I would like to present to you my first journal entry in Malaysia. Before I proceed, I must warn you that I am being real & vulnerable with everyone reading this. But just read it through and I promise, you’ll see the beauty of God’s redemptive graces before it’s over. Enjoy!
“Saturday 2/4/17 1:07pm
I am honestly just really pissed right now. I have prayed for healing and don’t understand why I have seen little to no change. We arrived in Malaysia around 12 noon on Wednesday, so about 3 days ago. Ever since, my left ear has not popped back to normal and I can’t hear with full capacity. It’s driving me crazy!! I feel like I’m in another world; a new city in a new country (& heck… a new continent), feeing like I’m walking around in a fog without the ability to hear correctly and all my words sounding muffled when I speak. I’m so frustrated that I want to cry! God, can you please at least grant me this one request: if not before, when I wake up tomorrow can my ear have popped and my hearing be back to normal, PLEASE?! I’m begging you. Thank you in advance, Lord! You are good! Always, no matter what!”
Those last few sentences were hard to say but I had to remind myself that no matter what happens, God remains a good God. The circumstances of my life do not determine or change the goodness of God’s character.
Over the next few weeks, I would continue to struggle with my ears. I saw a doctor, took some meds, and continued to pray but this struggle put me in a real funk – physically and spiritually. I was so frustrated with this foggy feeling and my inability to hear that I didn’t want to be around anyone or do anything. I kept asking myself what there is to learn through this experience and I knew that God was calling me to just be still and seek him. Instead, I would retreat to my room as soon as team activities were done and find every distraction I could until I fell asleep, just hoping I would wake up better the next day.
I should backpedal a bit and tell you that this month our team has been in the city of Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia doing what we called Ask The Lord (ATL) ministry. So we literally pray and ask the Lord what He would have us do and see where He leads us. At first, I really struggled as I felt like I couldn’t hear God’s voice. I didn’t know what to do. So, I just stayed in my room to pray over KL and my teammates as they went out to meet people and do ministry.
I really believe that there was spiritual warfare going on in my body and my mind. After a few days of this funk, I realized that I had to stop letting my physical state rule over my day, my emotions, and my spirit. So I got out and did ministry with my team.
From that day forward, I have fallen in love with this city & the beautiful people in Malaysia! God has given such undeserved favor to our team. I have felt like a spoiled little princess and not because of material things but because I have been SO loved by the King of Kings! I am in awe and amazement of His unconditional love and just by the way He orchestrates for us to be in the right place at the right time, to meet the people He wants us to share His love with. Divine appointments. Supernatural synchronicities.
Also, it is worth sharing that our team has been studying the book of Acts. Acts chapter 9 speaks about Saul’s encounter with Christ. Afterwards, he was blind for 3 days. Though it may be our first reaction to think that this is punishment for Saul’s persecution of Christians, it is not. In fact, his blindness is a result of an encounter with/seeing Christ and was meant as a time for reflection with God. Now, I didn’t have a literal face to face encounter with Jesus (LOL) but this did remind me of the struggles with my ears. For the most part, they are better. They still pop when I yawn, swallow, or just whenever they want. It can be so annoying but I have faith that God is healing me in His timing. Through it all, I have a newfound empathy for those living with ailments everyday and a newfound respect for the faith and joy they find in the name of Jesus Christ despite many challenges. God has shown me that my faith in Him and His timing never stops growing. This time has allowed me to see the importance in removing distractions and just being still with the Lord. And in the end, Asia was speaking loud & clear to me!
Now, I have some things to show you! Through ATL ministry, we have been able to build friendships with people and find adventure at the same time. So I have included some pics and info of this month’s journey below:
1. Adit – Hunter, one of our squad leaders, met and introduced us to Adit. Adit is a selfless, loving person who invited us into his life. He shared his rooftop pool with us and even used his amazing photography skills for a spontaneous photo shoot. He organized – with the help of his friends, Matt & Hafeez – for some of us to go to see monkeys & visit a firefly park. Seriously, a magical day! (Video below from firefly park)
2. Galentines Day – To celebrate Valentines day on the race, our team decided to love on one another. The 7 of us combined our lodging and food budget to get an Air B’n’B for the night. Caitlyn, Jordie, and Katie set it all up for us with some surprises. The night included chocolate, movies, popcorn, a photoshoot, pizza, music, and dancing. Seriously, the Lord redeemed what it means to lean on His love instead of the love this world offers. I felt spoiled by the love of the one, true King.
3. Durian – Known to locals as the “king of fruit”, this is a fruit that quite literally smells like rotting trash! So much so that it has been banned from certain restaurants and public places like hotels/hostels. People even wear gloves when they eat it to prevent the stench from getting on their skin because it doesn’t come off for days. Abundant Pursuit is a team of try-ers. So, what did we do? WE ATE IT! (& then gagged)
4. Local Missionaries – We met 2 other missionary families who live in Malaysia and they shared their wisdom with us. We did some training and were given new eyes for how to reach those around us. (For their safety, names are not mentioned and pictures cannot be posted.) Also, there is a pastor that has been doing work in Malaysia for about 20-30 years & was abducted about 3 weeks ago. It is believed that the Malaysian government has taken him but no one knows where he is or if he is still alive. Please be in prayer over him.
5. Masjid Jamek – For ministry one day, we went to Masjid Jamek which is one of the large Muslim mosques in Kuala Lumpur. Every Friday, hundreds (if not a couple thousand) of men flood in for 1:00 prayer. Women are not allowed to go in, as they have a separate prayer time & if menstruating, they are not permitted to enter at all. Even though it is very risky talking about Jesus, we were still able to just talk to the women there and get to know them while they waited for their husbands and fathers to finish praying. It really opened my heart to be grateful to serve a God that we can pray to anytime & anywhere, with the only requirement being a genuine heart. That Friday afternoon, we prayed over that place and my heart became broken for the spiritual oppression surrounding Malaysia.
7. Mezra – Mezra is a deaf woman who lives on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. She was able to communicate with us by pen and paper, with broken english. It was difficult to catch exactly what her story is but I continue to pray for her and her children.
8. Our team chose to pass out sandwiches to the people living on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. As Caitlyn was using the location search feature on Instagram later that night to see what was going on in Bukit Bintang (the part of KL we were in), she came across a stranger’s post of us. 🙂
7. Batu Caves – Limestone Caves we visited for adventure day! Lots & lots of steps and we made some friends, too!
8. Mac – Mac is the owner/operator of the hostel we stayed in for pur first two weeks in KL. We were able to build a friendship with Mac and just show him the love of Christ. Funny thing is, he taught us about humility and selflessness. He even took us out for pizza one night with his casino winnings. Lol. Before leaving, we went bowling to celebrate his birthday.
9. Refugee School – This is Kap Muan Lian. I refer to him as monkey boy for reasons you can clearly see. Serving at a refugee school with young children was very challenging but so rewarding. Children bring such a joy and light, despite the turmoil in their lives. They are eager to learn and eager to know others. <3
10. Nick, Ali, & Putra Jaya – Nick is quite an interesting man. He served as a translator for the U.S. Army for 5 years and he and his family are now UN recognized Iraqi refugees. He would say hi to us as we walked by the perfume store that he worked at and from there, a beautiful friendship blossomed. We learned a lot about selfless love through the hospitality that Nick and his brother, Ali, shared with us. They became like family and even though they are men of Muslim faith, they were willing and happy to come to church with us. They showed us a city called Putra Jaya where we visited the national mosque and took pictures in front of a palace. The night before we left, Nick and Ali treated us to a 5 course Arabic meal that we definitely did nothing to deserve. I am overwhelmed by the impact they made on us and can only hope and pray that we made a lasting impact on their lives as well!
11. “Liquid nitrogen, Dragon’s Breath…” – Jalan Alor is the local street where the market comes alive at night. One of the first nights that we were in Malaysia, we stopped to try Dragon’s Breath (meringue biscuits dipped in liquid nitrogen). That night we met Kevin & Ian. We would continue to say hi to them as we passed through the market and had added their names to our prayer wall. One night as we stopped to say hi, Jordie noticed that Kevin’s shirt said “Jesus Festival” on it. Come to find out, they are Christians and immediatel, we all were filled with such excitement and joy to know two brothers in Christ. We ended up going to their church, World Harvest Church MY (WHC) the next two Sundays that we had left in Malaysia. Pastors Albert & Stephanie Isaac and the community of WHC welcomed us with such open arms. For me, this became a community that I could see myself calling home and I know some of my teammates have voiced the same feeling as well. I cannot express the amount of love and hospitality we were shown by this group of Jesus-loving people. It made leaving KL such a bittersweet time and I cannot wait to hopefully return in the future!
12. Busking – Yes, that is a word. No, I did not know what it meant until about a week or so ago. It is the act of playing music or otherwise performing for voluntary donation in the street or subway. Caitlyn, Jordie, and I decided to busk for fun. We sang some pop songs and a worship song or two. We managed to make 9 ringgits (approximately $2)! Haha. We even had a Moroccan YouTuber stop to enjoy some busking with us…
13. Melvyn & Nadine – Melvyn & Nadine are members of WHC who opened their hearts and home to us and invited us over for dinner. They cooked some fine Indian cuisine and we were blessed by their hospitality and their conversation. (I know, I’ve used that word a lot in this blog but hospitality for our team was in abundant overflow this month – glory to Jesus!)
14. Hello Kitty Cafe – Yes, by chance, we happened to be in the vicinity of the Hello Kitty Cafe. I was way too excited that we got to visit! Haha. To top it off, we had a sweet friend to join us. 😀
