In Conversation with Elinam Amegadzie, Editor of ‘He Shall Wipe Away Every Tear’

There are many tools that we can use to help deepen our spiritual walk. Journaling can be one tool we can use to help us connect with God.

‘He Shall Wipe Away Every Tear’ is a Christian encouragement journal and anthology, created in collaboration with nine writers and has been designed to point towards Jesus Christ as the One who comforts in all seasons.

Daughter’s and Heirs sat in conversation with Elinam, editor of ‘He Shall Wipe Away Every Tear’ to discover the journey of the book from draft to publication and explore the benefits of Christian journaling.

D&H: How are you feeling after the launch of the project?

Since the launch, I feel grateful for God’s faithfulness. As soon as I hit the publication button,

it really dawned on me that this was a whole year’s worth of work with nine people that didn’t know each other and some I didn’t know.

To see how we’ve worked as a team - it’s a testament that God can begin something, even when it’s tough in the middle, He can see it through.

So, I really feel grateful to God and grateful to all nine of the writers.

D&H: What was the inspiration behind this project?

Around 2021, I was starting to learn more about how God personally speaks to me. I learnt that dreams were one of those ways.

The actual cover of the journal I got in a dream. I remember waking up and drawing it out and realised that this idea didn’t come from me.

In 2019, I had the same feeling of urgency volunteering with a homeless shelter. So I asked the Lord to continue to speak to me on it and I started to receive other pieces like the name of the journal.

The beginning of this journal came in steps. I also knew that Jesus himself was moved with compassion to heal people, and that healing is not just physical - there’s emotional healing.

There are so many things that can be used for healing. I knew writing was one of them.

So, it was a build-up of things that eventually required me to step out by posting an open invite and explaining the ideas and sharing some of the verses, especially Thessalonians 5:11 which is on the back of the journal:

‘Therefore, comfort each other and edify each other, just as you also are doing’ which

were Paul’s words to the Thessalonians. It was really one-stepping stone at a time.

D&H: This project is a journal and collective anthology. What role has journaling played in your faith?

Journaling became a space for me to put my thoughts on paper. But I also used it as prayer.

I used to write down prayers or write down my thoughts and turn them into prayers. It helped a lot with overthinking.

I really felt that sometimes there were just too many topics going through my head and too many things to worry about.

But, as soon as I wrote it on paper, I could see the reality and sometimes it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Journaling became a creative outlet as well.

Journaling became a place for me to be honest with God. A place where I didn’t have to worry about what other people think about how I feel. It was just me and God that saw that

journal.

D&H: How has the project changed you or your perspective on life in any way? What have you learned after going through the whole process from ideation to publication or post-launch?

It’s shown me that God can use a lot of different people with a lot of different experiences.

And, how God has shown his faithfulness in a lot of different people’s situations.

And I think, speaking for myself, I got quite comfortable with knowing ‘God, you’ve done this in my life’ and having my own track record to refer to.

But this project has really shown me that there are other experiences that I can thank God for. How he has helped other people.

It also taught me that if I say yes to God, if anyone says yes to God, He will see them through and He will see us through.

You can order a copy of the encouragement journal and anthology ‘He Shall Wipe Away Every Tear’ on Amazon. 100% of the money generated from this Journal and Anthology will go to Father’s House Elim Church, Lancaster, UK to support their ministry and work in the community.