So after all of the travel-ventures, I’m sure you’re wondering what ministry is like! First of all, Malaysia is GORGEOUS! Such lush greenery and dense foliage! The colors are striking. Team .APEX spent the first ten days in a small town called Kuala Krai. When we were getting a taxi to the bus station in Kuala Lumpur, the taxi driver thought he heard us wrong. “Kuala Krai?” he balked. “There’s nothing there!”
But obviously he’s not acquainted with the Holy Spirit.
Our ministry this week was incredible! After all of the traveling, we finally arrived at the Kuala Krai 7-11 at 4am. Pastor Yesudason arrived shortly after and drove us in the direction of the place we would be staying after asking if we wanted to stop for hot drinks first, “no problem”. After several attempts at ensuring him that the ONLY things on our minds were showers and sleep, he took us to our new “home”. We were to be staying at the apartment above the Chinese Presbyterian Church. These precious believers allowed us to stay free of charge! So after unloading all of our bags (this being one instance in which we missed having boys on our team J ) , he began to brief us on what ministry will look like. Mind you, at this point it is 4:30am and we’ve been traveling for 48 hours. Well our first thing was church at 7:30 that very evening. “We need two people to share, one testimony. No problem.”
Thus began a very packed and powerful week of ministry.
We spent a lot of time learning why the previous WR team called the van “the sweatbox” as we traveled from church to church. Imagine a crowded, three row van, then add another row and no AC.
I was quite surprised at all of the different cultures crammed into one little country. We went from Indian to Chinese to Indigenous Malay communities. Each group of people speak their native dialect, Bahasa Malaysian and some English. Some speak even more than that! It’s impressive.
We did teaching, preaching, children’s ministry and home visitations.
It really felt like living in the book of Acts. People gave us food left and right. We had lodging for free. And even when we tried to bless a church with money we would have spent on housing, they gave us money to cover our bus fare. God was really showing us community in a larger sense than just the six of us. This is how the body is meant to work.
I think we preached more in the past 10 days than in the first three months combined. It was such a great way to start as a team! Malaysia has been the land of instant coffee, instant noodles, and being instant in and out of season. Can’t wait for what the rest of the month holds!
precious woman near the house where we teach children from the Indian community
our Chinese students building sentences
the sweatbox 🙂
working with the unsaved Indian community
view from the sweatbox
surreal beauty!
