December 12, 2018│By Nathan Peterson, Urbana Missions
Urbana buzzes with layers of expectation. Thousands go expecting to hear from God about his plan for their lives. They expect to be used, expect change, expect to bear fruit. Even so, it’s safe to say Ben Bissell didn’t expect this.
Yahoo! Global News Anchor and renowned journalist Katie Couric stands next to him, drawn to the West Side Bazaar in Buffalo, New York. In her special report on Buffalo’s resurgence after decades of decline, she wanted to see for herself how this small, street front shop is making a huge difference. Passing jewelry displays and racks of clothing with everything from neon hoodies to handwoven ponchos, they meet a handful of people gathered from all over the world. One woman grins as she shows off a row of elegant carved animals. Another explains that she immigrated from Iraq a year ago.
Around the corner is a crowded restaurant, bustling with activity as customers order everything from Ethiopian injera to Burmese sushi. A group of them tell Couric and her camera crew that a major reason they decided to stay in the community was because of thriving places like this.
Ben Bissell is the executive director at Westminster Economic Development Initiative (WEDI) in Buffalo, New York. Their three-pronged mission revolves around revitalizing the local community, educating English Language Learners, and empowering refugees, immigrants, and other disadvantaged community members to become business owners. Aside from being featured in Couric’s special on Buffalo, WEDI has generated considerable interest over the years, even garnering an appearance from the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Ben describes the underlying motivation for all his work at WEDI as coming from a passion to “empower many individuals to make decisions, to be able to own and operate businesses, or to learn the English language. I am then able to cite Christ as the reason for what I do.”
Beginning the Transformation
WEDI has achieved great success in serving the unreached in Buffalo. But it started as little more than a dream and passion nine years prior at Urbana 09.
Raised in a missionary family, Ben has always had a strong sense of missions. But by college, he started questioning, “Why do we only talk about following Christ while ignoring the many other needs that are at the forefront of non-Christians? If we’re really going to have communities transformed, we need to be engaged with the secular culture and to be able to serve in that.”
Knowing about his growing frustrations, a friend invited Ben to Urbana 09. “It was huge. One of the more impactful moments of my life,” he said. “Urbana was a way of learning and hearing about unique tools for community transformation and where Christians were innovating in international development. It opened up my understanding for how I could impact the world while following Christ. I didn’t have to live a fully secular life to impact the social and physical needs of people.”
Reinvigorated by the messages he heard, Ben finished college and returned to Urbana 12 for the Business Track to learn even more. One session, given by HOPE International’s Peter Greer, still stands out in Ben’s mind. “It was wildly impactful,” he said. “It showed microfinance done right, integrating Christ into finance, blending the professional and spiritual in an effective global missions way.”
With this new knowledge, Ben began working at WEDI. “I had always had a vision of international missions,” he said. “But to be able to do it in my own community that I was born in and came back to has been vital. Just one visit to Urbana for me has totally transformed the community that I work in. Our organization would never have had this impact if it wasn’t for Urbana.”