Wingapo friends!
December 2016, team Wildflowers served in Penang, Malaysia. I am going to make a quick plug for Malaysia: it’s one of the most underrated countries in the world. Penang specifically is a cultural hub with some of the most amazing food. Being an island, its a bit separated from the rest of the country and has a unique culture of its own.
We lived right where “Little India” merges into “Chinatown.” If we wanted amazing Indian food, you walked across the street. If you were feeling Chinese, you turned right. Most days, we worked in either the thrift store or the soup kitchen.
In the thrift store we sorted, ironed, and arranged the clothes that were donated to the shop. In the soup kitchen, we cooked, served, and cleaned with Uncle Ben. Those days were some of my favorite.
For me, Malaysia was a difficult month. The travel days between Thailand and Malaysia were very difficult on my back. Early on in the month, I jarred my back pretty good. It was the day before we were supposed to start the ministry I was the most excited for: camp ministries.
If you have been following my blogs a while, you might (or might not) remember that right before I left for the race, I was working as a camp counselor. It is one of my most favorite things. When we were told that we were going to be group leaders at a week long camp in Malaysia, I was jazzed for life.
I remember waking up the first day of camp, determined to power through. My back was so swollen, I was having trouble walking. I made it all the way to the preparatory prayer before I had to tap out. Going home, was the most defeating thing I had done. I remember laying in my bed absolutely hating myself.
Backstory: In college, I injured my back, and it really slowed me down. For a minute it looked like I would never fully recover. The Lord provided a lot of healing (enough for me to work at camp and go on the World Race for a year), but for the first year of my injury I was depressed and more than a little bitter with the Lord.
Even after all of the healing and amazing things the Lord had done through my back, all it took was one slip and I slipped right back into old thoughts.
But this time, I had learned to look for the blessings God was pouring out. Every day, my team brought back food just in case I had not gotten up and eaten. They brought team time around my bed, so I could still participate. They helped me find my tumeric and provided ice packs. They sat with me and watched movies until I was laughing. They walked the one block to the cafe and stopped every ten feet when I needed to take a minute.
One day I had a very stubborn day and decided I was going to do ministry anyway. Instead of telling me that I could not or forbidding it, Ashlyn and Amy worked with me to figure out how they could get me there without making my back worse. They planned everything from an uber ride, to piggy backing me up three flights of stairs so that I could be with the team instead of in my room.
In the end, the Lord provided miraculous pain relief via acupuncture (done for free my a fellow missionary). By then, the bitterness had left. The depression was gone. The Lord had spoken and redeemed that time that I had spent injured and in pain with love.
Reflecting on Malaysia, the things that stand out are the silliness, the laughter, and the love of God through my teammates. Despite my own personal difficulties, Malaysia stands in my memory as a place of blessing and of the Lord moving powerfully.
