Malaysia is the closest thing to home

Where do I start? Have you ever traveled somewhere and just felt at home even though your not that is what I am experiencing here. The countryside is vast jungle just calling to my soul to explore and the city is as urban as anything in America. Our team is staying in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, which houses about 2 million people in a 94 sq mi area. Almost half the population is made up of Chinese and there is also a large presence of illegal immigrant workers. Post WWII Malaysia gained its freedom from the British and has taken much of its legal system from them. Malaysia is also know for it large population of Muslims. As Christian’s it’s illegal for us to try and convert them and is punishable with jail.   

The city itself is very urban with extensive transit systems. There are the good parts of town and the bad parts like any major city. We of course are staying in the worst part of town in terms of crime and drugs. Our contacts here in Malaysia have been more than accommodating. We are the first WR team to do ministry in Malaysia and I have to say I think we have made a good impression on our host family. Their names are Peter and Carol and they own a local restaurant, which they feed us out of three times a day. They have been Christians since 2000 and have fully embraced the call to community. They have even taken us in to their own home at times to feed and fellowship with us. Our ministry has consisted of a homeless drop in shelter, working with Nepalese immigrant workers and prayer walking through the city.

To this point on the race, I feel like this is the first place that I could actually come and live. The faith is strong here and the body is growing at a high rate. It’s hard to put into words the call on my heart because it’s more of a gut feeling. Maybe it’s the graffiti artists I hung out with or the fact that everyone speaks English or that the Muslims I have talked to seem a lot more open to Christ than I initially thought. I see it almost as a young America still impressionable, still looking for its identity and still searching for who Jesus really is.