Lets keep this short and sweet. Im in Malaysia on an island called Penang working with the local Youth With a Mission, known internationally as YWAM. The team here has a fantastic ministry and I am blessed to be a part of it for the next week of my life. They are working in a coffee shop and a homeless shelter. We get to bless the homeless with a hot meal and shower daily and provide an oppotunity for relationships to be made through interaction. Man, can you learn alot from some people who have way more than wordly riches!
Okay lets stick to the plan. So here I am on this beautiful Island working this awesome ministry. We get so see our Heavenly Father move all the time in real ways, but this one is a little different. I had the opportunity to attend a church service here in Penang at Tamil Methodist Church. We got on the city buys and headed for a large stadium in the middle of Georgetown, which is dense city on Penange Island. We got off the bus and walked a couple blocks and into a church parking lot. This looked like your pretty norrmal church setting (sorry I forgot to take pictures) and I took it for granted the building was built in 1934! So its seen its share of church goers. Radical.
We sit through church, which is sort of a loud service and a bit on the drawn out side, but SO worth it. Heres why. I am sitting there thinking about how much the methodist ways are similar to Catholicism, since that is my religious background, and it dawns on me the people in the audience. They are all Indian, or have the appearance of what an American might think an Indian from India might look like. Truth is they are all Malay, and decendants from families who migrated from India to Malaysia. The profound note is this: If you are born into the Islamic ways, you are bound by your identity with the government which can never change. Your heart can change, but the paperwork cannot. 60% of the congregation yesterday at that church were Islamic converts to Christianity!!! HOLY SMOKES!! Read that again. These people gave up their worldly identity to take on the identity they have in Christ despite the worlds attempt to keep them in a box they know they dont belong.
God moves in the nations. This is one tiny tiny story of how.
