John Stanko

I arrived in Zimbabwe last week and almost immediately went off to a resort in an area near Nyanga, about three hours outside of Harare, the capital city. The drive is beautiful, eventually taking you through and to an area of magnificent rock formations. When I see those formations, with some large rocks precariously perched on top of others, I know that the flood in Noah's time must have put them there. Of course, I am sure many scientists and geologists would disagree with me! There wasn't a lot of traffic because there isn't much fuel in the country due to the economic crisis.

I met with the leadership team of Hear the Word Ministries for two days after we arrived in an area called Juliasdale. We started our mornings at 6:30 am and ended them with dinner around 9 pm on both days! The only break during the day was for lunch. That may sound like a grueling schedule, but I have to admit that I enjoy meetings like that--especially if we are getting something accomplished. And we did make a lot of progress, discussing issues like vision, mission, and structure for the Ministry that now employs 200 people.

(It was an interesting sidenote that we did not have any cell phone coverage or access to email for the time we were away. I have to admit that it was a nice break.)

Hear the Word Ministries, under the leadership of Pastors Tom and Bonnie Deuschle, is a dynamic organization that is involved in church planting, education, business training, music production and much more. There aren't many other organizations like it in the world that I know of. I come here often because there are so many interesting projects to work on, and because I love the people of Zimbabwe.

Pastors Tom and Bonnie give me a "shopping list" when I come and I go to work. My main emphasis is identifying new talent for the multifaceted work they are doing and providing Pastors Tom and Bonnie with another set of eyes and ears, giving them feedback on what I see and some suggestions of how to do what they are doing more effectively.

I will always be grateful to Pastors Tom and Bonnie for the faith they have had in me and the purpose message. I know that I am difficult to work with at times. I am direct, sarcastic, and aggressive, and my humor, which I use to stay focused, engaged and to defuse tension, can be a bit much. But they have looked past my weaknesses to try and mine the "gold" that may be there in my experience and purpose. And they almost always try to focus my time on my strengths, which I would like to think are as pronounced as my weaknesses. So now I am here to work for two more weeks before I am off to London and then home to the States in time for Christmas. I'll keep you updated on my work here and will give you more information on Hear the Word in the coming weeks.

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