Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 difficult. Added to these challenges were the struggles of doing business with integrity in Sontoc, where payment of bills was often delayed for extended periods of time and there were few mechanisms for pursuing debts. When the original founder of the business had to return home for of family reasons, investors worked to find a new owner/manager, and were able to procure the services of someone who had experience in some areas of business in the region. This person joined our mission agency and moved to Sontoc. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was written between the different stakeholders, the Board, the new owner/manager and the mission agency. In addition, issues of finance, language learning and cultural adaptation were addressed and agreed in a series of conversations between the sending office, the country team and the worker. Financial pressures in particular saw many of those agreements compromised by the need to deal with the precarious financial position of the business. The owner worked tirelessly to find new business, recover unpaid debts and downsize in an effort to reduce costs. The country team, and in particular the team located in that city of Sontoc, met regularly with the owner and his family, supporting them, advising them and praying with them. 2.2.2 Failure The Board and investors became increasingly concerned about the financial situation and one of the major investors did a review, including a personal visit to the business, and concluded that the business was now operating from a state of insolvency. The recommendation was made that the business should be closed immediately and a set of steps was suggested for moving to this end. This news was communicated in person to both the owner/manager and to the country team leadership. However, 155