Today we had final consultations with clients in half-hour slots. At night we had a debriefing meeting where we reviewed each client’s top prayer requests. We have 13 companies from Cape Town and 13 micro-enterprises from the township of Kayamandhi. Tomorrow, all 26 will share what God has placed on their hearts, and after each presentation we’ll have prayer and commissioning time for each one.
 
Please pray for relationships to develop between the companies so that they can support one another and be allies in business, and also that they would make themselves accountable to other Kingdom-minded businesses on a monthly basis.
 
Personally, I am encouraged by how much believers here are dedicated to making a positive impact in society and uplifting the underpriveleged through their businesses and volunteer efforts. It’s a great example to us in America. Also it’s been a big blessing to have 4 kids on the team from ages 6 to 11 (Lauren, David, Rachel, and Nathan). They’ve brought a lot of spontaneity, fun, and hugs to everyone here, and it’s made a huge intangible impact on all of us. I can’t imagine how things would’ve been like without them.

Today was an extremely busy day with the clients. We covered three Ps: profit, planning, and place. In addition, Steve and Eric did some teaching off of the Equip training slides (which introduced some stylistic variety, though we do love listening to Brett!). Jeremy covered applicable verses from the book of Proverbs, while Nicole, Nancy, and Philip went over the corresponding parables.  Molly talked from her personal experiences at The River Community Church, and related it to the significance of place. Lyn also shared at least two stories; among them was one on the Creative Memories organization in the marketplace and the other on why we need to value people over place. The latter story stuck out to me. It was about a priest who altered his chapel facilities on a leper colony in Hawaii to accommodate the needs of these people whom he was ministering to.

Last but not least, a former client from last October’s South Africa Equip program came to speak to us about his personal experiences in the actual implementation process that followed. It was quite encouraging, considering the fact that many of our clients right now are feeling rather overwhelmed by the training and by their convictions in how to repurpose and reposition their respective businesses. Please pray that the framework we have been teaching will slowly come together in meaningful ways for each person, and that God will guide each client to prioritize items that need changing with discernment. Pray that these short-term insights will materialize into long-term sustainable transformation that will then affect the communities and spheres of influence for each participating business.

After client training, we had a casual dinner at our home base.  Some consultants stayed in the Conference Room with some young South African Christian professionals visiting from Meadowbridge (a local church) to talk about the work and faith convergence topic.

Today was an unstructured day, which provided a few of us the opportunity to visit Robben Island Prison. Fellow U.S. Consultant’s Claudia, Larry, and I headed out to the waterfront near downtown Cape Town. It was a short 20-30 minute drive from our lodging in Bellville. Once there, we met up with U..S. Consultant Molly and an employee of her Client. From the waterfront, we boarded a cruiser that held about 150 passengers and headed out to the island, which was about a 20 minute boat ride. Once on the island, we took a short walk to the premises of the prison.

Robben Island is a small island off the coast of Cape Town that has a brutal history of oppression and isolation. It is most famous for serving as the home of Nelson Mandela for 18 years, as well as many other political prisoners during the reign of Apartheid. Before they opened the prison in the 1964, they utilized this island to isolate lepers, criminals and other undesirables, including strong minority leaders for “repurposing”. Unfortunately, they were not teaching these leaders the 10 P’s or to follow Christ. After 27 years of terror, Robben Island was closed in 1991 when apartheid ended and all political prisoners were set free. Shortly thereafter, Nelson Mandela took over the Presidency of the country in 1994, and shortly thereafter the island was turned into a museum.

This was a very special treat for me, as I am an avid fan of Nelson Mandela.. A few years back, I read his autobiography, “Long Walk To Freedom”, and actually wrote and performed a one man show about his experience as a prisoner on Robben Island. This afforded me some additional insight to what I saw and heard on the tour.. We learned on the tour that over a dozen different countries were represented in our tour group. The tour was led by a former inmate in the prison. The whole experience was very inspirational and gave all of us a great deal of insight into the history of South Africa and the huge role this small island played.

The rest of the team either met with their clients or led other excursions on this day, but when we came back we all got together for a worship session that lasted approximately two hours. This event took place in Lyn and Brett’s room. It was an incredibly powerful experience, as we focused our prayers on South Africa as a country and our clients, on an individual basis, and as a whole.

All in all, it was a wonderful day of fellowship and learning. Thank you God!
 
Sincerely,

Eric Lochtefeld

Yesterday was spent relaxing in the Hex Valley region in the De Doorns Homestead. We walked through the vineyards, tasted "new wine", and ate goat’s cheese and olives. We witnessed a successful mentorship/partnership between a farm owner and a formerly disadvantaged black lady who started a thriving sewing business with the farmer’s help in a formerly empty building on the farm. This was definitely a result of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and seems to be a model that can be reproduced. Below is a link to the farmhouse.

http://www.farmstay.co.za/Guesthouse_Details.asp?guest_id=14

All enjoyed the day. The Campbell’s kids ran, explored, played tag, and went down a tree slide on a wire. Mike Ho gave several of the girls rides on a dirt bike around the vineyards. I wrestled with both of the Campbell boys until I was out of breath. In the afternoon, we were fortunate enough to get a preview of a new restaurant. The food was only surpassed by the beauty of the surrounding mountains.

After lunch, we drove back to the B&B for a rest before going to church. Half of the team went to a Dutch reform church while the other half went to Brett’s brother’s church. The service at the Dutch reform church was given in Afrikaans. We could not understand much of what we heard, but we the message was clear in the end.  Worshiping our Lord in any language is an awesome experience.

We ended the evening with Steer’s burgers and a brief for Monday – the first day of our sessions with clients. I reviewed the material we would be covering and went to bed early to get a good night’s rest.

Today was a full day. We went through two Ps and had two incredible speakers - Michael Cassidy (Africa’s Billy Graham) and Michael Louis (there’s nothing like him or his family in the US really). The former gave us challenges as to the 7 Giants that South Africa (and frankly many other nations) have to face in this new Promised Land: Racial Reconciliation, Aids, Economic disparities were among the few that come to mind. What touched me most about his comments was how he so eloquently put forth a truth about one issue both our nations have in common and that’s the one around racial reconciliation. He said that most White North Americans and White Africans cannot understand the depth of pain that African Americans and Black Africans still feel as a result of the past. He eluded to the fact that the past is not the past if the hurt is still present - a breath of fresh air for me to hear from someone else. It was particularly encouraging to hear him not skirt around the issue (the big elephant standing in the middle of the room) and to watch the courage it took for him to say that truth. Kingdom-bound, he is.

Our second speaker was Michael Louis, 3rd generation businessman heading up a family and business 90 years old. There were a couple of points he raised that had the major impact on me. The first was the need to understand what season you are in spiritually and live it to the full - no matter what it is (desert or Canaan). Additional encouragement for me not to desire to skip any steps because God’s ministering in our lives is what gets us ready for His purposes. His final comments about fearing to work with your family was particularly convicting - he made the point that is says very little about you when you feel you can’t work with them. He did, however, cautioned that they must be spiritually ready for such a partnership. It re-opened some old doors I thought I closed long ago about a family-run business. Looks like - yet again - God is turning some long held notions of mine on its head again. Can’t wait to see what paradigm shifting is up for me next :). BRING IT ON, LORD!

Because of the flexible schedule, most people got a chance to catch up on their scorecards, catch up with each other over lunch, or even catch up on sleep with a nap! This was also the day that some of us discovered Woolworth’s. Woolworth’s in South Africa is a high end grocery store very similar to Whole Foods. Yes, it’s owned by the same parent company as the Woolworth’s in the US, but definitely a different kind of store. We’re lucky enough to have one within walking distance of our hotel. They have amazing produce which keeps our fruit hungry team members happy. They also have yummy pasta salads, rotisserie chicken and cookies! We will definitely spend a lot of time (and money) in this store.

Prayer requests include:

• Continued opportunity to fellowship and get to know each other on the team
• Insight into our client’s business
• Rest and health for our team
• Abundant blessings on our clients whle they are away from their businesses
  

This is my first trip to South Africa, and I am thoroughly enthralled with this country! The Cape Town area is breathtakingly beautiful. There are, of course, many reminders of the legacy of aparteid. And yet there also seems to be a sense of optimism about the future. I’m excited to be here - each day brings new discoveries.

I am part of a team of three Americans and four South Africans serving a group of clients in the township of Kayamandi. We are working with a dozen men and women who currently have or intend to start small businesses. We are using a simplified version of the "10-P" methodology being used by our colleages working with mid-market companies. At times we struggle with language difficulties - two of our clients do not know English, and our SA friends tell us our American accent is hard to understand (what accent??!). Nevertheless, we have had two sessions now with good participation. I am deeply touched by our spiritual connection with these lovely folks as they contemplate how their businesses can glorify God and uplift their community.

As part of today’s work, each entrepreneur wrote a brief purpose statement for his/her business. I’d like to share a few of them in their words:

Victor (remind me to tell you about this pillar of the community): "To render quality service by hiring (renting out) tents, chairs, pots, and gas stoves, with the intention of serving the community and the Lord." Note: These items are needed by families in Kayamandi for family events, such as weddings, and sadly, all too frequently for funerals.

Margaret: "To create a warm place that is a welcoming home, to create jobs for others, and to share God’s love." Note: Margaret currently runs a simple catering business (again, often providing food for funeral gatherings) and wants to convert her modest home into a B & B geared toward foreign students.

Teboho: "To meet a community need and create some jobs for other people, and share skills so God is glorified." Note: Teboho is a trained carpenter who cannot find work in his field. Although he has a few simple hand tools, and a relative who has offered the use of his garage as a workshop area, he lacks a set of power tools.

Today was a very busy and productive day. The morning started with a workout and short run before the bad weather rolled in. When the clouds moved in, Paul (The owner of the B&B) stated, "A nasty personality was coming over the mountains. I love the way the Africans talk in colorful metaphors.

After breakfast, we went to Kayamandi (the village we have been working in). We were met by the team leaders there and discussed the plans for our work along with cultural issues. The main point we focused on was that many transient missionary teams do more harm than good by showing up, handing out blankets and Bibles, and having people accept Christ without affecting change in the culture to help Christians adjust to the change Christ brings into their life. Of course, we believe that we may have the answer in equip with our long-term consistent approach, but as we said today, it will take a long time and we will continue to learn every day.

This afternoon we met with the South African business consultants and after a bit of team building were given our assignments. My company will be a computer training and IT startup company. I am excited about this challenge.

This evening, we had a quick dinner, and then I worked on the wireless network and fixed 6 or 7 laptops for the team (I hate desktop support!) Well, at least everyone’s computers are done, for now anyway.

I am one of the designated drivers for the team and yesterday I accidentally hit a curb when pulling over. I lost a hubcap and feel bad about this, as they are all new cars. It is quite difficult, getting used to driving on the wrong side. The most difficult thing is judging how far over you are from the left curb while driving from the right seat.

The weather outside is very stormy and cold – much like winter in San Francisco. I will wrap up to stay warm tonight.

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.