To say that Penang, Malaysia has been a dream this past week and a half would be an understatement. The culture shock hasn’t been nearly as overwhelming as I expected it to be. When I wake up and look around, there is no denying that I am not in America anymore, but its been absolutely beautiful. When we were in Europe there were certain aspects that just felt like home and you could honestly forget that you were not in the U.S. anymore. Here, I go to our roof and look out over the city, I see Mosques, Hindu and Buddhist Temples, Little India is directly across the street, smell the street food and there is no mistaking that I am not home. There are so many different cultures, religions, languages, and food all around us. We walk down the street and people just wave and say hello to us. They ask how we are doing and where we are from. Most of the people are genuinely interested in us and want to know more. In that aspect, it does feel like home, that southern hospitality of saying hello, giving a little wave or nod to the stranger walking down the street and I feel so comfortable, it brings a smile to my face every time. Being in Asia has brought so much joy.
Ministry here has been just as fruitful as everything else. We actually arrived here on Monday, November 6th. We got here around 7am and jumped right into ministry that night. We went to a meeting about a youth conference we will be helping with at the end of the month. The next day was even more hectic and we have continued to thrive since then.
Malaysia experienced a flood the weekend before we got here. The rain finally let up and allowed the sun to shine, the day we arrived. As many of you in South Carolina know, flooding can cause a lot of damage, even to the some of the strongest of foundations, so imagine that in a location of weak foundation. Water levels rose over some house tops and about chest level to many other people. Most people lost almost everything in their house and some lost their houses. So God allowed our arrival in perfect time, as he always does. That Tuesday after we arrived, we got straight to work with flood relief. We had donations flood in (no pun intended), so many people wanting to donate food, clothes, bedding, toiletries, and pretty much anything they could provide for the victims.
We worked tirelessly to separate, package, and distribute the donations. Once we had our system of assembly line from the room of donations to the cars we started packing up as much stuff as we could to head out to the villages. After many games of tetris to strategically pack as many things as possible, we then all piled into different cars. We were informed that the villages we were going to were mainly filled with Rohingya (Burmese) people. Many of them are refugees from Myanmar and have no documents so they can’t work in industry jobs where there is more money, and the kids are not allowed to go to the schools around there either. As we talked to some of the kids they told us their stories about parents passing away, having to take on jobs they were too young for, feeling neglected and much more. They were just so thankful to have anything, and I think they were also thankful to have people treat them like humans and accept them just the way they are. We have been back to the villages twice more to give them more things, but for the most part we have been packaging and dividing the donations while working in a homeless shelter.
The homeless shelter we have been spending most of our time at is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for breakfast and lunch. The shelter provides mattresses, toilets, and showers to the homeless to rest and clean up while they are not eating. While some of us are upstairs continuing with the donations, some of us are downstairs interacting with the peoples coming in to get shelter and food. We get to have so many different conversations with them and learn so much about their stories. I have learned so much from talking with some of them about dreams they have, and some of the things they have been through. Still, after all they tell me, they still have so much hope in their eyes. One guy, named Joseph, is so full of joy. Every time we see him, he shakes our hands and asks how we are doing, he then continues on by saying “Praise to the Lord” and not a time that I have seen him as he not mentioned how good our God is. He has a smile plastered to his face at all times, and it is impossible not to smile as we talks to you. But, recently we learned that Joseph has some addictions that he is trying to get away from and he has expressed that he wants to go to rehab, so keep him in your prayers as he starts his process to a clean, joy filled, God loving life. God is going to do some amazing things with him, I can feel it.
Some of the people who come into the shelter are just backpackers passing through. We get to talk to them about their travels and tell them all about ours. Most of them are interested in what we are doing and talk to us more about it, while others are just interested in telling us their stories and just enjoy that someone is listening. Something that I have learned from this trip is that I don’t have to always talk about God for seeds to be planted in them about the Gospel. Many people can tell just by our actions and our presence that we are different and that the Holy Spirit is within us. Seeds are being planted in them and sometimes it only takes 1 to get them to come to know the Lord and other times it takes a couple people to water that seed, and then the Lord makes it grow. The important part is that it is planted and you are doing the Lords work.
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it Grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.
1 Corinthians 3:6-8
