Day 12 Wednesday, 1 July

Dried Fruit Sandwiches and other cultural icons!

Our program started at Joseph’s office at 9 with praise and worship and by around 10 most attendees have arrived.

Lyn explained what a repurposed society looks like according to Isaiah 59. David did a teaching on values. He explained the different values of and provoked a lively discussion on the different cultures within India itself as well as other countries like the USA. We also discussed changing society and family values. Everyone had to share how the team in Chennai can live according to the Bible based values of rēp.

Later, Michelle, for whom we had a celebration of prayer and blessings for her birthday, presented a session on communications. There were some lively interactive demonstrations on how communication can be more effective, by identifying filters and perceptions. She also facilitated discussion on how to resolve conflict or issues in team members’ relationships.

The latter part of the day we spent looking at the foundational principles. The rēp team members in Chennai raised a number of concerns and challenges they are currently experiencing. We hope it will be addressed in the coming two days.

This evening we went to the Anice Restaurant in the Taj hotel to celebrate Michelle’s birthday. We were quite overwhelmed to see the bling side of India, it felt out of place to arrive with an auto between all the Mercs and BMW’s. We played a game to get to know each other better and I was surprised that the restaurant didn’t ask us to leave we made such a racket.

The meal was fantastic and we had a lot of fun. We were also grateful that Debbie could join us after she had to go to the doctor for treatment for food poisoning.

Estelle

Day 11 Tuesday, 30 June

Breakfast as usual; Idly, Sambar, Chili omelet, Parotta to name but a few of the delicious dishes available in the breakfast buffet. The team joined the rest of Chennai in the traffic on the way to Joseph’s office; he graciously made his offices available as the training venue for the week.

Gerrit was lead by God to start the day speaking about love. The Father’s unconditional, unending love was poured out for each of us and His desire for us is to love one another with the same love – the love of Christ that is within us.

The exercise on Calling and Purpose was followed by a lively session on Lemon Leadership facilitated by Michelle. Kim’s discussions on purpose, vision and positioning also met with enthusiastic response.

After the day session Debbie, Shirleen, Michelle, Estelle and Gerrit traveled by auto to the local mall for shopping. Three hours of pleasure (for the ladies) and sacrifice (for the rest) resulted in bags of goodies and clothes finding the way back to the Beverley hotel.

Kim had her hands full with various interruptions once the feedback session got going after 8:30. First the ladies wanted to exhibit their newly acquired fashion attire, and then it was room service delivering meals and team members enjoying their dinner.

Finally we all agreed that the day belonged to the Lord and that he worked in wonderful ways to minister to all of us. We believe that we began to experience a spiritual breakthrough for the marketplace in Chennai.

GB

Day 10 Monday, 29 June

Winning recipe for the team

Q: What do India and Golden States Warriors (a professional basketball team in California) have in common?

A: They both love “Curry” (Warriors recently drafted Stephen “Curry” in the annual 1st round draft pick J.)

Recognizing the importance of “good picks” in the Kingdom of God, the rep India team is excited to kickoff the Leadership Development in Chennai. The purposes of the week-long training are to bless our local team by affirmations and understanding their needs; to provide personal assessments for spiritual growth; and to co-labor with them as leaders to establish a supportive community in India and become sending nation to many countries.

To champion the commitment for eternal impacts, rep comes up with a winning recipe for the team!

The “Golden Nuggets” Ingredients:

1) Nurture “a culture of honor”
Kim elaborates on the essence of nurturing “a culture of honor” and how it accents the values of rep to repurpose leaders and corporations to implement their calling to transform nations.

2) Share your testimonies and affirm each other
The attendees share their testimonies and pray for each other.

3) Integrate 10P and 10F in a converged lifestyle
Estelle facilities a personal assessment on 10F and encourages the team to work on the areas of improvement.

4) Operate under a “Spiritual Umbrella”
Lyn articulates on the latest concept from Brett on “Spiritual Umbrella”.

5) Live by Personal Calling with a defined Purpose Statement
Gerrit leads the team to explore their Personal Calling and Purpose Statements.

The team appreciates the care and the thoughts behind the Leadership Development program that rep designed and is excited to mix more key ingredients in the next four days – LEMON Leadership, Convergence, Leadership Maturity Model, Communication with love, uncompromising Values, and Foundation Principles. More importantly, we are all thrilled to see how God (aka our coach) will transform us to win more people in His Kingdom!

Go Team rep!
:-DK

Day 9 Sunday, 28 June

Sunday in Chennai

Our team split up on Sunday and a few stayed in the hotel to get some much needed rest. David had the opportunity to go with his client Ebenezer out to some of the villages where Ebenezer ministers to the local people. They took the train which was quite an experience!

Shirlene, Debbie, Giju and I accompanied Kim to a local church where she was the guest preacher. We were surprised when we saw a large banner outside the building with Kim’s photo on it and the words “Evangelist Kim” being announced. We were warmly welcomed and ceremonial shawls and garlands were placed around our necks. Kim preached on God being the source and shared truths about how we need to view money and resources from a biblical perspective and I had a chance to pray for the congregation. Afterwards we prayed for a number of people and were deeply impacted by some of the tragic stories we heard. We had lunch with the pastor and some members of the church.

Later in the day we had a chance to reconnect with some of our precious alumni. We are so grateful for the amazing, dedicated people that God has given us as friends and co-workers in India.

This next week is key as we spend time with the local team preparing them for the task ahead as they take on more of the responsibility.

Lyn Johnson

Day 8 Saturday, 27 June

Kingdom Economics Forum

Gerrit, Kim, Giju and Lyn did a great job with the presentations for Kingdom Economics. Even though it would have been awesome to have the conference room packed with new clients, I feel that the people who attended were greatly blessed by the content of the material. In total, there were about 20 people, traveling and local consultants included.

I enjoyed listening to the comments from the 4 guests sitting at my table. Many of them were especially touched by the testimonies. Gerrit was sharing about the differences between being the owner verses steward of money/properties, Estelle told us what happened to the car she had. One guest was touched by Estelle’s story of when her car was stolen one day and she immediately phoned her husband saying, “God’s car has been stolen.” It was convicting for that guest to hear how Estelle and her husband view everything as belonging to God. It wasn’t “her” car, but “God’s.”

One key take away for me comes from 1 Chron 29:11-12. It really challenges me to maximize flow through of money; bless as many people as possible with the money God is allowing me to manage.

Shirleen Ho

Day 7 Friday, 26 June

What a beginning to a wonderful Friday, with a time of devotion and worship filled with God’s tangible presence and a reminder of his faithfulness. We began our Client presentation with a renewed exuberance, with each confident client stepping in to testify & challenge themselves and each of us to go that extra mile for God.

The most talked about P’s from the presentations were people & profit; mostly in lines of mentoring the people and to work through profit processes to enhance contribution to Kingdom purposes. Most of the clients communicated their desire to contribute to societal transformation in a more focused manner and in terms of integrating societal transformation programs as one of their business initiatives (not separating it as someone else’s job).

One client in particular preferred to confirm rep’s ministry by drawing an Analogy with Jeremiah 38 : 7 as to how Businessmen in India are cast into the pit and are dying of hunger and that rep has been called to lift these men from the mire and the pit to set them on the path of their destiny for God.

After feasting on the typical Indian curry lunch, we decided to play with the leftovers, particularly with the ‘Fish bones”. Our ignorance was delivered, when we realized fish bones could be this useful, to understand the root cause to a problem or a myth. We drew deformed fish bones (some looked like road signs & Stone Age wall paintings) as a part of the analysis exercise and the revelations prompted us to draw up action items and strategies to beat up the giants.

The exhilarating presentation day ended as a closure to the first week of the blitz, in an atmosphere of gratitude to God and one another; and an expectation of the greater things to come.

In the evening, we saw an effective elder’s dinner, with a live wire presentation on rep. This time we trashed the fish bones after dinner. The invitees were positive in the response asking questions and queries.

God is faithful & we are seeing breakthroughs in lives as we labor together in the fields waiting for the HIS roll call. J

Giju

Day 6 Thursday, 25 June

Thursday, nearly midnight, we have just completed our last day at the client sites. As usual, after morning devotions, we all scattered in various directions to meet with our clients, their staff and to madly finish that which we purposed to do at the beginning of the week. For some, that meant working through any number of “P”s in their operating model, for others, it meant conducting/reviewing LEMON Assessments (Leadership styles) with our respective clients.

Despite English being the native tongue for many, accents and intonations vary and one must listen intently to grasp the full meaning of words being said. During one consultation this afternoon, miscommunication took place on a number of levels at an important management meeting. One gentleman (upon discovering his leadership style was that of a luminary) was said to have been hired to “network for the lot” (meaning the entire company!). However, Michelle heard “network for the Lord” and couldn’t believe her ears, given the man making the point is not known for his spiritual beliefs! And then later, when one manager was noting that he was a “visionary,” Michelle again misunderstood and thought he said “missionary!” What is God doing, and what is on my mind?!

Also, new delicacies were to be tried, amidst the myriad of other ethnic cuisine! Has anyone ever had a dried fruit sandwich (yes, dried fruit and peanuts on a toasted sandwich!) Or, better yet, a corn and bean sprout something or other, and curd (yoghurt) sandwich! Only two of what I later came to find out were not local delicacies, just the unusual cravings of one man in particular! And then of course the whole orientation here is different to us in the west. For instance, on menus and in restaurants the baseline is vegetarian. Therefore, if you are going to eat anything other than vegetarian, it is not known as “meat,” but rather as “non veg.” So most waiters will ask you if you want “veg” or “non veg!”

We were actually able to try both veg and non veg at a wonderful dinner this evening with all the local consultants, and many clients from past ventures. We had nearly 50 people attend, many dressed up in their beautiful saris. It was a time of food, fun and fellowship. Kim looked stunning in her sari, Deb, Shirlene and Lynn in local dress. Sadly I have been unable to download a photo but I imagine they will be posted sometime soon (thanks to Deb!) Clients were able to share stories of amazing things that have transpired since their Venture and Kim and Lynn gave information about the upcoming Kingdom Economic Forum, Leadership Development, and recruitment for the next round of training. A tired, but happy lot headed back to the hotel, some in autos (three wheel open vehicles) and others managed to solicit rides from our clients! Either way, we arrived home full of joy, hope and encouragement (not to mention curry!)

In closing, just one question: at what point do we move from being “sister” to “auntie” to now “mother?” J mdy

Most of the consultants went out with their clients to their workplaces and a few had their visioning sessions with Gerrit and Kim. Everybody reported back on very insightful sessions with their clients. We praise God for new ideas, products and marketing strategies for all five of our clients.

We are so blessed to be here and experience the excitement of what God is doing in our clients’ lives and their businesses and to be a witness to what God is doing in this part of an amazing and interesting country.- Estelle.