Communicator

“What do I want those witnesses to see in my own life?  I need to run with perseverance the goal set before me.  It’s easy for me to say, ‘I don’t know how’ or ‘I can’t’ but I need to throw off those hindrances, get out of my comfort zone, and do what needs to be done.”

The August 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine features VisuALS Technology Solutions, LLC, a young startup I’ve been blessed to work very closely with:

Sometimes things just come together in a special way.  The world calls that coincidence, but we know it to be God’s providence.  This month I’m excited to share the story of VisuALS Technology Solutions, a company that has sprung forth from the Oklahoma Christian University campus where I serve, and the story of Jevon Seaman, a young man being used by God to give a voice to the voiceless.

Human Flourishing

Six months ago my monthly column talked about entrepreneurship and human flourishing, and throughout the Spring semester, that was the theme for my discussions with students.  So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that God would bless us with a student project that is becoming a business that can greatly enrich the lives of thousands.

About three years ago, Ash Srinivas, a student in OC’s Masters of Engineering program approached Professor Steve Maher with a proposed project for an undergraduate senior capstone electrical engineering systems team.  Ash had a friend from church with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) who was losing the ability to control much of his body, including his voice, his hands, and his arms.  Ash knew that technology was advancing fast and a communications solution should be possible for much less than the $20,000 price on existing products.  

In the Spring of 2015, a team of three engineering students started working on software to enable ALS patients to type, and with text-to-speech, to speak with their eyes. Before their graduation in the Spring of 2016, Ash’s friend tried it out and said it was a good start.  The team handed it off to a new team of four engineering students, who called the project VisuALS.  Professor Maher recognized the commercial potential and asked me to help.  I recruited a marketing student and an accounting student to help build a business plan.

An Accountant with Heart

Jevon was that accounting student.  For as long as he can remember, he’s been serving in the church. Being in a small congregation, everyone in his family finds ways to serve, and they’ve taken missions trips to help another small church in Germany with community outreach.

When Jevon arrived at OC, he thought he wanted to study English, his dad thought Marketing would be better, but God had something else in mind.  Jevon wasn’t able to get in all of the classes he wanted, so he found himself in an accounting class, and he loved it.  He truly felt called by God to working with numbers to help businesses prosper.

When he heard about the VisuALS project, it was an answer to prayer.  While Jevon felt called to be an accountant, he struggled with how he could use accounting to love God and love his neighbor, beyond just making good money and being generous with his giving.

“I Love You”

The engineering team did a great job with the software, and by January of this year, they were ready to get some feedback.  The team, including Jevon, went to a local ALS Support Group meeting and explained what they’d been working on.  

Carl Phelps had been diagnosed with ALS two years before and had been unable to speak for the past year.  He could still walk, but was losing the ability to use his hands and typing had become very difficult.  He walked over and sat down in front of the VisuALS system and started typing and talking with his eyes.  For the first time in a year he was able to say to his wife Janice, “I love you.”  He also gave the students feedback on how to make it better, and after using the system for 45 minutes, told them “I’m not giving this back until you tell me when I can have my own.”  Two weeks later, the students brought the system to the Phelps home and got it set up.  You can see the impact on their lives in a video on YouTube titled “VisuALS – Christian Entrepreneurship at OC”.

Through that interaction, VisuALS became more than just a school project.  Jevon shared, “Getting to know Carl and Janice, and giving Carl a voice, showed a world beyond his disease – who he was and continues to be.  Carl was able to share with us that he still wants to be a disciple of Christ and he shared his favorite verse, Hebrews 12:1.”

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”

Impacted

Jevon has been personally impacted by this encounter and has also adopted Hebrews 12:1 as his own mission.  “What do I want those witnesses to see in my own life?  I need to run with perseverance the goal set before me.  It’s easy for me to say, ‘I don’t know how’ or ‘I can’t’ but I need to throw off those hindrances, get out of my comfort zone, and do what needs to be done.”

That’s the mindset of an entrepreneur, and doing it all for the glory of God as a Christian entrepreneur.  The engineering students have graduated and started their corporate careers.  Jevon will be an accounting senior at OC this year, but he’s also stepped up as Chief Operating Officer for VisuALS Technology Solutions, LLC.  He’s helping launch the business to help thousands of more Carl’s.  Lord willing, at the beginning of September, VisuALS will begin selling their product for $3,000, a fraction of the cost of existing solutions, so that many who couldn’t previously afford it, can now regain their voice and say “I love you” to those around them.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

We are trying to do great things for God, but we so often get caught up in the craziness of the latest javascript framework, the new trendy web design model, or the next big thing.  We lose sight of the fact that God is doing a great work in us and through us.  It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world, but about seeking Him, and being transformed by Him to His glory.

For the June and July 2017 issues of MinistryTech magazine, I interviewed Ai Ching Goh and Andrea Zaggia.  Their startup story passes through Italy, England, Malaysia, the United States, and Korea.  Here’s part 2:

Last month, I introduced you to Andrea Zaggia and Ai Ching Goh, husband and wife and co-founders of Piktochart.  In sharing their story, we learned how God had used technology, and even their web-based business, to bring them to Himself and to saving faith.  This month I am pleased to share how God is using them and their business to bless others.

A Transformed Life

As you may recall, Ai Ching was raised in Malaysia.  Her family is Buddhist.  Growing up, she didn’t even like Christians.  She told me “I was wrong my whole life!”  Andrea was from Italy where his family identified as Catholics, but the church wasn’t an important part of their life.  They met over Skype, then in person.  Andrea moved to Malaysia to be with Ai Ching.  They started a business together and were married.  But they were lost.

Ai Ching said “it’s so hard to work with your spouse.  In retrospect, it seems impossible without Christ in the center.”  She said that they would often get into heated debates over trivial aspects of the business. They each had a “rights” mentality, insisting on what they thought they deserved.

In Ephesians 4, Paul commends us “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:22-24)  He goes on to describe it this way “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4:31,32)

Andrea and Ai Ching admit that they aren’t all the way there, but after joining the church, they are being transformed as Paul describes.  Now, they always pray together.  No longer is it a zero-sum game with one winning and the other losing.  They strive to make every decision in one spirit.

Challenged by Scripture

When they joined the church, they also joined a care group in the church that met weekly.  The group was studying the book of Daniel.  In the first chapter, we see Daniel’s faithfulness demonstrated in verse 8 “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.”  We don’t know exactly why Daniel thought the food and wine would defile him, but his faith required separation from the culture around him.

Likewise, Ai Ching was challenged to consider whether she was defiling herself by continuing to engage in the cultural practices with which she had been raised.  In her hometown of Penang, there are many idols.  It is a common practice to literally eat food offered to idols.  Twice in a very short time, Ai Ching ate food  that had been offered to idols.  Each time, she came down with a very high fever that lasted exactly one day.  She understood that she, like Daniel, was to separate herself from the cultural norms that had been defiling her.

Not long after, the care group looked at Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being bold and standing for their faith.  Ai Ching realized that she also needed to be bold.  She had been lying to her parents about what she did every Sunday.  She realized that she needed to tell them the truth and she shared with them her testimony.  Her parents were not happy, but Andrea and Ai Ching were strengthened and encouraged as they continued to grow in their walk with the Lord.

Business and Technology Connections

Being in a country where less than 10% are Christians made it hard for Andrea and Ai Ching to learn how to build a business with Christian values.  They turned to Google to try to find Christian mentors.  One of the top results was Praxis, who I have featured before.  Later, they attended SXSW in Austin and there met Evan Loomis, co-founder of TreeHouse, who had been through the Praxis program.  They applied and were accepted into Praxis where they built great relationships with mentors and peers that continue to serve them as they grow in God’s grace.

To summarize some of their key takeaways, each of the Piktochart co-founders shared a verse that guides them.  Andrea recited Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  By the world’s standards, entrepreneurs are expected to follow a pattern – raise money fast; fail or succeed fast; fire struggling workers fast.  At Piktochart, by God’s grace, they haven’t conformed to this pattern.  As I mentioned last month, they had the opportunity to take money from investors, but didn’t feel at peace with the offers.  If they had accepted those offers, they now would have investors that would be opposed to many of their current decisions, including tithing from the business to support Kingdom work.  God has provided.  They haven’t needed outside financing and the business is still growing five years in.

Ai Ching quoted Jesus from Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  As a businessperson, we have so many responsibilities to juggle, including serving customers and employees, ensuring product quality, dealing with never-ending new versions of browser and web standards and technology trends, and adapting to changing market conditions.  She says “It is so important not to be focused on these ‘waves’ but on Christ, our Head, who is ready to pull us out when we start to sink.”  As Jesus said in John 14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

As technology entrepreneurs, Andrea and Ai Ching have learned lessons that can benefit us all.  We are trying to do great things for God, but we so often get caught up in the craziness of the latest javascript framework (jQuery, Angular, Vue), the new trendy web design model (one page, responsive, material design), or the next big thing (virtual reality, augmented reality).  We lose sight of the fact that God is doing a great work in us and through us.  It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world, but about seeking Him, and being transformed by Him to His glory.

“As a Christian man seeking to know God, as an entrepreneur seeking to glorify God through business activities, it’s easy to get distracted.  The most important thing is to seek God first.  Getting caught up in ‘doing for God’ rather than ‘seeking God’ can happen to anyone, whether in ministry or business, so this requires my fullest diligence.”

For the May 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine, I interviewed Tim and Sara Kilpatrick of Hero Factor Games.  Here’s their story:

When Sara Kilpatrick was in the 1st grade, she contracted the Chicken Pox and was confined to her home.  All she could do all day was play video games.  From that moment on, she was determined that she would grow up to be a video game designer.  Today, Sara and her husband Tim are co-founders of Hero Factor Games.  Their website describes their products as “creative video games that support positive, moral, and biblical decision-making.”  What does that look like, and how did the Kilpatricks get here?

A Personal Revival

Both Tim and Sara were raised in the church.  Sara was baptized at age 8 and was always pursuing a closer relationship with Christ.  Tim, on the other hand, left the church in high school and explored other ways to “find god.”  After a few years of wandering, including studying music at a conservatory and studying philosophy and literature at a small Christian college, he found his real callings, first to the one true God of the Bible, and then to writing software.  

After completing his Bachelor’s degree in CIS and beginning the MSCS program, Tim was recruited to work at a mobile app development company where he met Sara.  Sara had also earned an MIS degree, but with a graphic design minor, and an MBA.  Tim and Sara discovered a mutual love for developing games, and for each other.  Soon they were married and developing a business plan for a video game company they could start on the side as they continued in their full time jobs.  

But God had other plans.  He placed it on their heart that He wanted them to quit their jobs and pursue this passion full time.  They spent much time in prayer and God provided confirmation that this was His will.  Their time in the Word kept pulling them towards going full time with their business.  One of their advisors told them “often times God won’t give you what you need until you really need it” – counseling them to make the jump.  And, to cap it all off, an angel investor approached them about investing in the business before they had even started looking for money.

While starting Hero Factor Games has taught them many business lessons, they cherish more the spiritual lessons they’ve learned.  As a couple, they have drawn closer to God and rested more faithfully in His ability and not their own.  This time has been somewhat of a personal revival for them with incredible blessings for them personally, for their marriage, and for their business.

Sara summarized some of their lessons in this way: “We’ve learned to always seek God first, before even seeking His direction or blessings (John 17:3). Then, in light of who God is, the rest of the day is the opportunity to apply what we have learned about Him – to trust that God really is who He says He is.  We believe that this business is God’s ministry, that He will use it, that He will get the glory, and that He will provide everything we need.  We submit everything to Him.”

Use Your Powers for Good

When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mk 12:29–30)

The motto for Hero Factor Games is “Use your powers for good.”  It comes from Mark 12:30.  As they develop their games, Tim and Sara especially focus on the choices that players make and how that shapes how we think and who we become.  C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity “every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself.”

Tim and Sara’s first game is atomidoodle, a fast action game that teaches about chemistry and God’s creation.  It won the silver medal for mobile apps in the 2016 Parent’s Choice Awards. They spent over a year building various prototypes of different game concepts before their time with the Lord led them to pursue atomidoodle, and within a week they had a prototype working.  They are now developing several other games in various genres.  Tim told me “The most important thing is to build a fun game first.  Then we can figure out how to build in God-honoring content without being pedantic or contrived.”

The Kilpatricks are obviously very thoughtful about how their work is a ministry and how it can bring honor to God, but also about how it’s not really on them to make it happen.  In our interview they referenced George Műller, the German Christian who God used to touch so many lives in Bristol, England in the 19th century.  Beyond even the initial angel investor, God has continued to provide what they need when they need it, including developers showing up on their doorstep, willing to work for free until they could afford to pay them.

Tim uses a quote from A.W. Tozer to summarize their priorities, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  Tim applies this to his life in this way: “As a Christian man seeking to know God, as an entrepreneur seeking to glorify God through business activities, it’s easy to get distracted.  The most important thing is to seek God first.  Getting caught up in ‘doing for God’ rather than ‘seeking God’ can happen to anyone, whether in ministry or business, so this requires my fullest diligence.”