Tuesday, November 18 - 3rd Client Day

Day 3 of our client consultations has come to a close. Our day began with a devotion from Debbie. Her words of encouragement revitalized us as we entered the second half of our venture. The devotion, which focused on reaping what has been sowed by those who have come on ventures before us, was a reminder of our purpose here in India.

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for the harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:34-38)

With these words of affirmation clearly in mind, we set out to meet with our respective clients. Although we continue to face challenges, we have also be been encouraged by breakthroughs with some of the clients. We look forward to see God work in Chennai’s businesses over the next week.

The day ended with a spontaneous team building exercise. We decided to test our familiarity with our fellow team members by attempting to guess each other’s love language. Your love language is how you prefer to give and receive love. For example, some show their love by physical touch or words of affirmation, while others prefer spending quality time with friends, performing acts of service or giving gifts. We documented our findings using the highly technical method of color-coded posted notes applied to the wall. Our experiment revealed, amongst other things, that we can expect lots of quality time and words of affirmation, but not a lot of gifts from this group. We also learned that Brett really likes appreciates physical touch and Mike does not.

- Jodi Myers

Saturday, November 15 - First Client Day

We started off the morning with an encouraging devotion led by Kim. She spoke to lift us up by relying on God’s preparation, reminding us that God has been preparing the way for our venture and our clients for a very long time.

Brett and Lyn were able to join us from their recent venture in Indonesia where the Lord worked powerfully by miraculously providing for clients and ministering the Lord’s grace. For more details on the Indonesia venture visit: http://www.repurposing.biz/jakarta-november-2008/

Today was the first day for the traveling consultants and local consultants to meet with our clients. There are eight rep clients who represent companies offering services from software development to selling spices. While you’ll soon hear more about some of the other clients, I’d like to share a little about my client. My client has developed and recently launched a DVD training course which he has infused with Biblical values. This product came out as a result of his previous rep venture. With the revenues from this product he is hoping to fund local churches and missionaries. He has already planted eight churches in local villages. I am excited to watch how the Lord will move through my client and his product to help spread God’s hope and joy.

In the evening we all enjoyed dinner at the Blue Diamond, a restaurant featuring a wall sized photo of the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. I thought it was a little funny to come half way around the globe from the San Francisco area only to be dining with a faux window to the Golden Gate. Between intermittent power outages, something common here in Chennai, I enjoyed excellent butter chicken and garlic nan.

The ride home in the rain was exciting as we took the ‘auto’, a small three-wheeler lawn mower driven human carriage about the size of two motor cycles. Traffic is already an organic blend of chaos, add to that the ‘toxic rain’; rain made of a combination of dust and airborne viruses. For a fifteen second example of riding in an ‘auto’ without the rain, visit: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=TufNrydXscQ  

Friday, November 14 - Orientation

Another amazing day. What a joy it is to be around people of such caliber all intent on serving Christ. God has brought together a unique blend of talents and personalities, of interests and experiences, and certainly of nationalities and ages. Today was our first official day together. We began the day, after breakfast of course, with a team devotional, led by Clint. After his encouragement from the Word and an opportunity to worship Christ through song together, we rolled into one of the most stimulating lectures I think I have ever participated in.

Though we recognize there is a significant global business culture that can seem somewhat homogenous at times, cultural influences run deep. An Indian, involved with the local leadership of rep here in India, gave us a quick glimpse into the Hindu worldview from a Christian perspective. To be frank, I was stunned by much of what I learned. So much of what I learned in school just barely touched the surface regarding the caste system, etc. This guy, name not disclosed for security reasons, has several degrees already and is presently pursuing his PhD focused specifically on this topic. That this guy is involved with rep gives you a flavor of the caliber of people that are attracted to the material and vision we are working out in service of our King. This guy gave us color on why most Indians do what they do and how much of politics and business is conducted. By quick glimpse, I mean our scheduled 2 hour session with him turned into a 3 hour rushed session. I just pray God burned enough Truth into my consciousness over those few hours that I might have respond with grace in all situations over these next two weeks and in all my future dealings. I have no doubt most of our team have similar sentiments.

With the worldview session running long, we cut out any flex time, had a rushed lunch and ran off to the YWCA for more sessions in preparation for our week of ministry. First, just the traveling consultants with the local Indian leadership team met to discuss logistics. Then the local Indian trained consultants arrived and joined us for a second session to review implementation of the 10-P material, which is rep’s framework for applying Biblical principles to significant business issues. This was a great opportunity to get to know our fellow Indian consultants and interact with them on a tangible basis, listening to them process business strategy from a Kingdom perspective. I always find it refreshing to interact with believers from all over the world, recognizing that the God we serve is far bigger than my hometown and that His Truth transcends time and culture. Following that session, we heard for the first time the local Indian consultant we would be matched with and also the local business owner we would be consulting with for the three days of focused on-site consulting. Everyone introduced themselves and gave some color to their background, skills/experience and how they ended up on this rep Venture. By this time it was almost 9pm and we had not yet had dinner. YWCA served us some delightful Indian cuisine, and we made the always entertaining / hair-raising drive back to the hotel by around 10:30pm.

Tomorrow will be our first client interaction. With so many months of training and discussion, I think many of us are itching to see this material tangibly lived out in the lives of clients. God is good.

 Thursday, November 13 - Arrival

The Kings (Rajas) and the Queens (Ranis) have arrived in style at the land of the Maharajas to repurpose the lives and ‘viyabaram’ (tamil word for business) of local ‘viyabaris’ (businessmen). The travelling consultants began trickling into the hotel over the past two days and we began our time together with an awesome time of prayer and worship. A personal highlight for me was meeting my high school buddy Vijay after 19 years who is also part of the local team along with another high school buddy Abel who is an alumni of rep. Now how often do three high school buddies from the same class get to be part of a rep team?

Following this we went on a ‘cultural immersion’ trip (an alias for ‘shopping and eating spree’) where some learnt the local art of cooling hot beverages.

The best teams for a possible game of taboo or pictionary during the venture were also auditioned. The highlight of the day was getting to meet Jaya (Kim’s friend) and hear her inspiring testimony of becoming a follower of Jesus! This team is set to rock Chennai in the days to come and help further the Kingdom of Christ the King in India.