By Amy Cheng

US consultants (Amy, Dianne, Elisabeth, Linh, Melissa, Sheren, Eric, Scott, Fady on the way) and US Team leaders (Kim, Kevin, Lyn, Brett) arrived safely in Cape Town. Praise God! We are all staying at the Bell Rosen hotel in the northern part of the city.

We conquered jet lag by actively sightseeing all day Saturday. We traveled along the coast by car (on the left side of the road) to different parts of the Cape. We visited Camps Bay, Hout Bay, had lunch at Simon’s Town, and visited the famous Cape of Good Hope.

This beautiful land is surrounded by the Atlantic (cold water) and Indian Oceans (warm, shark-ladden waters). We even saw penguins! Can you believe it? The climate is much like San Francisco’s – warm and sunny during the day and cold and windy at night. Cape Town is gorgeous with Dutch architecture, blue water, sandy beaches, and the impressive 3000-foot Drakensberg Mountain Range as a backdrop. Simply breathtaking. (Please click the pictures below.)

The diverse South African people are very warm and typically speak several languages, including Afrikaans, which uses different vowel pronunciations than English. Moreover, some English words and phrases are very different. For example, “Turn left at the next robot” translates to “Turn left at the next traffic light.” South Africans use the word cutlery and not silverware. The word for “thank you” sounds like “buy-a-donkey.”   And, the South Africans love their beef biltong (beef jerky)!

Our day was culturally rich, meeting African street vendors from other countries such as Kenya and Malawi as well as people born and raised in town. It is fun for us to learn South African expressions and more importantly, we are reminded that we are on a different continent and should be open to cross-cultural experiences with different peoples.

By Amy Cheng

The US team visited a church in the black township of Kayamandi and had an incredible, unforgettable experience. The pictures below are telling of the township’s poverty.

We were each warmly welcomed by the congregation with a wave and greeting. The songs and sermon were spoken in both Xhosa (pronounced Klauser while doing a click in the mouth) and English! It is amazing to hear people speak with the clicks and nearly impossible to repeat what they’ve said.

Interesting comparisons: The vibrant singing worship is uplifting, encouraging, and alive; it makes you want to clap and dance. Although the church building was small, the people filled the space with loud singing. The men sit separately from the women in different sections. Everyone wears his Sunday best. Women typically wear skirts and some wear specific uniforms for service, like these white and blue outfits with hats. The congregation really cares for their community, conducting after-church visits to families who could not attend due to illness or bereavement. If only we could take time to visit people in need in our communities…

In the afternoon, the US team met and mingled with the South African (SA) team at a picnic at Spier winery, where our leaders Kim and Kevin got engaged. A consulting team will consist of a mixture of US and SA people with complementary skills. Although from two very different countries, we all share the common purpose of serving the Lord and our clients. Our leaders prayed over matching us with our 10 clients that range from micro entrepreneurs to middle-market companies. We prepared analyses for our first client session. We begin tomorrow.

By Elisabeth

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right… think on these things…”

Today was our first day with our clients, finally! We spent a lot of time thinking and working with our clients regarding running a business according to biblical principles. Day One of training was jam-packed for the ten clients: new ideas about business as missions, the convergence of calling and career, and the purpose of business.

If you’ve seen the movie “Monsters Inc.,” you’ll have a very clear sense of what “re-purposing” means. Remember what the monsters discovered would be better than children’s screams? Not only did the monsters get a better “product” out of children’s laughter (more voltage), they ended up with friends and a better sense of who they were. We worked with our clients to discover how God wants to re-purpose businesses here in South Africa.

A few quotes from our day:

Purpose of businesses: “We can glorify God corporately (as a business) better than we can as individuals”

Hearing God: “God speaks to you in your own accent”

The Bike: “the wheels of competence and character must work together to move forward”

The consultants are already seeing how well-matched we are with our client companies. While matching decisions may have been made because of industry or leadership style, God has more intimately integrated these partnerships. It will be exciting to see these partnerships blossom in future days…

By Linh Dang

“I am a fool for Jesus! Whose fool are you?”

Today was an unstructured day for us. This means the consultants (both USA and SA consultant) visited our clients’ location. Our goal for today was to understand our clients’ Place, People and Process. Allen Pike, Melissa Hendricks and I visited our client’s location. What a great opportunity to see our client, Danie in action, to meet his employees and understand how the business operates. We were also able to visit one of the client’s site.

From left to right: Front of Fidders, Passage Wall and Portchie Gallery.

Fidders is a Christian base business that is completely dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ. The employees greet you warmly as you enter the door with the sign “God Bless You Today”. Fidders wants to ensure that everyone who walks in and out of the store is blessed. A feast for your heart is a wall full of bible verses located in the staff lounge area. It’s amazing how you can totally feel God’s presence in this work place. This lighting shop, redolent of bush tea, is location down a touristy yet quaint street depicting contentment - makes you want to stay there all day. Alas, we had to leave. But before we did, we made a quick stop at Portchie’s to view Danie handy work. The artist wanted the ceiling to portray the sky at night, so Danie had blue lights add along with small light bulbs distributed randomly to represent the stars.

A small group (Sheren, Elizabeth, Kim and Suellen) had a great treat of touring Kayamandi. They visited a lady who makes maps in her home, poured their love on sweet adorable kids at a daycare in Kayamandi and stopped by the House of Hope where beads are beautifully handcrafted into greeting cards.

At the end of the day, we are blessed and enriched with a strong relationship with our new friends in South Africa.

By Eric

Day 2 of our ‘structured’ day definitely had a buzz about it. Things are warming up as the comfort level between clients/consultants grows and the clients getting increasingly more comfortable with the format and structure of the equip way. Plus, I think we are getting used to each other’s accents for the most part, with the exception of the ‘pearl’ moment (my apologies for the inside joke reference to the folk that weren’t there).

Brett’s nephew, also Brett, got our day off to a great start by leading us in praise and worship. We also had the privilege of meeting the rest of the Johnson’s, sister, sister and the next generation.

There were a few ‘A-ha’ moments as the clients started applying this paradigm shift/new way of workplace ministry thinking to their business. One was when a client realized that his household at work (which was the employees and their families) consisted of about 2000 people! Quite a sphere of influence.

A parting scripture from the day’s work: And He said, “My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest” – Exodus 33:14.