August 2007: Exploring SF & Finished Exams!

17 August 2007

Time has flown by here very quickly. Karen and I cannot believe that its already been more than a month since we arrived in SF. Most of our time has been taken up with our graduate final exams, which are now fully done! We have received our marks for marketing and both Karen and I did extremely well in the course. We are now waiting to hear back from our Finance course. We are so thrilled to have had this opportunity to study further, and it's been absolutely invaluable to us! (Yes, it's been definitely worth the hard work!!) We look forward to seeing how we can use our new skills and education and what job opportunities come forth.

Last weekend we celebrated the end of our Graduate studies by going to San Francisco (A.K.A "The City"). Little did we know that the Summer is a horrible time to drive into the city. We tried to go to Fisherman’s Wharf, but there was no parking in the whole city! (Mental Note: Ride bicycles rather!) Only after we talked to some of local residents/friends did we find out about some secret spots to park. I guess that will be for another weekend to do. We did, however, drive a little out of the city and parked near a yacht club, where there was a windsurfing competition on the go. People from San Francisco are very active - which we love. There are always people riding their bikes, or doing some or other outdoor sport. We are also fortunate that we live right next to a large "nature reserve" and still need to explore the hikes around us. Opposite the Yacht club there was an intriguing building. The Palace of the Arts Exploratorium, is a building that really feels out of place in San Francisco. It is a type of place you'd expect in Europe. It is really beautiful architecture!

Afterward we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, for the first time. After crossing it there was a place on the right to get out and take photos. There is a lot to explore in SF and Karen and I are really taking our time to see all the sites. Apparently the best time to see SF is in late August and September. There are few tourists and the weather is great.

The Golden Gate Bridge was amazing! A really impressive engineering feat. We had to get ourselves away from the crowds of Tourists, so we drove through the Marin valley on the far side of the bridge to get a better view of the Bridge. We took some wonderful Photo's.

We have been driving into The City at least once a week, because we do rep consultant training there. A rep Alumni, who lives on Hyde, opens her apartment up to trainees every week. Its a wonderfully central location, with Old Trolley's buzzing by and we always go for a quick exploritary walk when we go. We often climb up the old stairways from Tiia's apartment onto the roof and look over the city. It's an amazing view from up there!

We are half way through the rēp training and have booked our tickets to South Africa! We are so excited! We will be both consulting business in both Johannesburg and Cape Town. The "business consulting" is based on biblical principles as well as business "best practices", so it's really exciting to see how God is involved in Business and how He is repurposing businesses. We are hearing of "marketplace miracles" everyday, and it is amazing to hear how "we may try to seperate Church and Business; but we cannot seperate God from Business!". We will be leaving for South Africa on September 18th and be back in the Bay Area, SF only in the first part of November. We are so happy that we've been able to organise this Venture, and we thank those for their financial & prayer support to make this all happen. We are still currently unsalaried, however, we hope to explore creative options to raise funds/support. One positive development is that I have a wedding I’m photographing on Nov 10th, which is a good opportunity.
There is a lot to get done before we leave for South Africa. Karen and I feel like we’ve got a lot to learn while we are here, but we’re coming into The Institute with a lot of fresh ideas with the freedom to implement them. I’ve found my role being very much a creative one. Its good blend of business strategy, leadership and processes, mixed with creativity, art and marketing. The focus has been action. I feel that I’ve got a lot of head knowledge and I’m looking forward to implementation. Karen has taken over the finances and the bookeeping for rep and The Equip Foundation. We are probably even more excited about our opportunities to consult companies here in the Silicon Valley, and abroad. We are also hoping to be more involved in the Leadership workshops and seminars that The Institute offers business clients around the world.

We hope that you enjoy the pictures, and we’ll be in touch shortly. If you would like to learn more about the organisations we are working with, and consider partnering with us please go to:

http://www.repurposing.biz/ (rep: Venture consulting)
http://inst.net/ (The Institute: Business consulting & Lemon Leadership Workshops)

May God continue to bless you,
Brandon Dubé

July 2007: Our arrival in San Francisco

To our Friends and Family,

We would like to begin our official newsletter so that you know what we are up to during our time in San Francisco and to be able to keep in touch with all of you.For those who don’t know, Karen and I are working for a business consulting firm called The Institute for Innovation, Integration and Impact (www.inst.net). Under this umbrella, a social responsibility arm called rēp (pronounced “reep”, short for repurposing) trains successful business people in the San Francisco Bay Area to develop their skills, and their business and make it a ministry among its employees and community. In turn, these business people train over 13 weeks to become rēp consultants and go on outreaches, called Ventures, to different parts of the world to consult local entrepreneurs how transform their business and their society.It sounds quite overwhelming and in many cases impossible, but the company is coming up to its 10th venture in Cape Town this fall and there appears to be growing interest in both the people who go on the ventures and the people in these communities who want the consulting. Karen and I will be part of both the operations of the company as well as undergo training to become rēp consultants for the South Africa Venture beginning October. We are currently booking our tickets to Johannesburg, where Karen will be the operations manager of the venture, and I will consult, then we’ll fly straight to Cape Town to both consult there for 2 weeks. We’re very excited that we’ll be able to fly in a little earlier to see Karen’s family and hopefully stay a little longer in Cape Town to see friends there!Since our arrival two weeks ago, we have spent time settling in Brett and Lyn’s house. Brett & Lyn are the founders of this organization, so we’re in the heart of all the happenings. There were many introductions and stories, and everyone is incredibly hospitable and friendly. Karen and I have also had our graduate courses to concentrate on, so we’ve remained busy in juggling many plates. Orientation has been helpful to understand the mission of the Institute and rēp, as well as its values and community. We’ve also been part of a staff team building exercise using a leadership assessment tool called the LEMON. It took the whole day, but by the end we all had a sense of each other and how to work as a team. Last Saturday we started the training as rep consultants, which were launched with an all day Kick-off event. There was food and people galore, but all gathered to see and give testament to how God is moving and using people within this organization to transform businesses and societies. Karen and I do have specific prayer needs while we are here. We are in an extremely networked, empowering place; there are an infinite number of doors that are open to us. Therefore we need prayer for direction in my professional career as well as our ministry. Secondly, we need prayer for finances and that there are opportunities to earn money while we are here through the gifts and skills we have. Thirdly, that we would continue to learn, network and grow. Lastly, we are writing our final exams for our graduate studies in 3 weeks time, and would appreciate prayers that we may do well in completing this program.

Thank you everyone for the support, love and prayers.
With Love,Karen & Brandon