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

: D E N Y

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 =)

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

We started with a singing time again, and it was awesome to experience unity and diversity in worshipping God that way.

Positioning and People. We talked about what is our Position Biblically and what does it mean to align ourselves and our businesses with our Position in Christ first. How can we use business(es) to build People, as well as People to build business(es)?

The day ended around 5pm. We made it! Week one.

Dinner was a real treat - BRAAI (S. African BBQ) atone of our host homes. We sipped S. African wines and drinks to start off. They made us someoak-shaving-smokedSnoek (an amazinglocal linefish) for an appetizer. It was amazing, andI thought it was the main meal. Then, they brought out sausages and shishkebobs, sweet potatoes and veggies. For dessert, we had large tarts.Howhumbled and grateful we are for ourgracious andgeneroushosts! They don’t hold back and are so warm with their words and embraces as well…

-Karen

Today is our 2^nd structured day, which turned out to be a short day. My client, Francois/RoadPackerSA, and I tagged along w/ Melissa (and Taneh) to meet her client, Pastor Ayjay, at the Somerset Mall…we had a long lunch. Listening to their conservations and their vision of restoration and restitution for the Khoi people group, I feel blessed to be part of this historic initiative. This venture is bigger than what I envisioned. I look forward to see what God have in store for us next week.

-Sophey

At the same time, Michael Louis, a member of the provincial parliament of the Western Cape, came to our venture and shared with us his testimony and miracles that happened in his life. One thing that really stood out to me from his stories was that stepping out in faith is essential for God’s miracles to happen. God has given us “free will” and because of that, in order for God to bless us, we have to make a decision and truly choose Him for our life first. And stepping out in faith is our confirmation to God that we choose and obey Him.

Prayer request would be for all of us consultants and clients to truly grow in faith and to “seek first His kingdom and then everything else would be given to us ” (Mt 6:10)

-Gwyneth

Many of us got to see different parts of beautiful Cape Town. A few of us had lunch on the beach, vineyards, and hot springs (it’s what you call suffering for Christ).

Prayer request would be for breakthroughs in client’s businesses and market place miracles. Thanks!

Today was also Helen’s birthday!

-Wilson

-Jennifer