While flying into Malaysia all I could see was green trees and a blue ocean. Do you ever enter into a place with a good feeling? You aren’t even sure why, but you just feel at peace?
That was how I felt walking into the airport. Soon, after little sleep, we were all outside waiting on our taxis. The air was warm, the breeze blowing lightly, the place definitely had that beach feel. We drove into the city of Kuala Lumpar, and most of us passed out the rest of the day. At night the city came alive with twinkling lights and lanterns hanging over china street. There were carts cooking food, people walking around in shorts and tank tops in the warm air, and the street was full of good vibes and laughter.
I couldn’t help but think to myself how blessed I was to be turning 25 in such a neat place. Prior, I had been dreading the thought of turning 25… mostly because I had plans, I thought my life would look a lot different by then. I was carrying around the weight of a failed worldly checklist and entering that weird age where your body is peaking, you aren’t young anymore but you aren’t old either, most of your friends are married and settled in their jobs and either have a kid or have one on the way, your license expires, you can legally rent a car, and within one year you are on your own in the health insurance category.
But standing in that street on a midsummer night it really hit me how much the Lord knows the desires of my heart. Here I was traveling the world, seeing and experiencing so many different cultures and getting to fall deeply in love with him… and the fifteen year old girl who made that checklist was not the same person standing here today. I felt overwhelmed with how much He loves me to put such amazing friends and family in my life, and people to push me, encourage me, and support me.
We took the nicest bus since I have been on the race to Malacca where we are staying for the month, and arrived at our hosts home to find that we were set up in the separate guest house. This family is so amazing and kind, and we are literally staying in our own home with beds, a hot shower, a kitchen, and a family room with a piano and books!
The first night they took us to a market where many different people were cooking food outside! The way it works is that you go up and order from one of the carts, find a seat in the middle of this square, and then they come and bring you food! So many options and different things to try! I loved the atmosphere, everyone just sitting together outside at sunset, food and conversation all around!
This first week we worked at a school called Wings for special needs children and young adults. The program they have going on here is incredible, they literally have everything organized down to a tee! They are educating them and teaching them how to live and function on their own by creating chores and routines. It is just like a regular school day, starting at 8:00 am and ending at 3:00 pm when their parents pick them up and take them home.
We came alongside the kids at they cooked and cleaned, and by that I mean they showed me howto cook because Lord knows I don’t know how! Then we also did some outside manual labor that involved cutting down trees! I will tell you what, there is no better way to get a bunch of tom girls who grew up around boys to do a job than to tell them you thought there would be boys on the team…
We were like, “Whoaaa…. we are from the country and can do anything they can!” It turns out it was way more difficult than I imagined, however, being too prideful to quit and having to prove that women can be just as handy even if it did take a little longer, we accomplished the task of trimming the branches away from the school building and sawing down 5 trees!
Then we cut out 368 pieces of cardboard, 368 pieces of paper with word on them and then glued 368 together. They had to be perfect because if there were any smudges or black lines it would distract the kids from the words on the flashcard.
We also attended the churches prayer meeting, and then small group on Friday nights. It was really nice to sit around a room and go through a bible study and be able to talk about and challenge different ideas! The best statement I heard was, we settle for good when we could have the best.
We went to a really good church service, and it absolutely melted my heart when one of the kids from the school came up and patted me only the shoulder and started smiling and waving! His mother said, “He usually doesn’t remember people or approach them!” We had a lot of time together with him teaching me to cook!
We are involved with many different programs here and I love the people and culture and am looking forward tot he rest of the month! We are without internet, so I will update when I can!
