The first component of Zim Team 2012 arrived safely via Addis Ababa and emerged onto the parking lot beneath the hot Zimbabwe sun to begin what we all know will be a series of "God moment" discoveries.
The team has been in Zimbabwe for a day and a half, but already the evidence of Providential superintending is there.
ANESU's resident Heuglins Robin is greeting the early morning as I write this. As one of the team members said yesterday, the day begins with an overture that swells into a symphony.
My Heuglins Robin friend began the overture a little while ago as dawn began to break just beyond the majestic palm tree just outside the bedroom window, and now the symphony is in full swing.
The birds say it well. You see, "the Heavens declare the glory of God. The earth shows forth His handy work. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night reveals knowledge."
A Shona congregation we were a part of yesterday said it well too, as the rented room in which it met filled with the praises of simple, sincere and transparent hearts.
I write this in the early morning cool, on this first day of the first week of ZimTeam 2012's time with us. The breaking dawn has painted the Eastern skyline gold. The dawn has lit up the underbellies of puffy rainy season clouds. The distant clouds form the first rank of a battalion that stands above to attention in ranks against a wonderfully clear blue sky.
Today will find us making our way West out of the capital city of Harare to a simple campground where more simple, sincere and transparent hearts will gather in the persons of TEAM Zimbabwe's missionary task force. Bob Myers, the leader of Zim Team 2012 is geared up and ready to go with words of exhortation and encouragement from God's Word. Matt Toll will be superintending the refreshment that comes to weary, worn workers every time they are ushered into the presence of God to praise, then worship Him in simple faith. Bob's daughter, Hannah, will be taking the missionaries' children under her gentle wing, allowing their parents to give themselves completely to what's in store for them while, at the same time, building eternal values into their children's young lives.
ANESU has only one requirement of visiting teams; that they have a right heart.
Every member of Zim Team 2012 has provided evidence in the few hours they've been with us of having met that requirement in full.
Could it have only been twelve months ago that the first team to visit ANESU arrived from New Jersey? So much has been accomplished is such a brief period of time. This team follows in the steps of that with involvement in ministry to those doing ministry, followed by face-to-face engagement with Zimbabwe's people at a number of levels.
The team from New Jersey left me with a heart that was deeply grateful ... a gratitude that has grown steadily since.
Each team that comes to Zimbabwe to see, then discern where and how they can contribute to what God is doing here give expression to the powerful impact that is made on them by the people they meet, the situations they're exposed to, and the experiences they have. Twin truth to that lies in the fact that they too, impact us and those who meet them here in powerfully positive ways.
Zim Team 2012's real work will begin a week from now, as the remaining four members arrive to embark on a busy itinerary of discovery and the laying of relational foundations of ministry opportunity alongside Zimbabweans responding to the needs of people infected, affected and at risk by HIV/AIDS.
As jet lag nudged me awake from time to time in the course of the night gone by, I revelled in the luxury of hope. Hope, today, will be my theme.
There is eternal hope in the face of human hopelessness ... hope that comes through a special kind of faith. That faith is very much in evidence today.
I love it when God's plan comes together.
Bud Jackson
Project Director
ANESU
