Ministry was just too sweet this month.
Recap for this month: we arrived in Penang, Malaysia after like 30 hours of riding a bus from chiang mai, Thailand. Actually a pretty good time, lots of narnia was read and strange podcasts listened to. We arrived to the place we were staying for the month and were immediately greeted by the staff of the international house of prayer: Penang, also called Penhop! Our squad was then briefed for the month by the team at Penhop, sharing with us all that ministry would entail and how our time would be spent. One of the details was that every Tuesday, our day would be spent praying. All day. 7 hours of prayer in one room. Can’t say I was too thrilled about it. They also told us that on Friday we would be doing a prayer session every week from 8 to midnight, called “Friday night burn.” Funny how God works, our team went from 7 hours in the sun doing manual labor in Thailand to then praying in a room for 7 hours.
I got through my first Friday night burn and Tuesday prayer set feeling so full and content. That time spent with the lord was nothing like I had experienced. I had never intentionally set aside that much time to just sit in His presence, and to read His word. I’ve never soaked in so much in so little amount of time. I’m not going to lie though and say it wasn’t hard. There we’re moments during the 7 hours, plenty of moments sitting there thinking about the peanut butter banana toast I was going to make after the time was over. Also thinking about not being home with my family for thanksgiving or what I was going to wear the next day. As I kept doing the sessions, it got easier to focus on what I needed to. I found myself reading through all of Paul’s letters in the New Testament (some wild stuff) and finally finishing 2nd kings, and reading through psalms for the second time since being gone.
A big focus for us this month was intercession. The folks at Penhop gave us direction for what to pray and intercede for: the local churches and the “church” itself, Muslim background believers (people who are under shariah law and cannot proclaim to be a Christian), and the entirety of the Muslim population in Penang. During this time of learning how to intercede on behalf of these specific groups gave me such a greater understanding of the compassion of Christ. I was shown what a heart the Lord has for the muslim population, how He longs for them to come to know Him and get out of the slavery they’re bound to in their religion. My heart was broken for Muslim background believers: As a Malay, an ID card with a stamp of Muslim identification is given at birth. This is a high percentage of the population in Penang specifically, and with that, they are under shariah law. This system prevents anyone with Muslim identification to become a Christian or to practice anything relating to Christianity. If someone that has a Muslim identification were to be found out as Christian convert or anything suspicious in that area, that person would be questioned by the courts of shariah law and then “brainwashed” after further questioning. I was made aware of so many things like this and was able to pray and intercede for the people afflicted. God molded my heart into being so much more compassionate this month. He showed me what He saw and gave me a heart for His people.
Something else I’ve been learning is that I need that time with the lord, like NEED it. On the days we didn’t have devotionals or prayer sets I would slack off and spend time doing anything other than reading or praying and I found out that wasn’t gonna work out. Those nights where I didn’t spend time with the lord I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Several times in the month I would wake up at like 2 in the morning and know I needed to get up and journal or pray. It made me laugh because He’s so much like a father. He showed me in a way that I could understand: if I wasn’t getting rest through Him I wouldn’t get rest at all. The Lord knows how much I love sleep.
This month provided a space and capacity for me to grow deeper into faith and closeness with the lord. I’m so thankful to God that we were able to work alongside the people at Penhop. They were such a true example of being servants, opening up their space and taking time to get to know each and every one of the people on our squad Thank you so much to the team at Penhop!! You’ll be so missed by Y squad!!
