“Aloha” in the Hawaiian language means “love.”  Over time, it has also come to be used as a greeting and a farewell, much as the Hebrew word for peace (shalom) has also come to be used for “hello” and “goodbye.”

ZOE was blessed recently by a 9-member short-term mission team from Word of Life Church in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The team definitely brought their aloha as they shared God’s love with our ZOE ohana (family) through fellowship, worship, preaching the Word, elective classes, and sports.

The Hawaii team also participated in evangelistic outreaches to a remote hill tribe village and a local school in Doi Saket bringing the Good News to the wonderful people of Thailand and helping to educate against the dangers of human trafficking.

They also brought a taste of Hawaii to the ZOE Children’s Home!  The team prepared the ono (delicious) traditional Hawaiian coconut dessert haupia for us at the barbecue dinner they sponsored.  During our worship services, the wahine (women) shared several beautiful hula worship dances while both the wahine and the kane (men) performed a modern interpretive dance.  Before leaving, the team blessed the ZOE staff with colorful lei for all.

It wasn’t all work for our Hawaii friends, though!  They enjoyed a traditional northern Thai khantoke dinner which in some ways is similar to a Hawaiian luau.  They also visited the Maesa elephant camp and it is rumored that there may have even been an evening spent shopping at the night bazaar!

We were so happy to say aloha to our brothers and sisters from Hawaii when they arrived and sad to say aloha as they left to return home.  But we will never forget the awesome aloha they shared with us while they were here!

Mahalo nui loa and ahui hou!

To see more photos from the Word of Life team click here.