Let me just start off by saying that the jungle was an
amazing experience that is hard to even put into words! Once again, we were
blessed with an amazing contact. He went above and beyond to make our
experience there incredible and one to remember! Our trip started out with a
9-10 hour train ride over night..talk about an experience!
Gua Musang is a small little city in the jungle where we
spent the majority of our time. Our contact has a center there where he teaches
character building and English, so we helped him teach his English classes.
Charlotte and Michelle made him some English videos that he could use in the
future to teach basic English (they did a great job!) This is also where we
stayed for the week- in the center where he teaches. This was our view out the door…
We were thrilled to sleep
on the floor under the nice AC and fans! Not having air conditioning makes you
appreciate it so much more when you do! I have never sweat so much in my life-
especially being here in Malaysia! It is HOT!
It is illegal to preach the gospel there because of the
strong Islamic influence. This city is like the heartbeat of Islam. It is where
the radicals of this religion live. We only heard of one church the whole time
we were there, and that church was even shut down at one point. It was amazing
to see this man, and his family, serve this community with such open hearts to
what God is doing in and through them. We could truly see and feel the Lord’s
anointing all over them. Once again, we went to serve but were encouraged more
than you can imagine by these amazing people.
visiting and he totally did! We never knew what to expect at each meal. We ate Chinese, Indian, and Malay- all different ways! The restaurants I am talking
about are not like your typical restaurant in the states. They are on the side
of the road- completely open air and completely authentic! (pictured below) We had “Nasi Lemark”, which is rice and
sugared coconut wrapped in a banana leaf. We had “Pataya” which is
rice with chicken, shrimp, and squid wrapped in egg (like an omelet) with chili
sauce drizzled on top. I had an
AMAZING coconut shake! We got served noodles with chicken feet for breakfast
one morning (wasn’t as adventurous in this- too early for chicken feet! ha),
chapatti (fried batter), roti (Indian pancakes), pork and chicken (done Chinese
style), kaya (black sugar and an egg mixture) on toast, and many other spicy
dishes. It has been interesting to see how and what people in other cultures
eat!
Our last night there we had planned to go into 2 different
villages and run a church service to encourage the Christians in these
communities. The first village we went to ended up having Christians, Muslims,
and Hindus all there at the same time, but we were told to “speak freely”..so
we did!
After this service we moved onto the next village, however we never
quite made it there. We were driving this tiny little white van and needless to
say, the back roads to get to these villages are windy, uphill, bumpy, muddy,
etc. and it had just rained..so trying to get up the hill was basically
impossible! At point some of us had to get out of the van just to make it up
the hill..we weighed a little too much. Ha At another point we slid backwards
for quite awhile before we gave up and turned around.
We kept on driving and eventually came to a hut/shack/house on
the side of the road. He turned in and said he would ask if we could spend the
night there..so we ended up staying there with another family who was staying
there! It was quite the experience..let me tell you! It had no electricity or
bathroom. The people who were staying there ended up being Christians, so we
did the service we had prepared for them. It started out with all of our
headlamps hanging from a piece of wood so that we could see who was speaking.
Eventually they turned a generator on and we used one little light. Talk about
living the simple life 🙂 It was amazing to worship with these people in Malay
(their language) and in English. We were able to pray and encourage them in
their faith. It was truly an experience of a lifetime!
After sleeping in the hut and eating our breakfast the next
morning, we took off for Cameron Highlands. This place was one of THE most
beautiful places I have ever seen. It almost didn’t even seem real. It is a
place where they grow and make tea, so there were rolling hills covered in tea
trees.
They are also known for their strawberry fields- so of course we had to
stop and get a strawberry shake and some chocolate covered strawberries!
After
seeing everything we headed back to the town to catch our train back to Kuala
Lumpur. Our 10 hour over night train ride back was probably the WORST ride I’ve
ever had- it felt like the train was going to jump the tracks the entire time,
so needless to say, no one got very much sleep! We all looked like zombies the
next morning getting off the train!
