Academik

The first day and there were tears all around my table. Let me tell
you the story.

We were up before dawn this morning to iron shirts, get breakfast,
prepare presentations, and get our conference room setup. Being the
very tall networker that I am, I greeted people downstairs and
directed them to our room starting at 8:15. All of the clients and
local consultants arrived by 8:45am and I went upstairs to meet my
client and co-consultant.

My client, PT Wintermar, is a shipping services and management company
whose core business is supporting offshore rigs. The company has ~500
employees of which 120 are office staff and 350 are crew for their 45
shipping vessels. I’m meeting with Pak (Mr.) Martin, the crew
Director, and Ibu (Mrs.) Meiky, the HR director for the office. Their
boss has already been through Rep’s program and has asked them to
participate since so much of what they do revolves around having the
right people (read: honest). Both of them were intrigued when the
boss gathered all the managers and directors in a meeting over
Christmas and told them that now the business belonged to God, and
that he was no longer “the boss”, God was.

Kiki and Martin are here to grapple with what that means. The first
day gives a broad overview of the 10 deliverables which we’ll provide
them at the end of the 2 weeks, beginning with an impact assessment
(looking at what they think is important in their business, and how
they’re doing), a 10-P summary of their business, and a first look at
the purpose of their business. You’ll see 10-P a lot in here, it’s a
list of the 10 different parts of their business. The founder of Rep
likes the number 10 (10 consultants, 10 days, 10 visits to a city,
etc…)

The work today was slow-going because the clients are still not quite
sure what this is all about, and how to answer many of these questions
(especially if they’re not overseeing all of the business like my
clients), and so we made good progress, but certainly didn’t finish
anything today. Early on in the day I asked both of them how long they
had been Christians and both of them gave me a somewhat puzzled look
and said since they were babies (Martin said since he was in the
womb). Little did I know what impact this question would have later
in the day.

Tan Hong Lim, my seasoned co-consultant and I took them through
everything that we could, and at one point Tan handed me a piece of
paper reminding me that while both had been Christians since they were
born, perhaps they had never actually chosen to commit their lives to
God… so we asked them. Do you believe that God loves you, and that
you’ll go to heaven when you die. Martin thought about it for a
little bit, and then responded yes. Meiky seemed a little taken aback
by the very straightforward question. She told us that she’d struggled
with the idea, and had never really committed her life to Christ. I
asked her if she would stay afterwards so we could pray with her (and
involve Errol or Rebecca, our leaders), and she agreed. God had other
plans. Tan grabbed the opportunity and said we should pray right
now. So the four of us grabbed hands and began to pray for Meiky.
She began to weep, and weep, and weep. That prayer unlocked something
in her that had been holding her back for a long time. I don’t know
what she was thinking, but I know that she was deeply affected by the
message that she was forgiven for any past wrongs and that she was
loved by God and unique in His eyes.

We prayed with her while she wept for nearly an hour. It was a great
way to start off the venture, remembering that while we’re working to
repurpose businesses, our main goal is to transform the people within
a society. Tomorrow, it’s off to work with Martin and Meiky!

PS - Janet and Alex - tonight we had Korean BBQ for dinner, nothing
like Club Riders though : )