We left the Petronas Towers after trading numbers with our new foreigner friends, the Libyan and the Albanian. We next board a train to a church where Sally will meet us that her husband, Jack, is speaking at that night.
The Malaysian Church as a whole lives in fear. Fear of the government has stopped them from loving their neighbor. To tell you about this, I have to give you a little insight into Malaysia. There are 3 different cultures in Malaysia – Malaysian Indian, Malaysian Chinese, and the Malay- who are not of Indian or Chinese descent. Think of it as the Malay are like the Native Americans. When the British controlled Malaysia, they brought over Chinese and Indian workers to build for them. After they gave the country its independence they told the native Malays that they had to show equal rights to the Chinese and the Indian people who had been there for generations by then.
The Malay people are not to be confused with the Natives, who are literally the people of the soil” and are located mostly in the Borneo region.
Islam is the state religion in the country. That means that every Malay is born as a Muslim. The constitution of Malaysia states that you have the right to freedom of religion, but here is a discrepancy in there as well. It also makes it illegal to evangelize to Malays. Malays are not allowed to convert to Christianity. Less than 2% of the Malay people believe in the gospel.
This is where the fear consumes the Malay Church. Malaysian Indian and Malaysian Chinese churches don’t even try to reach out to Malay believers. In fact, if they see a Malay in their churches, oftentimes they will ‘kindly’ ask them to leave. The government would find out that a Malay believer was in the congregation and would discipline the church.
*I want to encourage you, believer. You who are safe right now. You who can read a Bible without fear of imprisonment. You who can worship Jesus wherever you want. Please, do not take for granted the blessings we have in the States. The blessings to have the Word of God to read and to talk about Jesus. We have been blessed to be a blessing. Who can you bless today with what freedom you have been given. I can tell you with complete confidence that there are too many people around the world and who I have seen who would love a Bible printed in their language, or who would love to be able to worship without fear surrounding them, or to be discipled by a man or woman of God. Thank God for what you have and do not take it for granted by being distracted by t.v. or movies of facebook or stuff that you forget to talk to and spend time with the Lover of your soul- Jesus.*
So here we are in an Malaysian Indian church where Jack and Sally have formed a relationship with the leadership. They are more receptive and open to share the gospel to Malays, so Jack is guest speaking this night to urge them on no matter what the world does to them.
I am blown away as I listen to Jack speak. I am so encouraged. I listen to his experiences, his wisdom of the Word of God, and his passion for spreading the message of Jesus to ALL people. Honestly, as I listened, I was reminded of when Moses was speaking to the Israelites, when he reminded them of everything that God had done before them. As Moses urges the Israelites to trust in the LORD, Jack also urges the believers in this church to press on and fight, trusting in GOD.
I was ridiculously encouraged by everything that Jack said and the passion in his nature. So I prayed and asked God that this month I could catch a little bit of what was exuding off of him, that I could be given a portion of what Jack had received from the LORD.
Wow, did God answer my prayer and deliver. But that is for another blog.
