Welcome to Penang, Malaysia via the internet, in case you were wondering it is 87 degrees Fahrenheit with 73% humidity according to Google. We are living in the part of the city called Georgetown, no lie, and within that we’re in the part of town called Little India. For those of you who’ve been with me at lease since Panama, I feel like we might actually be able to count India as a country we’ve been to, at least in spirit. We walk out the door to the busiest street in our part of town, complete with cars, public transportation, all kinds of people, and lots and lots of motos. Unfortunately, I have still not been able to ride one yet, much to the pleasure of my superiors.
Some of the most prominent smells in the city hail from the open sewer system, but every once in a while you pass by a restaurant that makes you double check the name and make a mental note to come back. As Penang is pretty much the food capital of Malaysia, the street food here is awesome. We’ve had a bowl of noodles for just over a dollar, shawarmas that were not so reasonably priced, and a burger that frankly, I could have done without. I know that’s not really a raving review, but trust me, we’ve had some amazing food here.
At our ministry, a homeless shelter that feeds the people of this neighborhood two meals a day, three days a week, we’ve gotten to work with some amazing people. When I get home, ask me about some of them, I can’t wait to tell you about them, ask me about the impromptu choir sometime. But we get to do everything from making sandwiches of butter and coconut jam from the bakery down the street, to decapitating fish and gutting them. I am learning lots of useful skills here. 😀
But the best part of the day comes around 12:30 – 1:00 when the guests have been fed lunch, but we’re not ready to clean up yet. There’s a moment when the plates stop coming back to the kitchen for second helpings and then one of the staff yells out, “self-service!” Everyone gets handed a plate and we go for it. This is the best food we’ve had in Penang. Ask me about the cook sometime, she’s the one who taught me how to decapitate and gut fish. Here we’ve eaten everything from chicken feet to duck meat, from chili peppers to fried chicken fat and everything is delicious.
Okay, I admit, I don’t really see the draw of chicken feet, but you know, to each his own.
We’ve been a part of a street night where we got to walk around the city after nightfall and pray on the street corners or over the clubs and businesses that have more activities going on behind closed doors. We prayed in the places that held shrines, over the girls and ladyboys working, for the john’s, and the men who were employing them that night.
On Thursday we went to Penang House of Prayer (PENHOP) for a short conference starting Thursday night and continuing through Friday evening, hosted by a team from Minnesota. The topic was mostly on family, spiritual family, what it means to be adopted and then sent out in Christ.
There was a moment when the head pastor had all us Racers raise our hands so the rest of the congregation could pray a spirit of Adoption over us, bringing us into not only the PENHOP family, but also their home church back in the States. Such welcome just made my heart really full.
Then they had us pair off with someone we didn’t know and I ended up with one of the guys from the team and we prayed to feel Jesus’s heart for the other person and then pray for them from that position of love. It’s hard to describe, but I felt like Jesus’ heart for this man was all fireworks and an explosion of colorful jellybeans. 😀
After the service, the same guy came up to talk to me and we were just sharing our lives back and forth for about twenty minutes when he suddenly paused, saying, “I think I’m getting a word for you.”
This wasn’t totally unexpected because the team was practicing the prophetic so I stood there ready to hear what he was going to say. About five seconds later, he asks me, “does ‘lily’ mean anything to you?”
Well you could have picked my jaw up off the floor. Somehow I managed to say, “yeah, that’s half of my name.”
He nodded to himself and said, “I have something for you.” Pulling something out of his backpack, he came back a minute later with this incredible close-up of a gorgeous orange tiger lily. It was matted and everything, about the size of a postcard.
“This is for you. God wants you to have this.”
If my jaw was on the floor before, you could have knocked me over with a breath of air.
I literally just looked at him and said, “that’s my name.”
He just smiled.
We talked a little more after that and over the next few sessions of the conference, but I don’t even know if I can accurately describe my emotions in that moment. Obviously I had to show at least five people on my squad then and there. They were pretty floored too. I mean, I didn’t even know what it meant or how to process that, but one of my friends just said, “that’s so cool, God’s clearly confirming your identity.”
So loved. So seen and known by my creator. That’s how I felt in that moment. I know I’m loved. I know that I’ll never fully comprehend God’s love for me. And to be honest, it was such a small thing, but he cared enough about me to tell someone to confirm it for me in such a beautiful way. I am so blessed.
This weekend was the Penang food truck festival which took place literally a block from where we’re living. It was fun to walk around and try a few new things, nothing crazy yet, but I’ll keep you updated.
Afterwards we decided we really wanted to go back to our usual spot with the people serving from food trucks we already knew. Mostly because we knew we’d get a better deal and more food over there. So we went, taking a small tray of food for one of the men whose been talking to us a lot when we go. We’ll call him Joe.
So Joe owns a food truck that sells burger and next to his is a food truck with two women we’ll call Sally and Anne and they sell this incredible drink I’m going to call a Blue Drink.
It’s about a ten to fifteen minute walk to get to where they set up and we pass a lot of people on the way there. It’s become our practice to smile and greet everyone we make eye contact with along the way because so many people here smile and say hi first. Everyone is just so friendly. If you knew my teammate Monica, I’d tell you to read that last sentence in her voice. Maybe just read it as very excited.
Anyway, we said hi to this guy named TJ (he actually told us his name was Tom and Jerry when we asked, so I think it’s safe to call him that online). he said hi back and we carried on.
Joe really appreciated us bringing him a taste of the festival and actually gave Mon her dinner for free! I got the Blue Drink from Sally and Anne and afterwards they started talking to us for the first time, engaging us in conversation and telling us about this huge food festival going on in another week or so on the mainland. They’re trying to break the Guinness world record for most food trucks in one place and they invited us to go.
We were so excited when we were going home after those conversations, just seeing God open all these doors to us, people choosing to talk and engage with us just because we’re going to the same places for dinner a few days in a row. I feel honored that God chose to trust us with these relationships and I’m excited to see where they go.
That was when we passed by TJ again. We said hi again and he just said. “Come with me. I have banana cake.”
I think I paused for all of a second before I shrugged and followed him. We ended up chatting with him and hearing about his personal beliefs for about another forty five minutes. He runs a hostel here and was very generous to us with his mom’s banana cake which was very good. He also threw some mini cheese cakes in there and they were delicious too. It was such a random thing to happen but just by saying yes and seeing where it went (within reason of course. There were four of us and we all knew we’d be safe), we got to start a new relationship. Apparently other teams of Racers had come through and so he knew who we were before we knew him. So it was like starting a relationship, but not exactly from Ground Zero because he already knew that he was going to like us.
I hope everywhere our feet touch we leave people feeling the same way, like the next time they see the kids who stand out like sore thumbs, but aren’t exactly tourists, they want to talk to them too. That’s an amazing legacy.
Anyway, right now we are tired from another night of getting to bed late and a day of work at ministry. We’re slowly building relationships there too and they’ve threatened to teach me how to cook some kind of chicken on Wednesday. So we’ll see what happens, hopefully the good people who frequent the ministry won’t find it inedible.
Alright, that’s all for now.
Much love,
Tigerlily
