Don Olson, CEO of Virtual Storehouse and Foreign Christian Books focused on the growing trends and challenges related to foreign-born people in North America during his Monday breakout session titled “Trends for Leveraging 21st-Century Technology to Maximize Revenues.”

Now at more than 77 million, the number of foreign-born people in North America continues to increase each year, according to data cited by Olson, who sees a need to be met.

“My hope with this breakout session is to communicate what the ministry opportunity is and what the ministry need is, more importantly, so we can have the ability to take action,” he told attendees at his International Christian Retail Show session.

"One of challenges that I’ve had to overcome is that there aren’t a lot of people that have fully grasped what the ministry opportunity is, so that was my hope in offering the workshop," he said.

In the session, Olson covered how technology can be used to minimize costs and risk factors as well as how to maximize revenues. The hour-long discussion also addressed how some of the challenges can be turned into significant ministry opportunities.

"Technology as it evolves, is something that is changing all of the time, which is why I like it so much, because nothing is ever the same," he added. "But the technology that we’ve been able to apply even today carries the hope to eliminate and reduce barriers for getting into the marketplace, or in making products available.” 

"Those technologies are helping to advance business and generate revenues, which is what people need to survive and be sustainable, but from a ministry standpoint, it is also empowering and equipping us to do some great things,” he said. 

Olson observed that when believers take some of the principles that make businesses successful, and combine them with the power of God and what He’s doing in getting the gospel out, the sky is the limit on who that message can reach.

He urged attendees to ask questions like, “Who are we partnering with?” and “How are we leveraging technology?” Then, he asserted, we can expect good things to happen.

Rachael Hartman of Our Written Lives, which offers book publishing services to independent authors, found the session useful in her business.

“I wanted to attend the session because I wanted to find out how I can work with my international clients and figure out things like, ‘How can I have their books printed for them in their country, reasonably priced?’ ‘How can I publish them through my American business if they don’t have a Social Security number or a U.S. federal ID?' "

Hartman feels "very limited" in her work because of some of these factors. 

“I am trying to bridge the gap and find out how to get some of my books out into the world, and how to help some of my authors,” she said.

After the session, Hartman said she walked away with a sense of hope.

Kailey Bradley founder of Books for MKs, said she is interested in the technology aspect from the session because she wants to increase her blog’s subscriber base, produce appealing content and learn more about how to organize her blog.

Bradley, who is bilingual, also wants to create a Spanish blog.

“I’m thinking about branching out into more Latin American literature and the reading culture of Latin America, which is totally different than it is in the States,” she said.

Bradley, who grew up as a missionary kid, said she never had much to read on the mission field. Now she donates books to missionary kids all over the world through her ministry.

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