Gauteng Oct2008

Thursday, October 23rd 2008

The rep-er — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:33:41 +0000

Sarah came to visit us in the lapa room, which is like an enclosed patio in South Africa, to let me know it was my day to do the daily report. So, I was thinking, hmmm, what should I write? And then I said out loud, “what should I write?”

Alexia weighed in and said, “everyone is so young here, so young, I am not so young… all Christian music is like pop songs… what the deal with the donkey?”

Rida is telling me, “you can write whatever you want, just write, write whatever you want.”

I’m not sure what is going on in Shirlene and my room, which is off of the lapa, I see Bart in his workout shirt, bulging muscles and all, locking the door and keeping Lyn, Jodene, and Shirlene locked in. Not sure what is going on in there.

Oh, wait, Jodene just came out, looks like Bart was trying to extract some information from her. Brett is talking with her in Afrikaans, he is saying, “gnek, rhuk duk sook rico swavey.” Which I’m not sure what that means but I think it’s probably like a private conversation.

Meanwhile Garridan is talking about netting up men for Jodene, and sorting them out, and only keeping the good ones for her. Jodene looks grateful, I’m pretty sure.

Brett is now singing kung foo fighting, with an asian accent and dancing with Alexia, she is laughing quite hard, almost to tears, but not quite. And no she’s not sad. Now Brett is talking about a Chinese song on youtube, combo number five, and Alexia is asking, what is combo number five, in an asian accent, oh wait that is how she talks.

I guess I should probably say something about what we did today. Ok, well, um, some people went to teach LEMON leadership, some went to pray with a couple of companies, and I went with Nicole and Stacy to pray with two companies. It was a good day.
10-4

Bobby Wood

Wednesday, October 22nd 2008

The rep-er — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:08:29 +0000

Wednesday 22nd of October, 2008 team Nicole, Jason and team Stacie, Garridan came out to pray with the clients. Team Brett, Lyn, Bobby, Shirlene and team Jodene, Bart, Rida, Sarah, Alexia were doing the 10P booster with different clients.

Team Jodene started the day early at 6:30 am to get to this beautiful Country Club (courtesy of Brenda’s connection, one of the client) to do 10P booster with 3 different clients (Brenda, Tanya, Lorna and Annelie). It was amazing that we were be able to go through all the 10P with all clients and finished early. It was the grace of God. We got there early around 7:30 pm to pray over the room and everybody (consultants and clients). The South African consultants also joined us in working with the clients. For each P, the clients stated what they were thankful to God for and then we went through the score card (yeeeaaaaaahhhhh!). Most clients haven’t looked at the 10P since their ventures so it was very revealing to go through it again. They all agreed that the 10P booster is a great idea to do after the venture. They all have different challenging but it is nothing that cannot be solved with prayer to and trust in the Lord. Tanya who was one of the clients was amazing running the business of social architect, holistic design by herself. She was in Cape Town after 10 yrs and has been back to Jo-burg for about 2 years. She is still un-sure whether she should stay or not. She is looking to God for a confirmation whether she should put her root at Jo-burg. However, she is very sure about her purpose and she knows that God has confirmed what her purpose is (Jeremiah: rebuilding/restoring).

Brenda, who is the other client, is also a consultant with Rep. This lady is wonderful beyond words. She is one of the people who come together to pray for their city/province (Gauteng). She has very strong faith in the Lord and her energy, spirit are so amazing. She is quick and funny. Annelie is running a micro-loan financing that has about 28M to loan out and the business is profitable. It is her 1st time with Rep. She loves the whole concept/process. I am praying that she will come back next year for a full venture. Lorna is another client who is coming all the way from Zimbabwe. She is looking into Rep to see whether she can bring this back to Zimbabwe. She has been praying to God for change in her country and help for her people. She said that Zimbabwe people have not enough food (lots of people are starving) but they have plenty of faith and they trust that these things are currently happening in Zimbabwe for reasons. Everything has to come all the way down before God can build it back up.

I was talking to the two women who were serving tea, coffee and snack for us. South African is very into tea time which I think it is very appropriate and great. I now am into tea time a lot, especially roobois with milk. These two women get paid 100R (10USD) per day to come 3 times a week to work at this Country club. They have to pay 28R round trip per day for the taxi (it is not the same taxi in the US, it is more like un-official bus) to get to work. It is very hard for them to find job here. They have technical skills and certificates but cannot find jobs. Jason was telling us stories about his clients who haven’t gotten paid in six months but continue working anyway because there is not job any where else.

The disparity between the have and have-not is so great. You can see extreme wealth and extreme poverty here. Also, there is much poverty here. However, one thing that I have been observing about people here in Jo-burg (Gauteng) is that they have deep absolute faith. They pray about everything and they get together to pray about their city and what they want happening their city. It is so amazing to see people who love praying and they believe in the power of prayer. Also, the workings of the Holy Spirit and God here are so great that sometimes I was like “Oh dear! Holy cow! Did I just say that?”

We have not enough sleep but our spirit is very high. We are functioning well as a team. We help each other out and try to be funny (at least I) sometimes to bring the energy back. We pray God for this amazing venture and pray that somehow we got this incredible privilege to come here to this beautiful country with wonderful people, and great food. By the way, the soil here is so crazily red. The yogurt is good beyond dream.

Alexia Nguyen

Tuesday, October 21st 2008

The rep-er — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:40:01 +0000

Today the team was split up into several groups. Three groups went out to visit past rep clients to pray over their businesses, encourage, and speak new life into their companies (I am very excited to participate in this aspect of the venture before the week is over!).

A fourth group consisted of Brett, Lyn, Isaac (a local consultant), Bobby and myself. Our day was spent with a past client, CSI (a mining products company), to do a 10P booster. We had a rather late start as our directions and traffic were working against us, but we were received very graciously and after general introductions between us and their leadership team, we delved into their scorecard from 2005! We were able to run through Purpose, Process, Product, and People. It was inspiring and very special to hear more about their vision, history, and marketplace miracles. To see a Kingdom focused business in full swing was, quite simply put, a blessing.

Touring their factory we saw up close where many of their miracles have taken place—from a God-given formula for welding copper and stainless steel (and all of the intricate obstacles that are gloriously avoided with this impactful capability), to the unexplainable life of the consumable tip of their plasma cutter and more stories of lives that have been transformed.

Another highlight of the day for me personally was putting into practice the exhortation Lyn spoke out this morning in our devotions: “Speak out blessings to people and their workplace!” CSI’s consultant from 2005 arrived to participate in our meeting with them today and when he sat down I distinctly understood the Lord to say, “He has the eyes of Jesus.” I was excited to tell him (and honestly, a little distracted as I wanted to really look at his kind eyes). I was even more excited to share within the group when he stated that he felt as a company they needed to see people through God’s eye’s. “You have no idea what that means to me…I can’t wait to go home and tell my wife,” was his response to me afterward. I think we both got shivers up our spines and it lead me to really ponder this…

Do we often miss the beautiful opportunities to speak Truth into people’s lives? Is God regularly saddened by our lack of obedience in communicating His word to those He loves?

This I know: while the people receiving the message may be blessed by our obedience, it is we who are privileged to partner with God, that are truly affected by His grace…that He, the King of kings and Lord of lords would entrust His most intimate thoughts to one so human as I.

Shirlene Wood

Monday, October 20th

The rep-er — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:25:09 +0000

Today was a big day. Today the Lord struck a major blow at the world financial systems as Brett and a host of others shared their the truth on Kingdom Economics.

The venue was at the home of one of our past clients from the very first Joburg venture - a home built by the Randlords of the early 20th century who pursued the economic systems of this world that has left this city physically, emotionally and spiritual scarred. Nope, God doesn’t miss a beat. Every thought and every concept set up against God’s economy was exposed for the lie it is and people were given mandates on what to do with the information received to ensure a real change in this land that will spark off a global fire that will advance the Kingdom into the realm of economics.

There were many powerful testimonies of how God has unlocked these truths to people and proclamations on what we believe the Lord has been saying about how these truths are to be applied. We are all waiting in anticipation on the Lord’s promise in Malachi 3 that when the tithes and offerings return to it’s store house. We shall again see the day when there is a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

Nicole Dickens

Sunday, October 19th

The rep-er — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:00:00 +0000

We started the day off by going to the church of Pastor Chucks, who is also one of the rep leaders in Johannesburg. He began by going into a powerful time of breaking segregation and praying for unity. Often times in South Africa, the church is segregated by race (a black pastor attracts black followers and white pastors attracts white followers) and also social economic segregation (a person once said they could not go to a specific church because they did not have the clothes to wear to that service). To signify unity, Pastor Chucks called people of various races to the front to represent the diversity living in South Africa to hold hands and pray for unity. Then we all took communion together.

Following that, Pastor Chucks called up another visiting Pastor to come speak about the miracles she experienced. She started off with a story about how once upon a time, her son was sick and a private doctor said he was near death and there was nothing he could do about it. She believed with all her heart that he was still alive, but the doctor insisted that her son was near dead and told her that she should take son to the hospital to watch him die. She took him, and the doctors there told her he was dead. Again, she believed, had faith with all her heart, that her son was not dead so she prayed for him and continued to pray for him until he eventually opened his eyes as was alive again! The doctors were amazed at what they saw they could not believe it! Another story she told was before she left her town to go to the service, she was not feeling well and could not get out of bed and could barely talk. She called her son and he prayed for her then commanded that she get out of bed and walk. She had faith with all her heart that she was healed and got out of bed and was healthy again!

After her testimony, Pastor Chucks continued his sermon on Vision where he talked about vision as being rooted in one’s heart and sight is merely seeing with ones eyes. He also mentioned that followers of Christ should have vision in the spiritual realm, capable of seeing God’s hand at work.
Next we had lunch with the local consultants to mingle and dig deeper with the logistics of the coming week. The late afternoon and evening was spent back at the B&B working on preparations and praying for the Economic Forum on Monday, tomorrow.

Rida Chow

Saturday, October 18th

The rep-er — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:26:00 +0000

With our last team member arriving this morning, our full team is all here! And with us came the rain. It actually resulted in quite a celebratory atmosphere, as Johannesburg had been without rain all season and really in need of it. Even the skies themselves lit up in grand style, as tremendous lightening continued all evening.

With numerous activities of the day, the most meaningful for me was the evening of braai and fellowship with the local consultants and rep alumni. For me, it was just a beautiful picture of God’s family and church. Faces of all colors, ages, backgrounds, and nationalities — all rejoicing in each others company, God’s promises for Johannesburg, and the expectations for breakthroughs in the coming week. In a country where such strong lines still exist racially, nationally, economically, this is a powerful testament to the power of God’ love. It is a great reminder that we do not arrive here expecting to bring change through our own abilities, but as ambassadors of God’s kingdom power, which can conquer all things.

Bart Munro

Friday, October 17

The rep-er — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:48:00 +0000

Friday was a joyous day as the team population was on the rise and we started getting some of the logistics wrapped up.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the three of us who arrived early had begun the groundwork for the venture by calling on previous clients and following up on the emails that had been previously sent out by the home office. This in and of itself was a great opportunity to discuss with each of the clients how things were going in their lives and with their households/businesses/organizations.

We took prayer requests on the spot from a number of the client alumni and scheduled follow up prayer meetings with a majority of the alumnus. We also talked to the clients about the upcoming Kingdom Economics Forum seminar as well as the Lemon Leadership training and available 10P Booster.

Friday was no different, following up with the remainder of the clients who we had not yet been able to connect with and scheduling more prayer meetings. We also spent some time getting some supplies and such ready for the upcoming events for the next week. Most importantly, we had the opportunity to go into Johannesburg and visit Alida and Jaap Van Deventer which would serve as the venue for the aforementioned seminars. This was an amazing experience meeting with Alida and hearing from her about her passion for marionettes and telling Biblical stories to children through puppet shows.

As the founder of some of the country’s first children’s television shows in the 1970’s, Alida’s work was warmly recounted to us on our way to her home by Lyn and Jodene, both of whom had fond memories of a number of the shows that Alida worked on.

Alida and Jaap’s home is a phenomenal historic manor from the turn of the century. We were spending time there to pray at the venue as well as have some time to meet Alida and Jaap, and in the time we spent praying in the home and the surrounding gardens, a number of items came to light. Specifically, the area is host to a number of Jacaranda trees (large deciduous trees with lavender flowers, similar in look to a flowering cherry tree, but much larger in scale-see photo above). From the back yard of the home, you can see into the valley that is Johannesburg, and with the Jacaranda’s in bloom, members of the team felt that they were similar to the team members and believers in the area, like beacons of light in an area where there was a lot of pain, desolation and darkness. As the trees lose their petals, the ground is covered by a carpet of lavender, very similar to the way God’s love spreads out from each person who spreads his word. In addition to these prayers and confirmations, a few of the members of the team prayed specifically for the Kingdom Economics forum, and that this house, as a historical representation of a number of worldly economic bulwarks, has been repurposed by Alida and Jaap through Alida’s business and now this discussion and forum of Kingdom Economics as it contrasts worldly economics will be set in that venue, which provides for a rich backdrop from which to discuss change, repurposing, generosity, gifting and stewardship.

We really can’t wait to get back to visit with Alida and Jaap again and to spend time at this welcoming home.

Jason Griffith