I’ll Be Home For Christmas

The holidays are a difficult time to be away from family, and for many this is the most difficult month to be far from home. It's strange being absent from Christmas family traditions, like advocating for my favorite dishes on the Christmas day dinner menu, last minute Christmas shopping, going to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church followed by a soup night at our house, and volunteering at the Encinitas CRC's Holiday Baskets Program. We are halfway across the world here in Malaysia and yet so many times I have felt that I am at home. You might think that being in a very strict Muslim country we would miss out on Christmas altogether. But, in fact, there are more than enough Christmas festivities to go around. Even though physically we are over eight thousand miles from home, I have felt more at home here in Malaysia than I initially expected. In the small university town of Tanjung Malim our team has inhabited our own little parsonage up the stairs from the church. Our parsonage is complete with paper snowflakes, stockings, and a Christmas tree decked out with lights and ornaments. There are smells of wassail and sweet, buttery cookies wafting from the kitchen. We certainly have created our own little Christmas haven here, without of course a crackling fireplace and definitely without the snow falling outside (in fact, I haven't felt days this hot since the Dominican Republic – and this is Malaysia's wintertime!?!).

We've kept our time busy with Christmas events. The minute we arrived in Tanjung Malim, we were planning and participating in the church's Christmas program. We got to choreograph a dance to Feliz Navidad for the children and sing a couple of carols of our own. We joined the church's caroling practice and some went out caroling from house to house.

But the thing that's made me feel most at home is the hospitality of the Malaysian people. Our main "ministry" is to go out to the homes of church members and their friends and receive their hospitality. They feed us, share their pictures and stories with us, pray with us, and sing with us.

The love that pours out of these people is astounding. We've met and formed relationships with more people here than in any country we've visited yet. It has certainly rocked our definition of "ministry."

Let me share one quick example with you:
Last week we visited the church of our pastor's brother-in-law, in the city of Rawang. We were asked to share testimonies and preach and lead worship for a couple of their Sunday services. We anticipated a long, drawn-out, tiring day of ministry. And yet, in the end we didn't want to leave the place. We were so filled up and blessed by the pastor's family and the church community. Everything we brought for those services was received well beyond any of our expectations. One of my teammates, Karen, shared her testimony and challenged people to recognize that every person has a story and that every story has value. Following her testimony, numerous church members came up to share their testimonies (some who had never shared before) and the church service ended up going way over time because so many people wanted to share what Jesus was doing in their lives. Looking back, it was so apparent that the Holy Spirit was present in that place. Afterward we were treated to a delicious lunch where we built friendships with Pastor Gabriel, his wife Ruth, and their four children. On the train ride home, our team leader Ashlee told us that the church had given us a gift. She pulled out a card and inside the card was nearly $600 ringit (which is roughly $200 USD) as a donation to our team. We came to bring blessing and left blessed beyond what we could have ever given.

Team Just Love with Pastor Gabriel (top right) and his family

One thing I've learned this month is that coming from different cultures, speaking different languages, and observing different customs may make us look very different from one another on the surface, but underneath we are all the same, we all have Jesus, and we are all family. Home is really about the people. It's taken four months for me to really realize this, but it seems so clear now. Now more than ever, in this season of being away from our family and friends, this is something I cherish and it is the best Christmas present I could've asked for (except Jesus, of course)!