you, and then you start to notice opportunities that he gives you in your workday to glorify him and to make other people give them an opportunity to see him. And so it's just this, it's this adventure that happens a little bit at a time.

Jim: Oh, it's an adventure. I like that.

Martha: It is an adventure, and it's one that we get to go to every day. And of course we're speaking generally, we understand not everybody works five days a week, nine to five.

I don't think there, nobody works nine to five anymore.

Jim: Only Dolly Parton got to work nine to five.

Martha: I think everybody understands this whole concept, and even those that are looking for work or unemployed or retired, or they choose to not, or they don't have to earn an income. We still all have a workplace, whether that is in our home or out in our community where we lead an organization.

Maybe you're HOA, for a lot of people, that's their workplace and it's an incredibly influential place to be, and so why not be intentional about it? So Mike, last week we talked on the show, we focused on preparing, this whole preparation process for the trip. Can you give us just a little summary of what it looks like for us to prepare for a Marketplace Mission Trip?

Mike Henry: Certainly. So the first week of the mission trip is five of these devotionals, talking about the five daily habits: pray, appreciate others, know what you believe, serve others, and speak for yourself. We call that preparation week 'cause we just wanna remind ourselves that those are five things that we can do in any job, any day, any time.

That put us back on mission with Jesus, regardless of what just happened in the moments before. And so that first week we go through that, those five activities, those five habits, and we get to know one another on the trip. And then in the middle point in the trip, everything shifts toward what we call action week.

Jim: It was really fun. A couple years ago, Martha and I went on our first Marketplace Mission Trip to check it out and then, COVID hit and all kinds of things got in our way and we have said, let's do another joint one and bring in the iWork4Him nation, everybody that's listening to the show and have them go on and experience it with us and we're super excited to do that with everybody.

And make sure you know that you can go to Marketplacemissiontrip.com and get signed up for the November 5th trip. Martha and I'll be there with you in the whole two week process as we're going through, really purposefully equipping ourselves to vibrantly live out our faith at work. Mike, up to today, when we met you in 2016, this was a baby you hadn't even birthed yet.

Now we're in 2023. How many people have gone on marketplace missions trips?

Mike Henry: So in the two week structured mission trips, about 800. We've also had a couple of large numbers of small groups go through it together. The different small groups do, some of 'em do the six-week format. Others have done the two-week format.

And so we don't really have good numbers on those. Probably closer to 200 people have done it through that, and we've even had three or four churches do this, where we're now packaging the two-Week court trip and the six-week trip so that churches can do it together.

Martha: And I know you're gonna talk a little bit more about that format a little bit later in the show when we bring on our guests, but no matter what format people participate in this Marketplace Mission Trip officially, we hope that they continue on a mission trip every day as they commute.

In your story you talk about I drive, I was driving 30 miles to get to work. That's like driving to my mission field every day. That mission trip. For some people their trip can be stressful because they have a hard commute or can be down the hallway, but no matter what it is and how they participate, they each have a story to tell. So can you tell us a story of somebody that participated in an impact that they saw happen in their workplace?

Mike Henry: Certainly. We've, one of our fun stories is of a teacher who found us and another online ministry at about the same time. Came back to church after several years of having been away. Took the Marketplace Mission Trip, read a book and all of this kind of came together at the same time. She now leads like a Bible study of all these teachers in her school system.

There's 17 or 18 teachers that are in this regular Bible study. It took place over the course of two or three years. But it all began with her doing a Marketplace Mission Trip and praying for the other teachers at her school. We have other stories of people who have just changed the behavior, their own behavior just a little bit, and noticed differences in relationships with people at work.

Seen really extreme situations turn into positive experiences because they didn't act on, they didn't struggle back, but instead they were giving and generous. Lots of stories like that we get. Oftentimes it's how the person who's on the trip is different as a result of being on the trip, and then they see God move.

Jim: I love that and you are gonna have an opportunity to see God move in your workplace as well. Martha, how can people get signed up for our, iWork4Him Marketplace Mission Trip coming up on November 5th? And does it cost anything?

Martha: So a couple of details 'cause I like the details. We'll have 'em all in the show notes too for people. It's not like you need to find pen and paper to write all this down right now. It will be in the show notes. So Marketplace Mission Trip.com is the website that you'll go to to get connected and to start that journey.

Getting signed up specifically for our trip that is starting on November 5th. And then there's a whole system in place to engage you and get you connected with the content that comes out every day. And the phone calls that we'll have. Mike, I was thinking about you. We were asking you about stories.

You get the opportunity on this mission trip to actually be on Zoom calls with the other people that are participating with you, and we get such energy from hearing what God is doing in people's workplaces. I remember one of the ones that we were on, somebody took doughnuts to work and it was like this huge gift that because nobody had ever done that or it just made such an impact and they were just loving on their people and it was like, just that encouragement is so incredible.

No, it doesn't cost anything. Yes, I am sure it costs to have it put together and there will be opportunities for you to give towards that as you would for any mission trip, but it is not required.

But we will encourage it. And one of the cool things is how often do we get to go on a trip where we don't have to pack a suitcase, we don't have to raise funds, we don't have to get a passport? We already have permission to go to that place. We speak the language. We don't have to take time off of work. No vacation time required.

So many more details that are no longer a part of the equation so that we, because we're already trained for our jobs, we know the people, we already know the schedule. All we have to do is prepare our hearts and our minds for this opportunity.

Sign up at MarketplaceMissionTrip.com, put it on your calendar and join us. It will be amazing to walk this journey with you. We look forward to it, and I know you will too, and your life will never be the same.

Jim: Mike, during the two weeks of the Marketplace Mission Trip, when we put into practice what we learned during Prep week, which we talked about in last week's podcast, what can we expect to experience?

Mike Henry: We get a little bit of pushback. We start noticing things. Some things get a little harder at work. Some things become a little more difficult because we have an enemy, but we also get this anticipation 'cause we know that God's engaged. We're paying attention to God, who's working in the lives of every person that we meet.

And we get to see him working in their lives. And we may see it in the way that a comment is received, how you said something that didn't seem like anything, and yet it was very important to the person that you said it to. Or you'll find ways to be a benefit to other people. You'll get an idea about giving something away like a treat or buying a lunch or helping someone. All that, those ways are ways that God shows up. I think he wants us to love the people around us and serve them because we follow him and then he makes the rest of it work.

Martha: So how is it that like Follower of One is supporting us through the week? What does that look like?

Mike Henry: So Follower of One. Our team actually, we pray and we encourage everyone on the trip to pray. The mission trip itself is a space inside of our online community, so it's like a private room in there, and the people in there can see who else is in that community. So you can pray for the other people on the trip, and I pray down the member lists of each trip while they're going on.

We also support by having these daily lessons that come out. We want to interact with one another and help people to process this idea and listen to how God calls them to do things. I've heard many ideas, different ideas of ways to serve people in our workplaces or wherever we are, and those ideas came from people who took the trip.

They didn't come from me, so I'm sharing ideas that often got from someone else.

Jim: That's flattery you because you're repeating what they did. You're like those people should feel great about it . So what, each day of the week, is there a specific focus or do we take everything we learned during prep week and apply it every day of the mission trip week?

Mike Henry: So the second week of the trip, the devotionals are more action oriented. So the first week are about the five daily activities or habits. The second week we challenge you, the topics are: make time, listen, deliver excellent work and remember your why. And these are practical ideas about how we can be very intentional when we go into our workplace or wherever we go.

Even we go to the grocery store, we're going to somebody else's workplace. But when we're out about even the message about going, talks about as you go, it's wherever we are. So we just find ways to be intentional about our faith in everything that we do.

Jim: I love that you just brought up the as you go thing.

A lot of us think Matthew 28:19 talks about going and that, some are called to go and some are called to stay. And it's not true. That go, I was just doing the research with my buddy, good buddy, Charlie Self and he goes, Jim, it means as you're going or as you go in all your goings, wherever you go. As you've gone. It, it's this act. It's no matter where you go, yes, this is what we're supposed to do.

We're supposed to share the gospel. We're supposed to live it up in front of people and we say this on so many shows, but as a Jesus follower, everything about us should be changing. That's that whole sanctification process. When Jesus enters into our lives, holy Spirit comes into us. Everything about us should be changing, and then everyone around us should be benefiting from our faith, whether they believe in Jesus or not. And that's really the epitome of the Marketplace Mission Trip experience.

Things are changing in me and everybody around me should be benefiting from that. Have you ever had anybody drop out of the trip because it was just too plain and simple hard?

Mike Henry: Yeah. We have, we do. We have people who disappear. Some people won't ever get very engaged. It's easy to sign up and you think it's easy to do a five-minute devotional.

After the enemy and the world attacks us, our to-do list blows up. We've had several people go through kind of major events during the mission trip, reorganizations in their business. We've had members who've had family members pass away during the trip, and so sometimes people drop out. But what we try and remind everybody is the first prayer we talk about is, here I am.

Here I am. Jesus. What do you want me to do today? Even if you get sidetracked for a week and a half, the next time you think about it, if you say, here I am, Jesus, what do you want me to do next? You're back on the trip.

Martha: Such a great point. And having lived on the mission field overseas with my family for a year, life continues to happen.

Things happen that you have to respond to and that you have to adjust to, but in the midst of it, we're still on mission. So that may look really not like you expected it to look at the beginning of the week or the beginning, when you first sign up. But that's the whole point, right?

That as we go, what are we doing to represent Jesus Christ in our crisis? How are we responding? Because that is really when Jesus is reflected the most. And so on the flip side of that I can imagine you have had people that have been repeat attendees. Tell us about that.

Mike Henry: Yeah. We have several people who we even have for many of our trips.

We'll do two calls a night because of different time zones and things like that. We still have some members who try and make 'em all, try and make all the calls 'cause they want to hear all the stories. We have several members who have taken multiple trips. We have a number of people who do one a year or one every six months.

Just try and remain sharp. It's a good reminder that we can keep doing this. And people, the ones who do it all the time, like they remember, they know what the next episode's gonna be about, what the next devotional will be talking about, and they're anticipating it. But it helps us remember that we have a calling, that my dream for everything that we do is that people look at it and go, oh, I can do that.

The next thing always should be something that we can do. Jesus wouldn't give us things that we can't do except to teach us lessons. Most of the time he's giving us things that we can do, and so let's look for those and do those.

Jim: Yeah, it was so much fun and I'm so excited that everybody here in our listening audience is invited to go on this trip with us.

Martha, we got to meet so many great people last time and I'm excited to meet a bunch of new people.

Martha: So the last time that we went, I think one of the biggest impacts for me was again, just that being in community with others that are taking this journey, this step of faith together and hearing how God is working in their lives, sometimes successfully, and sometimes feeling like they're hitting a wall.

And then the other people can come around 'em and encourage 'em and say, don't give up just because nobody ate the donuts. Or, that people sometimes don't respond the way you expect them to and saying, okay, Lord. Help me to redirect, help me to do it better.

This is not the first time that Mike Henry and the Follower of One have partnered with iWork4Him on anything. And one of the things I wanna celebrate, Mike, is the fact that in chapter 14 of our book, iWork4Him, you and your daughter, Jessica, wrote the chapter and our listeners can connect to that book, find it in the audio format, the paper format, the E-format, the PDF format, all of that on our Facebook, or I'm sorry, on our iWork4Him.com/bookstore. So I just wanna encourage you to go there to learn more and hear their story at iWorkForHim.com.

Jim: Mike, it's always fun to hear people's stories from themselves. Who do you have for us today?

Mike Henry: So today our guest is Daniel Dolan. He is the weightlifting coach at the public school system here locally. And Daniel tell everybody Hi.

Daniel Dolan: Hi.

Jim: What if he didn't want to, Mike?

Martha: He's a teacher, so he has to do whatever. He doesn't get a choice.

Jim: Okay, Daniel, thank you so much for joining us today. You didn't go on a two-Week Marketplace Mission Trip in the sense that you joined a group online. You did the Marketplace Mission Trip using the six weeks guide with a bunch of others. That correct? That's what you did?

Daniel Dolan: Yes. Yes.

Martha: So what made you choose that approach? How did that work for you?

Daniel Dolan: One of the men in my men's group, that we meet on Sunday mornings at a basketball gym or we were, and one of the men in my men's group knew Mike real well, and he suggested, Hey, Mike's got this great thing. I didn't even know what it was. And I had just recently really discovered my faith. I heard a message about how really we are like secret agents within our building. Once you become an ambassador, you actually become a secret agent working for Christ. Not just for your job, but you're actually, it makes the job a lot more exciting.

So that was how I was living in my job before I started this Marketplace Mission Trip. And then when I got explained like what the whole point of the Marketplace Mission Trip was, I was like, oh, this is exactly, this will just strengthen what I was already implementing and give me a better idea of how to be a secret agent for Christ in my building, in my workplace.

And then I didn't even ask the guys in my group if they wanted to do it. I just said, Hey, we're doing this.

Martha: I like that approach.

Jim: That's good. So tell us about the six week trip. What are each of the weeks for? How's it broken out? Because in the two week trip, your first week is prep. The second week is action.

Those five steps: go, make time, listen, operate with excellence, and remember your why. But what are the six weeks of those broken out?

Daniel Dolan: So the six week is that prep week, that first week. You talk about how it's gonna look, what it's gonna look like, and you just tell everybody what to expect.

The second week is pray. The third week would be appreciate others. The fourth week would be know what you believe. The fifth week is serve others. And the sixth week is speak for yourself. But each week just kinda builds upon each other because you, you start off with prayer, but you continue to pray as you go into appreciate others, and then you continue to appreciate others and pray as you go into know what you believe.

And it just, you just take those habits and those things that you've learned in previous weeks and still apply those into weeks three, four, and five and six.

Martha: So you had this group of guys that you were a part of, and you all went through this journey together. What would you say, as you've all shared and responded with each other, was one of the biggest takeaways of going through the Marketplace Mission Trip?

Daniel Dolan: The word that was used by almost every person that finished, 'cause I think we started with about 15 and it dwindled down to about 10 when it was all said and done, but the 10 of us concluded it's without a doubt intentionality. It teaches you to be intentional with the God-given gift that is us in that workplace.

And, just taking what God has called you to and applying it into your workplace. That's the whole, that's the whole fun of the gospel like that. I don't wanna get in my background, but growing up, I thought being a Christian was just this boring thing.

But when you are intentional with the Holy Spirit of living in you and you go out and you get to share this good news - I heard a quote the other day and it just summed up being a Christian for me. It says all being a Christian is is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

And we're hungry for Jesus, and we want other people to be able to have that same, those same hungers met by him.

Jim: I don't know if it's the bread thing. I'm thinking it's one beggar. Tell another beggar how to find the prime rib.

Martha: It depends on your level of hunger.

Jim: You're a weightlifting coach. You teach weightlifting at high school. High school age ninth through 12th grade. How has this impacted your work? How has it changed how you operate as a teacher? Which by the way, thank you. And thank you to all of the public school teachers and any school teachers that are out there. We know your job is hard and we appreciate you guys being in the trenches. How has it impacted what you do on a day-to-Day basis? What specifically, what one thing shifted?

Daniel Dolan: There is no wasted conversations. There's something just, it's taught me to look the kid, the student in the eye, to really listen to what they're saying, to truly ask questions and get to know them.

So there's no, there's just no wasted conversations throughout my day, even if I'm busy. That's the appreciating others part. That's the one that really stood out to me over the Marketplace Mission Trip was appreciating others. Taking the time to listen and hear actually what they're saying, not just think about what I'm trying to say next.

But listen to what they're saying and then ask follow up questions to what they just told me, and then eventually, those conversations turn deeper and deeper. And then, you're able to really witness to the kids just to ask them a deeper question.

And so what's your thoughts on Jesus? Or where do you go to church? Or, what's your faith? And just open up the door to some more spiritual questions. Once they get to know your heart, they can see your heart is different than a lot of people. And then you can really ask them some deeper questions and they'll open up and then the doorway is open at that point.

Martha: Anybody that's listening right now is probably amazed at how blessed your students are to have you guiding them, and praying for that to be contagious around the country because that heart is exactly what is needed and what this mission trip can help each one of us do in our sphere of influence.

Looking at where your sphere of influence is and how God is. Giving you a new intentionality and we just pray that catches fire. But we're grateful for you sharing that with us, Daniel. And that's exactly why we are offering this Jim, right?

Jim: Yeah, absolutely. And we really encourage, please go to Marketplace Mission Trip. Dot com, sign up for the November 5th trip as iWork4Him and Follower of One join forces once again to do a trip together. And you will be doing this trip with Martha and I. Please come and get to know us. We will have way more fun than's probably legal and it won't be illegal, but it really, maybe one day it will be, but for this trip, it's not illegal.

But we'll have a great time sharing from our hearts, sharing from what we're doing and we will all be challenged. Marketplace Mission Trip. Dot com.

Martha: It's in the show notes. Don't worry. It's there. We got you covered, Jim.

Jim: We're gonna be highlighting this over the next several weeks in our weekly blogs and our weekly emails to get everybody involved. Make sure you sign up for our weekly blog. iWork4Him.com/blog, Mike Henry, Daniel Dolan, thanks for being with us today.

Thanks for sharing from your hearts. Mike, thanks for bringing this incredible tool to our audience and to the thousands and really millions of workplace believers across the country. Thank you for doing this, Daniel. Thank you for being a teacher. Don't give up. Thank you. Encourage these kids to get into public school teaching who know Jesus and tell 'em not to give up. You are on the front lines and we're grateful. Thank you to both of you

You're listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha. Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.

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Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom. Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer and invest.

That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement, check out our books: iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Thanks for listening to the iWork4Him Podcast with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Please visit iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work To join the iWork4Him Nation or subscribe to our weekly blog. You can also follow us on social media at iWork4Him to stay up to date and meet our guests. If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform.

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