Welcome!

Welcome to Heavy Things Lightly by John Heers and First Things Foundation. That’s a lot of words. Here’s what they mean: You are reading words that First Things Foundation, and its founder, John Heers, are proud to share.

And what is First Things? It is a non-profit that works on four continents serving local folks stuck in deep poverty. We take a bet that if you listen to local people, and you stay with them, eating local food and getting local diseases and learning the local language (not just the colonial language), well, if you do these things you will find amazing people who know what it takes to make their community flourish. We call these people impresarios. We consult with these people on their best ideas, build their capacity to grow and then connect them to resources. All kinds of resources. We are missionaries but not the kind you think of right off the bat. We are service-minded, Old World-leaning, lovers of creativity and authentic development. We are practitioners of sacrifice. And the sacrifice? Our field workers leave their lives and spend two years far from home, living in mud huts and family abodes, imbibing the life of those we aim to serve (currently we are in the Republic of Georgia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Guatemala).

I will post once a month, and then invite you to discuss the subject matter with me on a monthly Zoom meeting (scroll to the end for more on that). We will talk a lot about history and philosophy, theology and economics, and we will use an Old World Christian chassis to make sense of it all.

Our goal is to bring you deep insights on the Old World in order to understand the New. And understand we must, because it is a world with sharp teeth and powerful jaws, and if we don’t pay attention, it will eat us all alive. May this offering do something like… help. May it bring something like alignment into heart and home. And so… welcome to the Heavy Things Lightly Substack, by John Heers and First Things Foundation. 

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This "Enlightened" New World utopia isn't turning out to be all it was cracked up to be. With an air of levity and a touch of humor, John Heers teaches how to examine the confusing New World by calling upon the mind and wisdom of oft-forgotten Old.

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Writer, founder, entrepreneur and guy trying to offer the world extreme hospitality and a remembrance that old things breathe life into the new.