Chinese New Year that is. Hello from Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital city of Malaysia!! February 14
th, 2010 began the Chinese New Year festivities. The holiday lasts 15 days and our team, 7 Seas, have a 3-day weekend to sight-see, shop and taste quite a bit of the Malaysia and Chinese culture. Kuala Lumpur reminds me a lot of New York City in that the city never sleeps. And this month it seems our team is fitting in.
View of the Twin Towers in KL.
Dinner @ Chili’s for Cori’s b’day (Peter & Carol right front)This month, our contacts/shephers here in Malaysia, Peter & Carol have placed us to work and live at a primary/secondary school called Harvesters Center in a northern area of KL. The school was founded by Pastor “Uncle” Elijah and his wife, “Aunty” Petrina. One day Petrina drove through the area and she took hold of the poverty right in front of her eyes. So she decided to put herself through school so that she could return and provide quality education for the poor and refugee children in the area. The school provides education (and some housing) for approximately 700 kids!! Most are refugees from Burma (formerly Myanmar) and the majority of the students are of Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist backgrounds.
We have been brought to this school to serve as God leads. We are helping to teach subjects such as English, Science & Math. We’ve done cleaning projects in the 2 buildings and dorms, Daniel & Becky are helping to coordinate a Field Day event for the kids and their families’, Cori & Tiff have been interviewing students and recording accounts of how they came to this school, Scottie is using her excellent photography skills to document school life for a newsletter, etc. While the students enjoy the holidays, we are putting together materials and resources for the 32 sister centers.
We begin our days praying together as a team and eat a breakfast provided by an amazing servant and woman of God named Yani. At 7:30am, we’re off to our appointed helping points all over the school. Last week I taught morning and afternoon sessions of 4th grade classes alongside a teacher named Judith. In the afternoons we taught a class of 40 students together! It’s been go-go-go since we stepped foot here. There are so many students to teach and thankfully more teachers and volunteers are being brought in to help! We finish the school day around 5pm, eat a bite of dinner and then despite the tiredness, we come together for a time of reflection and praise and debrief with each other. But because we are living in the school dorms, the day never ends in the classroom. The other girls and I are able to be a witness to the young girls we live with. They are curious about everything and somehow God gives us the strength we need to keep talking and building relationships with them.
We’ve struggled with serious jetlag, being constantly surrounded by children at work and in the dorms, some miscommunication, and learning who we are as a team. It’s been a rough go since arriving in Asia, but I’ll also be just as frank in saying that God has never ceased being gracious and good to us. It’s not always a bad thing to suffer. In fact, all of the hard experiences I’m walking through as a leader and once again in a new culture and pace, have brought me to a new place with God. Getting to this place wasn’t “sunshine and roses” but rather a more tearful, humiliating process. I’m learning so much about what it really means to be a servant as defined by Christ. I honestly thought that just by calling myself a servant and saying to someone “I will serve you,” that that was all it took. But I was SO wrong! Even then I had conditions on how I wanted to serve. I was still serving myself rather than God and His Kingdom. OUCH! But God has brought me to a place where I want to praise Him and actually obey Him whatever the cost and whatever the conditions. I’ve been given a taste of His love for Malaysia and it’s nothing short of powerful.
February 14th began the Chinese New Year and our team had the day off to celebrate Cori’s birthday and enjoy some festivities at a mall in the city.
Visit w/ Carol’s mom Mall decorated for Chinese New Year
Acrobat for CNY festivities Got to watch a lion dance @ mall to celebrate Chinese New Year
I’m excited about sharing more about Kuala Lumpur and the work with Harvesters Center and Peter & Carol. Please pray for good health for our team and that we would never stop being molded into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Please pray that we would be wise and faithful servants, which includes being wise stewards of any downtime we get.
Let’s Race!
