update: I am in Malaysia!!!! life moves crazy quick on the field. weird that month 3 is starting & that is my last month is Asia— a continent I have come to love very deeply.
I am so sad to leave Thailand behind because it brought me blessings upon blessings but being here only one day so far I am confident He will do it again. that he will continue to reveal stuff about who I am & who He is.
I currently am residing in the island of Penang, a province in western Malaysia. we got to this point after bussing for days (almost 40 hours) from Chiang Mai down to Malaysia’s “mainland”. from there we took a quick ferry ride which was pretty & peaceful but transitioned into us coming to the coast/ ferry port & having to lug around our packs for a 15 minute walk to where we would be staying. (a 15 minute walk doesn’t sound that bad but trust me, when you are carrying what feels like another human on your back in the blazing heat of Malaysia, it is not fun.) we rested for the remainder of the day because most people were running on very little sleep from the bus. we are currently staying at a YWAM base here. YWAM stands for “Youth With A Mission” & is another incredible organization that fights for the gospel to be heard among all the nations.
the next day we were instructed to explore the city. with a packet full of questions to be answered from our ministry hosts in one hand & a pen in the other, we set out to find out what makes Penang, Penang. I can’t even put into words how amazing my first full day played out & how the Lord was behind all the divine encounters of that day. I fell in love with this place the second I walked down the streets. they are busy & booming like Chiang Mai, but didn’t feel as overwhelming for some reason. everything about it attracted me. Malaysia is identified as an islamic country but is not limited to just that. on one single street there is a Muslim mosque, a Hindu Temple, a Chinese temple, a Catholic church & an anglican church. I am so lucky that in the matter of a half a mile or so, I can come in contact with more culture & religions than some people may ever encounter in their whole lives. (if you are looking to have this same experience, Penang is definitely your place, people.) Malaysia is also a melting pot nation. there is such a wide variety of people in this place that I get genuinely so excited to find out where each person is from. many Indians, many Chinese, many Malay, some Burmese, some Bangladeshi, some Nepali, & a ton more. not to mention a ton of white people. there are surprisingly so many tourists here when I would never expect this to be a hot vacation spot until I got here. which also brings me to my point of irony. when choosing my route for the race, I seriously ignored Malaysia. I had only heard of the country a handful of times so basing my decision off that single country was quite the opposite of what I did. I was looking forward to going regardless of that but I anticipated it being the lamest place on my route since I knew nothing about it but i was soooo wrong. I am so grateful that I am here & the Lord knew I needed this place when that is the last thing I would have suspected. really looking forward to God blowing all my expectations (or non- expectations) out of the water time & time again.
