This past month my squad and I spent in Malaysia. Before March, I knew nothing about Malaysia. I’d seen commercials and billboards since being in Asia about Malaysia saying it was “the real Asia”. But other than that I knew nothing. And after spending a month here the Lord has ignited a passion in me for this place that I never even knew existed.
Iconic towers that I happened upon one day.
My team and I worked with a children’s home. At the home there were around 90 kids and 15 elderly and around 30 staff. The kids were split up into 3 different homes, a boys home, a girls home, and a nursery home that had kids aged 3 to 10. At first it was rocky. We were with first time contacts so both my team and the hosts were trying to figure things out. Our team was the first short term team in general that the home had hosted, so the first few days were awkward as everyone was trying to work things out. Even though there wasn’t an immediate connection with the hosts, the Lord encountered all of my team’s hearts through interactions with the kids; they were so good. I feel so blessed to have been able to meet and love on them all month and I know that through them I saw greater depths to the Father’s love. Depths that I didn’t know could exist again after the love experienced for the 2 girls in Cambodia. But there is no cap or no ending point to the Father’s love and that was such a cool thing to experience month 7 when I least expected it!! I’m so sad to say though that by request of our contact I won’t be posting any pictures of the kids online, but know that they are all beautiful and they have impacted my life greatly!
View of our ministry.
So here’s a little about our days, they started at 8:30 AM. We went to morning prayer with the kids that was started with worship then followed with 3 different people praying. It was such a beautiful way to start the day with the kids. My favorite part of these times was getting to hold my little buddy Emayawell’s hands. Every morning we sought each other out and by the end of the month I’ll tell you, he had my heart!! After that my team and I either did anything around the complex that needed to get done. Some days that looked like cleaning drains or raking leaves or organizing a library or teaching a fun educational class to the nursery kids.
Before and after pics of the library!!
Then at 12:30 we ate the lunch that the kids ate (which was usually rice, veges, and tofu). After that we had a break during the hottest part of the day, and let me tell you it was HOT; believe it or not Malaysia heat makes South Carolina summers look mild!!! Then at 5 we went to playtime with the nursery and girls’ home. We played frisbee, swung on swings, played tag, and so much more. This was another part of the day where I would seek little Emayawell out, we loved balancing on tree roots, twirling together and he especially loved using me as a jungle gym to do flips on. Then at 6:30 was the nursery devotional, 7:00 was the girls devotional and 8:00 was the boys devotional. So my team and I split up and rotated through who led each one and it was so much fun!!! My favorite was leading nursery. It started with singing songs; next we told a live-action bible story and we ended with a song to help them remember the story. By the end of the month we had taught them almost 20 stories. I bet you can guess why I liked this one best…yep, it’s cause I got to spend more time with Emayawell; man, I love that little kid!!
One day we got to help in the bazaar (aka thrift shop) that our ministry owned!!
So that was pretty much what the bulk of our time with Desa Amal Jireh looked like. We did a pretty cool last minute experience at the end of the month though; the last 4 days with our ministry were spent in a village 3 hours outside of the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. It was such a different experience from anything I’ve done thus far on the race and it was so refreshing to be in a tiny village in the jungle in the mountains, it was awesome. (The respite from the heat was nice too!!) Our time in the village looked like playing frisbee with local girls, cleaning a goat pen, pulling weeds in their tea garden, running errands, helping put on another village outreach with a skit, and eating lots of local foods!! It was the perfect way to end this unexpected month!!
Having fun with the goats in the village!!
Loved playing Frisbee with these lovely ladies!!
So I don’t know if Malaysia is “the real Asia” like the advertisements say because who even knows what that really means, but from the time that I spent there I can say that Malaysia is a real gem of a place and I experienced the Lord there in ways I never have before, so I can only hope that one day I’ll go back!!
Just another one of the many reasons that I loved Malaysia, there was Papa John’s!!!!
