Sowing Tears Into Japan

Last month, ZOE Japan sent their very first Japanese short term missions team to ZOE Thailand. Below is a beautiful testimony of one of the members that joined the trip.

I left ZOE Thailand having shed tears, yes.

But the tears I shed were not the tears I expected. Psalm 126:5 says that those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. It was as if I got to experience the reaping of the tears sown at ZOE. I’m convinced ZOE Thailand has sown countless tears over many years and the reaping of joy overflows to bless even the short term mission teams like us who come.

During the weekly prayer night

they have had for over a decade, I began by praying alone before the Lord. Not too long later and to my surprise, I felt two precious hands rest upon my arm. I opened my eyes to see two little girls praying for me. The love of Christ is tender…

Outreach with ZOE to over 250 kids that arrived from surrounding villages – theme: anti-human trafficking. A gut response was to think “are these kids old enough to be learning about these “adult” subjects?” But this is their potential reality: either learn about it or fall victim to it. It was humbling and inspiring to see the ZOE ministry school students and the Child Rescue Center staff inform the kids about anti-human trafficking while loving them and having fun with them. The love of Christ is just…

As an engineer,

I was particularly intrigued by their near self-sustaining capacity. From their growing medical and professional counseling capabilities to their extensive agricultural endeavors, ZOE Thailand touches almost every corner of life. Yet all of their capabilities are rooted first in Christ. The gospel isn’t just for Sundays but builds communities that become cities on a hill to shine for the nations to turn. The love of Christ is thorough…  

I am grateful for what I experienced at ZOE Thailand. I will carry the experiences of tenderness, the zeal for justice, and the thorough reformation of the love of Christ back with me to Japan, where God has called me and where my heart is. Knowing the tears of Thailand, the taste of joy was ever so sweet, but I desire to sow tears into Japan; the tears of Psalm 119:136 – “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law,” and ZOE Japan still needs a flood of tears before Japan will begin to reap with shouts of joy.