The last week of ministry in Malaysia I spent working alongside the two teams in Penang. They have done many different things for ministry this month, and the glimpses I was able to see and experience while with them were incredible.
We began our time with 30 Hours of Prayer put on by the Penang House of Prayer. It kicked off Friday evening shortly after our bus arrived and continued through Saturday night leading into Easter Sunday. God spoke a lot to me throughout the time I spent in His presence, but the highlight was definitely the final two hours. Many of us had been coming in and out during the program, taking time to rest and eat before diving back in, but we were ALL present for the final few hours of worship. The Holy Spirit showed up! There were those who danced, laughed, stood in awe, bowed in reveverance, and we all sang at the top of our lungs. If there is a better way to usher in Easter, I’ve never experienced it.
About 9 hours after leaving the event we returned for the Easter service and asian potluck that followed. Let me just tell you two things I learned….rice porridge is delicious and the concept of a food line or maintaining order does not exist. Instead, everyone simply descends on the food table at once, and your turn arrives whenever you kindly push your way to each dish.
The week days consisted of alternating work at the Kawan drop in shelter, a place for those in need to get a free meal, take a shower, hear the word of God, and rest. Some World Racers sat at the welcome desk and helped people sign in, others prepared the meals and served, while others chipped paint off the walls on the second floor as part of a remodeling project on the shelter.
One of the highlights of this week for me came on Wednesday night. The Kawan shelter does a praise and worship service. We were split into three groups for this. Some Racers preached and attended that service, a second group went out to do street outreach and evangelism, and the third group was on the second floor doing intercessory prayer for the other two groups.
I joined the street outreach team and ended up in a conversation with John Emmanuel. He approached our group asking for bus money and I suckered him into a conversation instead:) I talked with him awhile and listened to him tell me about his family. He told me he has a wife and grown children living far away, and for a reason I never found out, has been separated from them. After listening for some time I offered to pray for him, his family, and for healing of a pain in his left leg that has been ailing him. As I finished I opened my eyes to see tears pouring down John’s face. He continued to cry for awhile and thank us for our prayers.
I was shocked. I hadn’t even given him what he approached us for and yet he was brought to tears by the love and compassion of Christ in us. It really made me rethink the importance of the actions we sometimes consider “small things”. It took just a touch from Jesus to heal the sick and for the lame to walk. If we are His hands (and feet) to this world then we hold the power to see the same wonders with just the compassion and love of a touch or a conversation. That’s motivational.
