I had no expectations coming to Malaysia, I didn’t know what the culture would be like and I didn’t know how the people would look all I knew was that there were beautiful beaches. And as much as I wanted to be on a beach I could not be further away. We are currently living in Kuala Lipis, which is located pretty much in the center of Malaysia. It took us 4 buses and a 24hr train ride to get here; in total it was a 58hr travel day. That’s only 12hrs shorter than traveling from Honduras to Chiang Mai, which just seems ridiculous to me.
This is a beautiful country filled with mountains, jungles, and caves; I really love the scenery here. For the first 6 days we were here we stayed in Gua Masang where our contacts live. They had to go to Penang for a few days, so we had to wait for them to return before coming to the center here in Lipis. While we were there we hiked up to a cave, the hike was a little difficult but do-able, we had to use ropes to climb up the steep rocks. When we got to the cave opening I looked in and thought to myself, “seriously how am I going to fit through that?” as the opening was really narrow. But somehow we all fit through by staying sideways the whole time, and when we got into the cave it was huge. It was really cool and we walked all the way through to the other side, and I thought that was the end of our adventure. But Beka and Erin then announced that they found a “path” that led all the way to the top of the mountain. Well the beginning of this path was a climb straight up a 10ft wall with the use of a rope; as scared as I was I did it anyway. The rest of the climb was tricky, as it had rained the night before so the trail was slippery and there were a lot of rocks. Eventually we got to the top though and it was beautiful and totally worth it. We sat there for a while shouting declarations over the city and singing God’s praises.
Malaysia is a Muslim country and the state that we are living in seems to be one of the strictest and they don’t approve of Christianity here. So we’re not suppose declare our faith openly, which is actually quite difficult when your so used to talking about God all the time. But it’s good because it’s an opportunity to see how we live out our faith; it’s all about actions this month. The people know and can feel a difference in a place that is filled with God’s love and joy, and because of it they want to know what it is and they want it. Our job this month is to teach English 2 days a week, so we have had a lot of free time. But we have dedicated a lot of our time to fixing up the center, painting murals, and getting some more furniture. As a team we have spent a lot of time in prayer and intercession for this place and school. God has blessed my team so much with joy and unity; we are all so intentional in building one another up in Christ.
If you don’t already know all of our teams changed at the beginning of this month and new squad leaders were raised up. My new team is; Holy Colors of the Wind, Beka is our leader then there’s Erin, Megan, Danielle, Anika, Angela, and me. I love my team, they are all so amazing and we are all learning so much from each other. We laugh and cry together, we spend a lot time together and we’ve already made a lot of memories.
P.S sorry my pics wouldn't load so I'll try and put some up soon!
