Edward Zimmerman

Edward Zimmerman joined Japan Mission from the South Africa in March 2022.

Testimony of my faith

I was born in a Christian home. Both my mother and father believed in Jesus. I had my own Children’s Bible. My parents took me to church and Sunday school. I was attending the Dutch Reformed Church and at the age of 17 I had to openly confessed that Jesus was my Lord and Savior. At that age I knew Jesus, but my lifestyle did not show it. 

In my final year in high school my Bible teacher shared the verse John 3:16. On that day I realized how easy is it was to become a child of God.

My mother had passed away and in 2004 I went to her grave. I cried my heart out to God and asked Him to help me. My life was falling apart. I was so unhappy. I had everything as a young male person would want to have. I great job, a beautiful girlfriend, lots of friends, my own car, and my father. But with all these mentioned things I still was so unhappy. My relationship with my father was not good. I did not like my job anymore. My relationship with my girlfriend was not going well. After that day, I believe the Lord took something away from me that let me hit rock bottom. He took my girlfriend away. She broke up with me. I felt my whole world crash down on me. But God was busy in the background. 

I started going to church again. I even joined the Sunday school ministry to be a teacher there. I thought to myself that if I die, then someone would miss me. I met a wonderful older woman, Ronel at the Sunday school ministry that took me under her wing and put me first in the puppet show at the Sunday school ministry. On a later occasion Ronel gave me the opportunity to be a Sunday School teacher for grade 3 kids. I was so afraid that if a 9-year-old would ask me something about the Bible that I would not answer them. I bought a book to answer almost any question about the Bible and this is where my hunger for God’s Word started. I studied the Bible from cover to cover. Made notes, listened to sermons and explored what God is saying in His Word. Later I became a grade 7 (13-year-old’s) Sunday school teacher and I loved it, because the kids could ask more difficult questions and I liked to answer them. I also challenged them on why they believed in God and together we had so much interaction. My goal as a Sunday school teacher was to be on the same level as the children.

In 2015 I went on my second mission to a rural village in Zambia (a country above Botswana). I worked with the high school kids and we played games and answered the difficult questions in the Bible. I enjoyed it, but still I asked myself “why am I here” and what is my purpose in this mission group. There were powerful prayer warriors, great leaders, and some that could play guitar in our mission group. I was not needed. One day I saw that our group was fighting about water. No one wanted to go and get water from the bore hole pump that was 50 meters away from our camp. I made a decision to go and get water every time the water containers were empty. In a few days the whole camp atmosphere changed, because there was water for cooking, coffee and for washing. I carried a lot of water, but I did it for the Lord.  Now the group could focus on doing the Lord’s work without fighting with each other. Here I saw that even a small insignificant work, like getting water, can make a difference in the Kingdom of God.

I want to live by faith. Follow Jesus and trust Him. The more I get older in years, the more I fall in love with God and its great. My conversion was a journey. And still each day God is pruning me and forming me into the person that He wants me to be.