by Nancy Lai

Today we started the mid-market and Kayamandhi consultations. The 26 of us have been split into two groups: Stacie, Claudia, Jennifer Campbell and kids Nathan, Rachael, David, and Lauren, and Barb went into Kayamandhi. The rest of us greeted our clients around 8:30 am and got going with Impact Assessments (before lunch) and Purpose, the first P (after lunch).

In the mid-market group, I have been paired with Ronel von Tonder, an Afrikaans woman who owns a company that provides human resources services to public (i.e. municipalities) and private organizations. She’s really neat and I felt that we connected very well. I was excited that she was a woman entrepreneur and is really seeking to use her business to serve God. Other clients include a 107 year old-bag production company (paper and plastic), a fruit exporter, a web applications shop, a property developer, and others. Each client got to introduce her/his company while sharing the results of the Impact Assessment - a "spiderweb" that shows where the gaps are between the importance and performance of each of the 10 drivers of impact (affectionally known as the Ps). S&C Agency gave a particularly touching account that he’d always wanted his business to serve God but had felt recently that he was drowning and didn’t know what to do with his business. We also reviewed what God’s 10-P profile is and how everything that He is doing on earth can be put on the framework with which we look at businesses.

Two clients were not able to make it today because of crises in their companies. While we’re praying that God is able to make a way for them to join us tomorrow, Molly was temporarily paired with Elsa (SA Consultant) and the fruit exporter client today and it seemed like a good team. Ryan was the other client-less consultant for today but was able to assist in other ways.

We wrapped up around 4:30 pm. My client mentioned that this was one of very few times that she has actually prayed in English. Other groups also finished in prayer. Scorecards were introduced. Many clients walked away having had a very positive impression thus far and a sense of a lot of good stuff to noodle over.

The Kayamandhi team started its day around 10 am.  Apparently the building they were in was so cold they will be bringing their room heaters with them tomorrow! About 13 different business/ideas were represented, with 8 of them returning from the April 2004 venture, including the cabinet maker, the bead maker, and the caterer. We’re learning that our Western processes of linear progression don’t necessarily apply to a Xhosa people who have been disenfranchised and disemployed for so long. There are matters of motivation, culture, perceptions that need to be pressed through. The team has much hope though for the increasing wisdom they are gaining on how to minister to this community.

Prayer Requests:

1) For God to remove the obstacles that will be distracting clients over the next two weeks (scheduling conflicts, crises, etc.). For many of them the equip session comes at a critical juncture in their businesses and so Satan is doing his best to destroy this. We want the two missing clients to be able to make it tomorrow, too but do trust that

2) For listening, hearing hearts in tune with God. Some of us have impressions of some issues that God may want to be bringing up for our clients but we need confirmation and/or God to reveal that to the clients. We want to be speaking out God’s ideas, and not our own good ideas.

3) For the Kayamandhi team’s efforts to be faith-building and motivating. For God to increase our wisdom of what it takes to minister in this community.