I never once thought I would feel completely at home in a place so far from home. But the moment I stepped on Penang Island I was filled with peace. Man oh man do I love it here.
So just to give an update: I live in Penang, Malaysia with my team of 5 other fantastic girls. Pulau Pinang Island is a pretty touristy area, but the cool thing about it is that we have 3 different types of ethnic groups here. We have the Malay, the Chinese-Malay, and the Indian-Malay. It is crazy how we can walk 3 blocks and pass 2 mosques and 1 chinese temple. The majority of the people here are Muslim, and if anyone is born Malaysian or marries a Muslim they are bound by law to be Muslim as well. It is not illegal to be a Christian, but it is illegal to convert from Islam to Christianity, so if we are caught sharing the Gospel we could be arrested, but more likely just kicked out of the country. Despite this and the constant Call to Prayers we hear, you can feel the Presence of the Lord all over this island.
Ministry is a whole lot different than in Guatemala. Our host is a former World Racer, Jessica, and she rocks. Though she is our host, she does not do ministry with us. She works in Malaysia as a Nanny, but sets us up with other contacts and ministries. So our main ministry is teaching at a Burmese Refugee school 3 days a week. The first few weeks we were here we just cleaned the entire school and sorted out paper work. This has been the first full week we have actually had students, and let me tell you… it’s incredible. I have never in my life fell so immediately in love with 75 kids after only being with them for two days. My teammate, Alissa, and I are teaching English to 4 different classes every day. All the children are Muslim Refugees but we are able to pray with them before every class! It is an awesome opportunity. My team also works at a local coffee shop run by one of Jessica’s friends from church, every Tuesday and Saturday. Every Monday night and Saturday morning we also help out teaching English at a youth center created to help kids who have not grown up with much help or attention get better grades so they are able to test into good schools. Then every Wednesday night we do street outreach with a local homeless shelter call the Kawan Center (kawan meaning “friend”). Since it is illegal to share the Gospel with Muslims, we do have to be very careful, but that doesn’t stop us. The last “ministry” we do is at PenHOP (Penang House of Prayer). For 7 hours on Tuesday and 3 hours on Friday, we just pray, worship, read the Word, and bask in the Presence of God. Although our schedule seems so busy at times, we take those days at PenHOP to reflect on why we’re here and just rest in the Lord with a room full of believers doing the same.
Asia isn’t anything I thought it would be, because it is way better. I love seeing what the Lord is doing here. I love coming home every day feeling exhausted yet filled with joy. I love appreciating my off days and restoring my strength for the rest of the week. I love walking down the street and buying wan tan mee and char koay teow (full dinners) for 1 US Dollar. I love having to take off my shoes to step into any building, even the laundry mat. I love hearing “teacher Alexis” just to have the student show me the same sentence he has already shown me 3 times. I love having zero experience but being asked to teach an entire class. I love being almost hit by cars/buses/motorbikes because Penang has no understanding of pedestrian crossing, while still being so terribly confused by people driving on the wrong side of the road. I love when it turns 7:00pm so we can finally turn the A.C. on in our room and I only have to suffer through the humid 90 degree heat in our house when I need to go to the bathroom. I love eating Indian food for lunch and Chinese food for dinner every day. I love being reminded to pray for the people here louder and harder in the name of Jesus every time I hear the Muslim Call to Prayer. I love Malaysia. God is good, and He is doing big things here.
