Our last Saturday in South Africa! After a very intense 2 weeks, we made a little escape to De Doorns, a small farming / vineyard village about an hour and a half outside of Cape Town. We began with a 2-hour train ride along the historic train route in open train cars pulled by a tractor. Our journey took us to a countryside setting in Hexpas, where we had a picnic lunch complete with Biltong (South African version of beef jerky). We also had the chance to interact with some very hospitable ostriches and peacocks residing on the premises.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in a historic landmark 1786 Cape Dutch farm house owned by Lindsay and Rowan Jones, close friends of Lyn Johnson. Their home was stunning, with beautiful native woods and furnishings that seemed right out of a photo shoot. We had the privilege of celebrating 2 major life events together as a group: baby Joshua’s dedication (the firstborn of Kim and Kevin from the US team) and Lindsay’s 50th birthday. Afterwards, we walked back to the family winery to learn a little about wine making and sample the ‘fruits of their labor’ (pun intended). Overall, a delightful day.

On Sunday, most of the US team was either on their way back home or had moved on to the next phase of their travels (Amy and Eric headed off to a 16-day safari in Botswana, while Kevin, Kim, baby Joshua, and Sue Ellen stayed in town to spend time with friends). Sheren, Elisabeth, and I had one more day to play, so we headed over to Fairy Glen (about an hour outside of Cape Town)for a day-long safari. Our guide, Rory, spoke a mile a minute, filling our ears with everything from animal stories to musings on South African society. We were fortunate to once again have a beautiful day of intense African sun, allowing for exceptional viewing of the animals. Over the course of the day, we saw several zebra, multiple varieties of buck, a herd of wildebeest, a white rhinoceros, giraffes (our favorite!), some year-old lion cubs being held temporarily in captivity, and a few other species I can’t recall. The highlight for me was the white rhinoceros, which was literally right outside of my side of the truck as we slowly eased up to it. It is an amazing thing to be next to an animal of such strength! Our safari ended with lunch and some time relaxing outside, enjoying the breathtaking views and reflecting on our time in South Africa. I don’t think any of us were quite ready to leave that beautiful land!

How do you measure change? How do you single out one point in time when a culture shifts, when hearts are repositioned? It is hard to say, and we also know that this program has been just one element of God’s master design for South Africa. But today, Clients were able to crystallize some of the repurposing, rebuilding, and reconciling that had begun…

They described previous viewpoints of business as a personal domain, and as a place to protect oneself. Many clients discussed how understanding God’s purpose for their business has enabled them to feel the freedom to walk more fully as a husband, a business executive and a minister. Convergence!

Presentations also were peppered with some hopeful suggestions for the elusive “eleventh P,” of course! Others noted that before equip, they were 70% interested in committing the business to the Lord, but now are 100%.

Many companies mentioned that repurposing meant including employees as part of the household that God has given them. This changes their responsibilities to care for, mentor and build into employees. Others began to view wives as part of the business and part of the business ownership structure. In fact, this became one of the dominant themes of the day, affecting not only the clients and their wives, but consultants as well. Of the ten Ps we have covered over the two weeks, People clearly stands out as the most critical link. Because how we treat ourselves, our spouses, our employees, and those that God has put in our lives is a direct result of our understanding of how God treats us.

It is difficult to put into words the impact we witnessed today. It is difficult to describe the process God used to bring about such changes of heart and such changes in actions. Each of the client presentations was testament to the work of the Holy Spirit, especially between Wednesday and Friday morning. During some of the presentations, we turned to each other in wonder, asking “what happened in the past 48 hours?!” God wraps himself in mystery — “our ways are not His ways” – but what a blessing to spend today as witnesses to His process of repurposing us and establishing His kingdom here on earth.

Below - a few pictures of an African sunrise, consultants, our wonderful “Ma” who truly walks as a servant leader, and a potential client we’re trying to recruit for next September!

1. Melissa’s client (Freeline), Leon declared in front of her and Zaji (the SA Consultant) that Jesus is the CEO of his business and he asked for forgiveness of his past sins.

2. Elizabeth’s client (Malekit), Dominic had changed his vision. Instead of how he can change his company, but how his company can transform the city and the country.

3. Kevin’s client (Indibano Travel), David and Gary realized that their original purpose to start the company was totally repurposed. People are their purpose and not tourism. They were overwhelmed with that they have learned and they didn’t even concerned business and ministry and ministry as business.

Can you believe it? God works in His timing and when it’s the right time, it happens quickly! Watch out world, our equipped clients are going to rock your world!

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Luke 19:8

In the morning, the US consultants went on a brief historical tour of downtown Cape Town (the "Footsteps to Freedom City Walk"). Marge Vermaak, our knowledgeable tour guide, is a member of Brett’s brother’s church. Starting near the House of Parliament and the High Court (the equivalent of the US Supreme Court), we strolled through the grounds of the Company Gardens, which were established by The Dutch East Indian Company in the 1650s. From there we drove to District 6, an area of Cape Town that once housed a culturally diverse group of some 60,000 residents. Starting in the 1960s, all the houses were bulldozed and the residents relocated to other areas in the city determined solely by their skin color (although a number of the discrimination laws were dismantled in the 1980s due to economic sanctions and other international pressures, it was not until the African National Congress came to power in the 1994 elections that Apartheid officially ended). We then stopped at the District 6 Museum, which contains artifacts and newspaper articles that chronicle the rise and fall of Apartheid, and more specifically its impact on the residents of District 6. Our tour guide was Noor, a 61-year old Muslim gentleman, who was raised in a house in District 6 that was built by his great grandfather. He recounted his story of helplessly standing on the street corner as his home was bulldozed.

From the museum, we raced to Signal Hill. With minutes to spare, we were able to watch (and hear) the daily noon firing of the cannon overlooking Cape Town Bay. This event commenced many years ago to enable ships in the harbor to set their clocks. Just prior to the firing of the cannon, we were advised to "stop your ears" to protect against hearing loss. Departing Signal Hill, we traveled to Bo-Kaap, the former Malay Quarters. This predominantly Muslim section of town is dominated by cobble-stoned streets and pastel colored homes and mosques.

Our final stop of the tour was Green Market Square, an open-air market with a collection of local vendors selling a variety of local African curios, where we practiced the time-honored tradition of attempting to negotiate a fair price for our purchases. While I can’t help but feel that we overpaid for our wares, we still ended up with many "treasures" for not much money. Following our shopping spree, part of the team headed to visit their clients while the rest of the team headed back to the Bell Rosen for a team building activity on (re)purposing oneself with Brenda de Chamoy.

The day concluded with a wonderful barbeque or braai (pronounced "bri") at the home of Charles and Rita Robertson. Snoek, a local white fish, was served. Charles is a developer and former equip client. He and Rita recently formed a charitable organization that is calling Christian business leaders to donate funds to provide restitution to those in South Africa who were disadvantaged by generations of discrimination.

Another highlight of the day was seeing Brett lead a visioning exercise.The purpose of the visioning exercise is to help the client recognize the impact their business can have for the Kingdom. The exercise demonstrated that a business’ influence extends beyond its immediate customers to include everyone the business comes in contact with. The rest of the clients will have a visioning session on Thursday.

Another highlight was Kim’s interview of Linh about her position at Stanford Hospital as an art curator.  Linh shared how she selects art work for the hospital and the impact that the art has on patients during their stay. This interview got several “a-ha’s” from the audience who had not thought too much about the concept of place before.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. It’s been amazing to see God at work here.

Our second Sunday found the team spreading out to reach 3 different churches. Linh, Elisabeth and I headed out with Brett to Summerset West, the probable location of the September ‘05 mission. On the way we passed the township of Khayelitsha which includes a stretch of shanties (tiny dwellings assembled from cardboard and whatever materials can be gathered) for about 10 minutes along the freeway. This community has half a million people, most of which are unemployed.

We joined 1000 other worshippers at the Dutch reform church we attended in Summerset West. Brett spoke to the congregation about the mission of equip, captivating several business men who stayed after to ask us about our experiences and learn how to sign up. Included in the service was the commissioning of a group of missionaries heading to Sri Lanka, a baptism ("doop") of 3 babies, and confirmation of 20 teenagers. Needless to say, we were late in leaving.

Our next appointment was with a group of business men in the area who hung on Brett’s stories enough to stay over an hour past the scheduled time. The gentleman next to me, Garrend, has a convenience store which is in the process of being transformed by God. Getting rid of the Lotto machine was a small step, but this Sunday was the first that the store was closed. If history holds the store will lose 55,000 rand (about $9K) every Sunday it’s closed and will go out of business over time. But Garrend and his wife Sarita have peace about this decision because they have no doubt it is God’s plan. We prayed over him and rejoiced in his decisions.

The plan was to all meet up and head out to Robbin Island for the afternoon, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during the apartheid era. Tours are given by ex-political prisoners who show guests around their old cells. There is also abundant wildlife on the island. Unfortunately this day storms started to rage, canceling our little adventure. So we opted for shopping and a night in for a change.

Cape Town has been in the middle of a disastrous drought. Since arriving we have been praying for rain to nourish the entire region. Little could we guess how abundantly these prayers would be answered. The skies opened, thunder and lightning exploded and hail larger than golf balls trampled the region. Looking out the window of our hotel we watched a raging river race down the street outside. Yes, we praised God! Our prayers then focused on extending this mighty breakthrough to include our clients and ourselves in the coming week.

Saturday morning: I cannot express how great it was to have a weekend staring us in the face!  The work completed over the past week has been encouraging but also intense as we moved from simply understanding the fundamentals of our clients’ businesses towards targeting areas for change and creating roadmaps for the process. So the thought of a day of play was thrilling!

We left in the morning for a hike up Table Mountain. It’s a flat top mountain that’s about 3,000 feet high in elevation, serving as a key orientation point since it can be seen from most parts of Cape Town. It’s a popular destination for tourists and locals alike, especially on days with blue sky and little wind such as we had on Saturday. A cable car runs from the foot of the mountain to the top, where visitors can see breathtaking views of the city and the surrounding oceans.

At the foot of the mountain, our group divided into sports enthusiasts (who took the cable car up in order to save time to catch a rugby match later in the day) and outdoor enthusiasts who chose to hike up the mountain (pictured in the photo). The hikers had a choice between two routes up the mountain: the ‘easy way’ and the ‘hard way.’ Given our attire, it was decided that we take the easy way and we began up the trail.

Shortly after the first trail head, the path became markedly steeper, heading through brush and into areas of trickier footing.  Wiping the sweat from my brow, I was humbled to think that for South Africans this was the easy way!  But alas, about 20 minutes into our route, we were informed that we were on the wrong trail for hikers and were directed back down the mountain to a trail head. And so we began again, this time up a more manageable route, and reached the top about 3 hours later. We lingered there for some time re-hydrating and snatching photos, such as the spectacular view shown here (compliments of Dianne!).

We then took the cable car down and headed for Camp Bay, a beautiful sand beach right within Cape Town where we grabbed some yummy gelato and took a stroll on the beach.  From there, we made a quick trip to the Waterfront to buy some fresh fish and headed to a ‘sushi making’ party that was co-hosted by one of the South African Equip consultants. It was a multi-cultural experience in the truest sense as Mike, one of our South African hosts, donned a Japanese shirt and together with Linh (a US consultant from Vietnam) guided us each in rolling our own sushi as Latin music played in the background.  Exhausted, with full stomachs, and with memories of a beautiful day in God’s playground swirling in our heads, we returned to the hotel and collapsed into some of the deepest sleep many of us have had since arriving.

Today equip covered two Ps (three if you want to include the People of Kayamandi!). The group has been gaining momentum with the Ps and how they relate and interrelate in a business context. Now with five of the 10 Ps under our belts, we have been able to talk with the clients about how these Ps intersect and create true impact. We can ask "If your business is positioned correctly before the Lord, how does that impact your business’ purpose?" "If your products are giving glory to God, who should you bring in as partners?"

Although each of the South African and American consultants have been through ten weeks of training, we are each having new revelations, and today was no exception. We had several consultants lead discussions and give presentations today. The consultant-led discussions brought up new elements that enabled us to see more ramifications of Christ as the true CEO.

After the consultation ended for the day, the US consultants made their way to the Kayamandi Township for an evening of food, friends, and fellowship. Led by Ma and David Pederson, who have both been working with some of the businesses and churches in the township, we joined with a local choir for the evening. And WHAT a blessing! The food ("fet kiek") was fabulous, but what nourished us most was the amazing music the choir made! We wish we could communicate to you the rich sound that the group of 15 generated — some songs in English, some songs in Xhosa, and each one truly in the Spirit. Although only the USA women were invited to join in with the dancing, deep deep down we know that the men wanted to join in too… After the singing, we made a large circle in the hall and joined together in prayer. I know that God is where two or more are gathered… but I think that He was especially blessed to have his diverse children — Afrikaans, Xhosa, African, and American — joining together in unity to pray in our native languages for the choir, for the businesses of Kayamandi, and for His will to be accomplished in South Africa.

Some quotes from the day:

Zaji: "Consumers position brands…. not marketers"
Izak: "We all have to learn our position in the Lord in our own way"
Elisabeth: "John 15:15 shows us that we’re not longer servants, we’re ‘junior partners’ in God’s business…"
Wiseman: "Now that you have come and spent time with us, now we are not only siblings in Christ, we are friends."

Please continue to join us in prayer: that the clients’ hearts would be open to hearing the Lord this weekend, that our leaders would be rejuvinated and rested each night (they are working via presentations and meetings straight through the weekend!!), and for our blessed brothers and sisters in Kayamani who are taking huge steps of faith.