This month we were in a closed country. This meant that we could not “evangelize.” Malaysia is a Muslim country and converting anyone is both illegal and dangerous for those who might try to and for those who choose to leave the Muslim religion. Those who choose to leave Islam will often face rejection from their family and friends and may even be injured or killed because of their conversion. It is illegal to operate an organization as a Christian organization. You are allowed to have your faith, but you are not allowed to attempt to influence anyone else into believing what you do. As a result, the ministry we worked with asked us not to directly mention their name in our blogs or social media in case their tie to the World Race, an outwardly Christian organization, might create suspicion of them and what they are doing.
They operate an English school and are careful to show love and teach without preaching to their students. Instead the love of Christ they demonstrate often leads to people asking them questions and sometimes to those people finding the Lord. When it doesn’t, they are still doing great ministry in teaching English and loving the people of Kuala Lipis. In Malaysia, as in most of the world, knowing English increases your ability to succeed because of the door it opens as the universal language. We had a lot of fun this month working with the kids at the English center, going to local schools to teach, painting/cleaning the center and getting to know the Kuala Lipis community. Our team artist, Hannah, painted some beautiful murals in the center. Makita and I made new flashcards for the classes. Hannah Lin and I (but mostly her) helped edit and update a worship book (not for the school but for the community). Ashley organized the upstairs hostel, updated Race information, and spiffed up the upstairs with help from Makita. We also had the chance to become a part of the local church and spend time in Bible study, worship, and communion with them. It was a good month.
One of the more unusual things about this month was our interaction with our hosts. The couple we worked with are amazing people who seem truly in tune to the Lord. They speak in tongues and they prophesy. The first day they met us they prophesized over us and we were amazed at how each of their prophesies matched our character and our dreams in some way. We witnessed their prophesy over another team as well and the same was true. It was overwhelming to hear their discernment and their words. Of all the prophesies mine oddly enough felt the most unlikely.
I was told that I would return to India, speak at a women’s conference there, and be a strong voice for change. India may have been my least favorite month because of the oppression we saw there, both against women and those born to lower castes. The caste system may be illegal, but remnants of it remain in how people treat those that would have been in a lower caste if they were still allowed. I wasn’t sure how I felt about returning there because of how much I didn’t like the injustice or how I was treated as a woman while there and the knowledge that women who lived there were often treated even worse. We worked closely with women who wished only to have male children because they would have better lives. The idea of returning to India is not something I desire but I know that our hosts are people with great discernment and that if they are hearing the Lord correctly, then a return to India, regardless of what it looks like, will be a good thing.
Another piece of the prophecy was that they strongly felt it was important for us to pray and worship over the city each day and that Ashley lead us in that worship. So as part of our ministry, we started each day in prayer and worship. When we asked God what He saw about Kuala Lipis we saw visions of it becoming a center of revival and change. Kuala Lipis is a crossroads of Malaysia and we feel that God was showing us that it will be a place that is ready to find Him and that will become a heartbeat for others to find Him as well. We have big dreams for that fairly small town and would love it if you would join us in continuing to pray for it to become a catalyst point for people to know Him.
The people there seem eager to find Him, or at least to find something. Whether it’s the man who served us iced coffee and would start conversations about God and religion or the shop keepers who would ask if we were Christians, we sensed that people were curious and even eager to talk about the religion that was forbidden to them. We’ve seen God work in some crazy ways. Missionaries we have met in Asia have told us that God speaking to people, particularly Muslims, through dreams has become such a common thing that missionaries will use questions like “have you seen the man in white in your dreams?” to start conversations about Jesus. God is working in Asia in just the way that Asia is open to God working. We believe that Kuala Lipis is on a precipice and will soon come to know Him and be a force for Him. Teaching English there was certainly important and wonderful but I think that the bigger thing may have been our prayers for the souls of that city. I believe that Malaysia will look very different religiously, perhaps very soon.
Much of Asia is closed, or semi-closed and can use prayers for their finding God. Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists do not believe in a personal God, in forgiveness, or in grace; instead they believe that we must work hard and try to be good enough to possibly earn the version of salvation they seek (which differs for each, ranging from something similar to heaven to Nirvana or the absence of being). The more time I spent in Asia, the more my heart aches not only for the eventual salvation of the people there but also for what they are missing in the personal God Christians are blessed with. The irony of it is that often when people from other religions, or people from these highly spiritual countries come to believe in Christ and the Christian God, they become some of the strongest advocates, and have deep relationship with Him.
We’ve seen that on the race too. Many of our hosts were not always Christians. Some weren’t Christians as little as six years ago. Yet they live their lives so fully in relationship with the Lord that they are able to discern in ways I wasn’t quite able to comprehend before the race. They ask both for big and for specific prayers. They fully trust that they, as children of God, have the right to make requests of their Father. One of our hosts said that she prayed for each of her children to be born on a specific day and they all were born on the day she asked for. I was amazed because it had never occurred to me to ask for something so specific and that I would think was unimportant to God, but she did and He answered her with a yes. That’s not to say that every prayer gets a yes but God can’t say yes to the requests we never ask.
I hope you’ll join me in getting specific with your prayers, in praying for the ministry in Asia, and the people of Asia to come and know the God that loves us as sons and daughters.
Malaysia Flipagram:
Malaysia 1 Second Everyday:
