Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Transformation - Nato



As you might have read, yesterday was an extremely hard day for the marketing team. A combination of figuring out the Living Hope culture, the South African culture and our own team dynamics made for a long afternoon meeting. Last night we regrouped and prepared for a full day of meetings, which led to tough conversations. Our team was either relying on our own skills too heavily, not trusting in God to work through us in a vastly different culture, or feeling like there wasn't a purpose for them on the team, as well as lacking a real sense of unity. We prayed and asked for prayer in our team meeting last night and went to bed wondering what would lie ahead for our next 10 days.

This morning, we woke up and had great times alone with God. Leah was reading in Matthew 6, "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes" (the Message) and shared this with the group as we were preparing for the Living Hope group to arrive.

Throughout the meetings today, God continually showed Himself working. During various portions, each person found themselves at the helm of the meeting, an expert in the required field. Everyone began to see ways in which they were uniquely essential to the marketing team and ideas were brought to the table for both international (US, UK, etc) and South African initiatives. We finished our meetings around 3 and were able to spend the rest of the afternoon spending time with one another. This included going to the beach and hanging out at a restaurant patio called Skabanga (which we subsequently found out means 'mischievous' in Xhose). All that to say, by the end of today, solid bonds had been formed among all members of our team and we had seen so much accomplished for Living Hope. Praise God.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are praying for all of you!! For your saftey as well as your work there! May God bless all that you do there!!

The Risnes Family
Marshall, MI

Anonymous said...

Your blogs give me cill bumps everytime I read them. I am so honored to be a part of the prayer team for your group! Y'all ROCK!!!!!! I pray for you all dailey.
Heather Richardson ( give a shout out to Zana and Leah for me!!)

Anonymous said...

Great news. I am a solid proponent of those words "in His time", and it looks like the Marketing Team experienced some of that this week! I am so glad to know that you maintained your patience to see God work through you. You each have a significant place in the work set before you. Even your mere presence, standing before the people of South Africa, representing Christ to them - what an honor all on it's own! God Bless all of you. We are praying for your safety and for your success.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to let my two roommates know that they are continually in my prayers everyday. As well as the rest of the team.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us all in our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 1 Corinthians 1:3-7

KT

Anonymous said...

Reading posts and following your progress... What an amazing task and a blessing to be helping such a worthy cause. Leah and Zana (and the rest of RHCC) are in my thoughts everyday! Best wishes to all and keep blogging for us!

Love - Katy Shaffer

Anonymous said...

Is Kyle wearing red fingernail polish?