Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia has been our home for about 2 weeks now. We have had the opportunity to serve at two homeless ministry locations, join another team in night outreach, an outreach of our own, clean the ministry site : Kawan, and also had the pleasure of working at a handicap facility playing with kids today.
Our ministry contact, Peter V, introduced us to Kawan, the homeless ministry site here in Georgetown that we are mainly working with. Kawan ( meaning friend ) is a ministry that is open on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. The homeless men and women are welcomed into a 10 A.M tea time, showers, rest from the heat, and lunch at 12:30 P.M. The staff also work diligently towards providing an accepting/loving atmosphere where the people can come enjoy conversations and distractions from the their world for a while. I had a woman tell me she isn’t sure how her day to day is going to go and it tends to be quite boring.
So those conversations in which we listen and interact does a lot more than we think at times. Kawan also works to provide ways out of the homeless life. For example, some men and women get into drugs so Kawan staff direct and guide the to rehabilitation centers.
We have been helping out at Kawan by cooking in the kitchen, serving, sitting at reception and conversing in the dining room with some of the men and women. It tends to look different for each of us each time.
We had a spring cleaning day at Kawan last week and that was a great opportunity to detail clean. We got to clean with a YWAM ( Youth With A Mission ) team who is doing their DTS ( Discipleship Training School ) here in Malaysia. We have been able to come along side of them in ministry and have also been able to hang out and spend time getting to know them. Team Montana has provided us with a worship service a couple of times too which has been so refreshing. I have really enjoyed being around other young people doing missions. We aren’t always near other teams working/young people that we can spend time with and enjoy so that has been enlivening.
We have helped out twice at another homeless ministry site called Lighthouse. Lighthouse provides the same things to the men and women as Kawan but they also have a bakery on the site in which we have been able to help out at as well. We meet a lot the same individuals at Lighthouse that we do at Kawan which has been a chance to remember their faces and names.
We did a night outreach with the Montana Team and I really enjoyed it. We went down and walked throughout this area where everyone hangs out at night. The spot is right on the water and it is such a relaxing place to spend your evening. Most of the people are either locals, street vendors, homeless, or children. My small team was able to talk to a guy that some of the girls had already chatted with before tonight so that was wonderful being able to come back and work on a foundation. The individual man does free-hand portraits of people so as I was getting my portrait done the girls had the opportunity to talk with him and then we were able to point him back to Kawan if he ever needed it. He talked of his wife and son and how at the moment they are in a hotel so it was gratifying being able to give him a safety net if there is a day that he doesn’t make enough money his family still gets taken care of.
Today we went to our ministry site that is going to last through this week, it is called Eden Handicap Service Centre. We were able to play with the children of Eden where some are just there daily similar to a daycare situation and some actually live there. We were able to do puzzles, sing, dance, blocks, make believe we were animals and at one point, my favorite actually, we were taught martial arts………meet the lively kids at Eden.
I was encouraged today to know that people, facilities, leaders, creative minds, funds are there providing children and older people with safety nets. For the homeless there are places with people who care for them enough to provide food and love. And there are other places for individuals who are handicap to find a home or a safe haven.
Malaysia has been a learning experience through our ministry, the individuals, the religions, the people, and also the food !
thank you for making this opportunity possible.
p.s. if someone offers you corn flavored candy…don’t take it
