The first country we stayed in when we arrived to Asia was Malaysia. It was the first time I had ever been to a country in Asia and I didn’t know what to expect. Little did I know that I’d be in for a huge culture shock after having just lived in Africa for the past three months.
Our squad stayed in the city of Kuala Lumpur (KL), which was a super developed and westernized city in Malaysia. It was almost like being back home without actually being at home. There were a ton of huge buildings like skyscrapers, hotels, mega-malls, and pretty much any other type of facility you can think to find back in the U.S. And after living in countries where those things were few and far between for so long it was definitely overwhelming.
During our first week in Malaysia we had a debrief, which is a time for us to rest and reflect on everywhere and everything that the Lord had taken us through up to that point. It wasn’t a great time of rest for me however because I was so distracted by all of the things in the city that we had back home that I hadn’t seen for so long. There was a lot of good times with friends on my squad during those few days exploring the mega-malls, eating fast food I hadn’t had for awhile, and seeing new movies for cheap prices, but my focus had shifted more on those things than on seeking what God had for me and my squad for the time we’d be there.
No doubt God was faithful and was still working on my heart during that debrief as I spent time in one on ones with some of our leaders and mentors, and with my squamates during sessions we had throughout the week. However, I know I had allowed myself to be distracted from spending time with the Lord to be refreshed and well rested for this next part of the journey. And little did I know that I would be experiencing a completely brand new adventure in this next chapter of the World Race.
Near the end of the week of our debrief we were informed that the guys on our squad would be joining with the guys of our sister squad called the “Fusion Squad” to do what was called “Manistry” for the remainder of our time in Malaysia. Manistry is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s when the men get to break off from the women on the squad and spend time getting to do ministry together. The majority of people on my squad are women so there had never been any time that there was a team of just men until then.
There was nine men from my squad including our squad leader Kevin, and four men from the Fusion Squad including their squad leader Daniel. We had decided that since we had a good number of us that we’d split into two teams. Funny enough, one of the teams decided to be called “The Guys” and the other team decided to be called “The Other Guys.” I know, real original, right? Haha
Anyways, we spent some time praying and felt that God wanted us to just go and know that He’d be with us wherever we went. So, we decided to go up towards the northeastern part of the country to a city called Kuala Terengganu (KT), stay there for a couple of days, and then head to a small island off the nearby coast called Kapas for a few days.
The island Kapas was a very small one but very beautiful, and all of us guys had the privilege to stay right in front of the beach as we got to tent in a place designated for camping. During our time there we got to enjoy God’s beautiful creation swimming in the ocean, snorkeling, and hiking through the jungle. In between all of that we continued to build our friendships as brothers in Christ and build relationships with the people who were already camping on the island before we got there.
Some of the people there were locals of Malaysia and some of them were tourists from a few other countries. Having the opportunity to meet so many different people and have many different conversations was really cool. It’s always interesting to hear about another person’s walk through life. It was during this time with these many different interactions that I met two people I will never forget; Jack and Melur. They are a couple who had been staying on the island for a while before we got there. They are both locals of Malaysia who became really close with our group and several of us with them. They were very willing to share their life stories with us and some of us were able to share our life stories with them and how God had been working in our lives to the point where we were able to meet them on the World Race. They were willing to talk about God and share views. As I spent more time getting to know them on the island the three of us were quickly becoming good friends.
After two days on the island my team “The Other Guys” felt that the Lord was calling us to go back to the city of KT, while the other team “The Guys” felt they should stay on the island for a couple more days. So, we planned to stay in KT for a few days before heading back to KL where we would stay for another few days before leaving for the next country. After deciding this we shared our plans with Jack and Melur and found out that they had a cafe in KL which we said we would try to visit when we got back there. They then told us that they would be leaving the island the same day as we were and would be heading back to KL later that same day.
This is where the story gets really cool, like God doing stuff type of cool.
When we left the island in the morning we settled in at a hostile when we got back to KT. After that we decided to get some lunch and then go on a prayer walk. During our prayer walk we just asked the Holy Spirit to guide us through the city to any people He wanted us to talk with, pray for, or help out in anyway we could.
Along the way we met a man sweeping his restaurant and helped him finish cleaning it, afterwards telling him we’d come back the next day to eat there (Which we did, and it was good). We also met a man sitting by a KFC with a busted up hand wrapped in some bandages. We felt God wanted us to talk to him and pray for him. So we bought him some KFC and asked him what happened to his hand. He told us he broke it in a motorcycle accident but didn’t have enough money to get it properly treated. We then asked if we could pray for Jesus to heal his hand and he let us, which was really cool because he seemed to be a practicing Muslim. After praying for him my friend Greg then shared with him that only Jesus can heal his hand in a miraculous way if he can’t receive proper medical treatment. He shared a testimony about how God healed a women with tumors when we were in Madagascar and that God could do the same with his hand if he trust that Jesus will do it because He loves him. The next day some of the guys from our team ran into him again when they were out and while talking with him he showed them that he was able to start bending his fingers to some degree which he couldn’t do at all before when we first met him. I believe God started to heal his hand. It was awesome to hear, and we praised the Lord for His goodness to that man especially because he was unable to afford any proper medical treatment for the injury. We continued to pray that God would reveal Himself to that man and that he would come to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
The rest of this journey will continue in part two of this blog series. Hope you read it. God bless!!!
