It was a beautiful and glorious day in Jakarta. The consultants were free to work on their final documents today and if those were accounted for, it was PLAY TIME! Many went shopping and some just hung out and relaxed. Most consultants have eaten enough in the last weeks to sustain for a month, but there are a few who can continue to take advantage of the endless opportunities to munch away. We really will be at least 5 pounds “fuller” when we arrive home!

Dena and Michael went to the Jakarta Revival meeting, while the bulk of us stayed in to work and had our worship in the team meeting room. Worship in Jakarta has a totally different “flavor” than it does in our usual places of praise. Without failure, the ritualistic prayer of the Muslim culture is played over loudspeakers at about the same time we gather to pray. So tonight we decided to go out on the balcony and sing our praises to the whole city…it was incredible. If you can imagine 10 fully grown adult praising in their best “shower voices”, with arms outstretched and huge smiles, then you can imagine us!

To wrap up the day’s activities we ordered take out food, put our feet up and dug our heels into the deliverables once again. Tomorrow is final presentation day , which means we are wrapping up with our clients. It is sad in many ways that we have to say good bye to the friends that we have made, but we have lifetime friendships to look forward to. God provides a sturdy foundation on which bonds can form in ways that we couldn’t have imagined. Praise the Lord!

Verity

Prior to the visioning session each client had about 30 minutes with an intercessor. Praise the Lord! We are blessed to have Dena Andrews on the intercessor team this venture dedicated to praying for the clients and team members, and she was also instrumental in the prayer sessions. She initiated worship time either before or after the prayer to allow the clients to “soak” in God’s glory. It was such an awesome time of praise and worship for the clients together with their consultants, concentrating on connecting with the heart of our Father in Heaven.

My client was given specific scriptures in their prayer sessions, revealing 1 Corinthians 13:2 and 2 Corinthians 9:11. It is always a very moving time when the intercessors pull a piece of scripture meant especially for the person they are praying for, it is truly receiving Gods voice in your life. It reminded my clients that God knows exactly their situation in life at that very moment.

My client was again encouraged during the visioning session with Dr. Suparno and Rebecca. They were again reminded of the endless possibilities and resources that God so faithfully provides. They were especially encouraged by the knowledge that God had provided for them by placing His vision in their hearts to reach the nations through education.

Felly

Planning, Partnering and Profit done God’s way.

Errol reopened the topics that we had begun on Friday, beginning with identifying the GIANTS that threaten local society. Soon we had a list of over 25 , then voted to determine the most dominant giants such as corruption, poverty, injustice, and lack of education.

 One of rep’s main aims is for repurposed businesses to transform society. In essence each business should target one or more of the GIANTS, relying on GOD’s power to work through them to begin the process of destroying the Giant. This is where faith in action can change a nation!

This picture shows the effects of a “giant” lurking along the river - Poverty.

The following shows a popular type of eaterie!

And how about Francois’ enjoyment of a well presented delicacy?

During a very busy day of training, Teju painlessly took us through the principles of PLANNING, then Errol dealt with PARTNERING. We watched a video clip of Team Hoyt, a very inspiring documentary which gives a whole new significance to the concept of partnering. No matter how many times I have watched this video it reduces me to tears. Not only me but others too, judging by Nathan’s offering tissues in advance!

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was seeing my clients from a previous rep venture. It was so good to share with each other again and to have the priviledge of praying together. Talking of prayer: please pray urgently for Dena to recover quickly from her laryngitis and fever, as she is knocked horizontal, and she is needed as our key intercessor at Tuesday’s Prayer and Visioning session.

We commit this important day expectantly to hearing from God as each business leader seeks His will.

-Teju

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sunday was packed with varied experiences, locations and events. All of us went to churches – but in batches of two’s and three’s all over Jakarta – some English speaking, most not! Then it was off to shopping, a James Bond film, pedicures, massages, rest and/or lunch. We all reconvened in the evening for dinner at a lovely restaurant just two doors down from our hotel…they had all my Indonesian favorites…satay with peanut sauce, fried banana, red rice, veggies in a light curry sauce, fish with fruit (oh my mouth is watering).

On a more serious note it has been fun for me to listen to the consultants talk about their clients and the “secret things” that they have in common that no one (but God) would have known when they were matched initially. My favorite is one of our girls is matched with a company that builds clinics and hospitals; unbeknownst to her they have a charitable arm that builds schools and housing for orphaned children. Guess what her heart lies – yep, you guessed it, children! She has had so much fun visiting and playing with the kids. Another of our girls is matched with a restaurant owner who not only has the same physical maladies (they order the same medicines) but their family situations are similar. A different consultant and her client both have hearts that tend toward mercy. One of our guys is paired with a couple who own a restaurant – their marriage has been ministered to powerfully through him. Lastly, one of the consultants was given a word several years ago and has been awaiting its fruition…his clients are part of the answer. I can’t tell you how excited he is to see God moving – he is actually infectious with his joy!

We start the second, and final, week tomorrow. The first week has been exciting and very fulfilling. I anticipate great things for the days ahead!

- Dena Andrews

The picture below highlights one of the consultants talking about how God has influenced his career. The congregation was amazed that even rocket scientists rely on Him for their day to day business.

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

Today was a good day that allowed the team to catch up on some sleep and relax in the morning. Some went out to do some sightseeing, some went to work out, some stayed in the apartment to work on the client deliverables, and some went to Carrefoure to pick up supplies for the team. It was a rough morning:) We got down to business after lunch with a team meeting to go over the logistics of upcoming events. We finished with a time of much loved worship and prayer.  Finally, we all had a good time catching up on client deliverables (work work work) through discussion with other consultants.
At night, we experienced more amazing Indonesian hospitality. We were hosted in one of our past / current client’s restaurant, and it was such a feast on traditional Indonesian cuisine. After we thought we were done eating, we had many yummy fruits: different mangoes, passion fruit, etc. Currently, we are all suffering from food coma…

Blessings from Indonesia! 

Felix Lai

The first week of working with our clients has come to a close. Insights for products and excitement around them has occured along with a rep alumni testimony of how God grew his business every time he readdressed his treatment of the people in his business as his “household.” We saw how extensive some of the households (or the group of people he directly and indirectly influences) represented by our client’s businesses were when each business added up the total number of people (employees, customers, clients, etc) impacted by their business decisions. The total figure for the clients represented in the room is 1,415,056,042 people!

A few other wows!:

* After chatting with Brett, one client saw how integration can occur between his businesses (Convergence).

* Translators (past alumni) have been wonderful in working with client-consultant groups facing some language barriers.

* One client and his wife grew to have the same heart around their business and product.

* Another client had prayer answered right after they prayed via phone call.

After a fruitful day developing friendships and loving one another we had dinner at an Indonesian restauraunt called Lara Djongrang. With faint music flowing through open doors, low lighting gracing the faces of friends, and beautiful Indonesian decor depicting historical events, conversation and laughter abounded. It was definitely a memorable occasion that we are all grateful for. As always - we rolled out feeling like we had eaten enough to feed an army!

Love in Christ, —Peggy

Intercession Update: 

Joy abounds from the Intercession corner! We have had at least one and up to three people praying for every minute of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The people praying have done so in English and Indonesian…and in the Spirit. After praying for a request we compare notes as to what God is saying and each time it is different angles of the same message! This is VERY ENCOURAGING to those praying and inspires us to do more and more and more! If you are in Jakarta feel free to join us on Monday or Wednesday next week – we are in the Sahid Apartment Building conference room.

I just returned from my client with Handrie my fellow consultant and the day was filled with blessings. It is just amazing to be here teaching business principles to business owners in Indonesia, then, on top of that, to be telling them God wants to Repurpose them and their business.  It is a blessing to have God speak impactful business strategies and God’s Purpose through us. That sets the tone to how we are being stretched and blessed by God to do what is outside our capabilities without Him. To experience the growth in faith for yourself and the clients begins to add the toppings to the chocolate blessings cake. As we continue we will add the rest of the ingredients.

Now for the frosting the covered the cake like a blanket. We are in the client’s office and I am feeling the presence of God and we are getting through the strategies that I thought would be impossible to accomplish. Then the client, which I will call Bob now because I am tired of saying client, tells me that he wants to invite a couple of Muslim employees up to pray for healing of their epilepsy. We laid our hands on them and prayed for healing in Jesus name.  It was a powerful experience that I thank God for calling us to do.

The sprinkles on the cake is that they are very nice people who are caring and a joy to get to know on a personal level. They feel called to do God’s work and do ethical business for the better of the nation. After meeting they took us to authentic Indonesian dinner with incredible Indonesian live music for a birthday. Afterwards Handrie and I went to a luxurious mall and roughed it on massage chairs and I rode an exercise horse which later kicked me off.

Deut 28:1 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.

Michael

The Venture’s really taken it’s toll on many of the leaders/consultants physically, but God’s kept us moving forward in His power.  He has protected all of us from being too heavily hindered in our efforts to speak new truths in the lives of these precious people, but we are not totally immune.  The local entertainment in our hotel took a serious hit when our dear friend, Michael G. started feeling under the weather.  He has battled through it and continued to work with his clients to share all that God has placed on his heart. Regardless, he has not been the same and we have missed the ‘presence’ that he brings to every meeting.  Today was a new day and Michael’s returned to true form.  We have all been praying for him & had the opportunity to annoint his bedroom with oil last night and….Voila! He’s BACK! Prayer is POWERFUL and our spirits are rejuvinated again (A certain individual seems to have been a little more rejuvinated than the rest…watch out). We layed hands on Mike again tonight & our prayers have seemed to just explode from our lips. We might need to set up a private prayer session for Mike’s family to prepare for his re-entry into their world…like I said, watch out!  =)  Praise God for His faithfulness, for His Healing power, for His blessings of Personality.

On the intercession front…

We received word that one of the client groups was unsaved – so we prayed, prayed, and prayed some more. They submitted a request for prayer on a more practical issue and we adjourned into the hallway to pray. During the prayer one of the client’s consultant lead them through the prayer of repentance of sin and then acceptance of Jesus as their Savior! Whoo Hoo! Two more souls for the Kingdom…ahh…it was a great morning in the intercession corner!

Chalk another miracle up to God…

A potential client visited us on Monday and sat in on Day One as we dealt with Purpose. He owns a bakery and was wondering about the best way to market his bread. He told me he had 6 people who resell his bread but he had struggled to find more people. We prayed for his business that God would lead him. When he arrived today, he told me that three people had walked into his bakery in the last day asking if they could resell his bread! God had grown his distribution network by 50% in a day!!