The morning started with a great breakfast and an exciting game of Jello in the car. For those who don’t know (which included me until this morning), Jello is a game where whenever you take a right turn, the person nearest to that side gets crushed by everybody in the back seat and vice versa for the left side. Needless to say, I was glad to be sitting in the front seat on this Cape Town morning!

Our devotion was from Isaiah 6:1-8. Isaiah had entered the throne room, and said he was doomed because of his sin, but when he was commissioned, his response was, “Here I am. Send me.” (v.8) We were struck by the parallels across scripture on the concsistent descriptions of the throne room and encouraged by Isaiah’s response to his comissioning.

After singing praises to the Lord, we went into the material for one of the last Ps, planning. We explored the scriptures and wrestled with the balance between our plans and God’s plans. The directive was to align with God’s plans, because then all our plans will succeed as stated throughout Proverbs and other books of the Bible.

We heard today from 3 more leaders who’s main focus was the redemption, restoration and restitution for the first people group of the nation, the Khoi. They all came with unique perspectives, and I must admit at being challenged by some of the talks and clips from the day. There are many reasons and opportunities to pray, and all bring us closer to the Lord. Praise God for the challenges and the encouragement alike!

The final process P was covered after this. Straightforward,we focused on optimization and creating systematic and sustainable processes for businesses and organizations. We spent some time scorecarding and had a great lunch.

Today we also had the opportunity to focus on Hospitality.There is a hospitality team on each venture and we relished in the opportunity to bless them through song. “Give thanks with a grateful heart, Give thanks to the Holy one, Give thanks, for he has given Jesus Christ, his son…”

Altogther, a lovely day. We spent some time scorecarding and looking ahead to Friday, when the clients will be delivering their final presentation. Praise the Lord for the completion of the P’s! We look forward to hearing soon about all the marketplace miracles and the way the Lord has moved in the hearts and businesses of all our clients!

-Taneh

We had visioning sessions for a handful of clients today. Much was revealed for each, I was told, and from what I gather, God-size visions were realized! More of that to be shared on the last day as clients give their presentations.

The other big part of the day was the meeting of the Khoi “Big 4” aka The Group. The Group has a heart to restore the Khoi people. This means restoration spiritually, socially, economically, and environmentally. The meeting was to see the progress of each of the four in the rep process and to make sure all are on the same page concerning purpose.

Well, God had other plans.

Unless God builds the house, the builders labor in vain.

God moved in the hearts of the people involved in The Group. Those present stood in place of their white forefathers repenting and asking forgiveness of the Khoi as represented by a Khoi pastor. Tears flowed. Hearts were mended. Bonds were broken. Relationships were restored.

How beautiful it was to see people of apartheid embrace and bless one another. How beautiful to see business people with hearts to help those they were once told to stay away from. And to see the Khoi people bless and release these businesses to proceed, which was the foundation the Lord wanted to lay down.

: D E N Y

Today was another “structured” day. We began the morning at our usual start time of 8AM with a morning devotional and then worship at 8:30AM with the clients. It was a great time of worship; we did a mix of worship via video and acapella style led by our “Miriams” – Karen and Taneh. Go girls! I feel that the acapella style is much more powerful with everyone joining in unison and singing and you just feel God’s presence in the air.

After worship, we started our day - instead of covering only 1-2 “P”s per day, our clients learned about 3 “P”s: Profit, Place, and Partnering. I found Profit the most interesting when the speaker talked about giving first fruits and tithing, which are separate and distinct. First fruits should go to those who spur you to increase – the prophet in your life. You give it to him/her/them and gift gives you “insurance” on your business. The gift of tithing enables the opening up of heaven for you.

When we covered Place, another person shared his testimony and I liked his acronym – SEE (significant emotional event). He said that for him, before miracles happened, SEEs had to happen first. He changed himself first.

Then under Partnering, networking was one of the areas we covered. We found out If you break the word apart, you get “net” and “work”. If you visualize it as a fisherman, you use a net to catch many fish instead of just one and then it takes the work of many to bring in the net to the shore. If it gets too hard, more people join in to help, some not even expecting any repayment.

We also handed over the traditional “ugly” shirt from client to consultant – Deny. There is this traditional where a client/consultant wear an “ugly” shirt to build up the team bonding during the venture. Fortunately for me, since I got the pleasure to wear it on Friday, the shirt is not too “ugly,” pretty colorful and maybe we can even call it a “pretty” shirt. ;)

On the food side, me being a foodie. =) It was another great lunch, the same lady that catered our lunch on Friday, cooked again for us and it was yummy! We had lamb (with no gamey taste), sweet potatoes, creamy broccoli, and malva pudding (like sweet bread pudding with sauce). I should be taking pictures of the food. hehehe

Thank you for all your continued prayers! Team is doing well with unity and working on our deliverables. It will be a busy week. We are making history in natural, spiritual, and supernatural realm and will take our learnings back with us! Praise God!

-Helen =)

Today we get an extra hour and a half of sleep and only have to wake up at 7:30AM. Only.

We wake up and trudge off to breakfast. At first, all the normal things…yogurt, granola, cereal…and then Rooibos tea, sausage, and tongue. Apparently Rooibos tea comes from a prickly red bush comprising a bunch of spindly stalks. They drive over it tractors which pinches the stalks causing them to bleed their essence. After being dried out in the sun, they are processed into smaller bits that you can then steep. Although I’ve had Rooibos in the US, I only come to appreciate the taste and various benefits. Rooibos has an extremely high level of antioxidants, does not contain caffeine, and I really like how you can steep it for a long time because it has no tannin.

On the weekends we have a cold breakfast which still includes a great deal of meat. On the weekdays we’ve had some amazing breakfasts starting with a course of fruit consisting of a mixture of papaya, lychee, strawberries, passion fruit or granadilla, and various other fruits.We eat some gooseberry or orange & aloe spreads along with fresh cream better and bread.Wealso have a meat course which varies between lamb sausages, ham, sausage & asparagus savory crepes with a cheese sauce. Along side we have some nice cheese sauces as well.

After meeting up with everyone else, we drive out to the Capetown waterfront and do some sightseeing and shopping. It is now time to look around, relax, and find small gifts for some of our supporters at home. The malls are modern with an assortment of many higher end stores you would see in the US. A group of us walk around the mall and find a nice restaurant. One thing that we’ve particularly enjoyed in South Africa is the calamari. It is so tenderful and flavorful that I’ve tried to eat it at almost every meal since my first taste. The calamari in the US is rubbery by comparison and it will never be the same for me again. As we head back to our cars, we bring out our umbrellas to fend off the incoming rain only to have them collapse by unusually strong gusts of wind. One of our number has to wrestle his umbrella into submission but it ends up warping under the strain of the wind.

Continuing with our day of relaxation, we head over to Groot Constantia, the oldest winery in South Africa. It is old and famous enough that apparently Jane Austen mentions the wines of this place in some of her books. This tradition continues as we peruse walls displaying the latest trophies coming from international competitions and other art.The wineswe taste arewell balanced though maybe not as intense as some California varietals. We pause for a moment to buy a couple bottles of medal winning wine not available for tasting before heading outside to look around.

As far as I can tell, South Africa is a land with many different types of terrain. Always off in the distance there are mountains with their heads in the clouds.These mountains seem to jut out of a terrain of gently rolling hills and plains showing the different textures and patterns of the crops planted on them. The vineyard pattern surrounding us is reminiscent of Napa valley in California minus the majestic backdrop of mountains. As we walk the property, we become absorbed in takingvarious photos of ourselves against this scenery and exploring the land around us.There are various buildings echoing the architecture of an era long gone made all the more striking by the weather. Though the day is overcast, the sun bursts out of cloud cover at various intervals creating a deeper constrast between light and dark. The constant feel and sound of the wind is broken up by the cries of a small dog guarding his property as we pass by.

The relaxation of the day is in contrast to the intensity of the week. I’ve spent everyday of the week (including unstructured days) with my client, delving into his business and personal life in order to understand him. We’ve had intense debrief sessions each day to examine different clients andask advice from some of the more experienced trainers. Over the week, we’ve seen people grow as they learn to connect to their clients and South African co-consultants. Though I am going solo as a consultant on this venture,the help of experienced roving consultants has beenreadily available. Perhaps we started out a little frazzled as a group early in the week as we sought to get our minds around thework facing our clients. However, it is amazing how well we are matched to our clients. We’ve seen some people start out meek and gain confidence over the week in their manner. I know that I’m learning to become freer and less formulaic in my prayer as I become closer to some of the concerns of my client. Things aren’t perfect but neither should they be if we are to growwithout stricture into a structure set by God. And yet, the intensity of the week is affecting us all differently. Some consultants seem to be energized by the lack of sleep and others (me) are beginning to pass out quite easily at night. And sothe release of this Saturday is needed by all for different reasons

It is a good day.

-Mike