In my last update I shared
with you that I had no idea what I would be doing during my month of ministry
in Malaysia. Well, now that I am over halfway into the month, I figured that I
would share with you what we have been up to.
We have officially moved in
with SIB Church just a block away from where we were staying the beginning of
the month at the PODS hostel.
Once arriving at the church
we found out that we were previously living in the red light district of
Brickfields (the community of KL we live in). Weird.
Our accommodations this
month include free reign of their church.
Some of my team sleeps in
the sanctuary, some in a room next to the sanctuary. I prefer the sanctuary
because I can make a bed out of 10 chairs!
We have no way to prepare
food at our location so we must buy already prepared foods or foods that don’t
need preparation. I have probably had a salad every single day this month.
The hardest part about
eating food is trying to stay within our $4 a day budget. $4 is about the
equivalent of one meal here in the capital city.
We have a room with a sink
that doubles as our bucket showers; which is my first month bucket showering.
We have one squatty potty.
EEKkkk
But don’t worry we have a
western toilet too. I am going seven months strong without needing to use the
squatty!
Also, we have air
conditioning that is a blessing in the heat here.
We have internet whenever
the restaurant downstairs or the SIB headquarters upstairs leave there internet
open. Or there are a ton of restaurants around us that have free wifi.
Overall,
it’s a blessing to have this space in the church this month!
Ministry
wise, most days look different.
A lot of our ministry is
partnering with the church in the activities the hold throughout the week.
Sunday
morning church service.
Monday is
our free day.
Tuesday is
different each week.
Wednesday we
have a nightly prayer meeting.
Thursday we
have different adventures like Batu Cave.
Friday we
have an all-night prayer meeting from 11 pm – 6 am.
Saturday we
have a Bible Study with the youth at night.
I’ve been able to help lead worship for the first time ever with some of the youth from the church.
In between these things we
do with the church we have been ministering to the deaf and blind community
here in Brickfields. By ministering to, I mainly mean we are being uplifted and
encouraged by them.
We have worked with a
children’s deaf club at the YMCA around the corner.
Made them breakfast.
Made a craft with them.
Played Red light green light
with pillows.
Just enjoyed hanging out
with them.
We went to a blind members
association that serves all of the blind people in Malaysia.
We met with one of the men
in charge of the organization.
We learned how to type our
names in braille.
Then he played the guitar
and sang us worship songs.
We’ve been to a church
service where the congregation was made up of mostly blind people.
Here’s a photo of our team
with the pastor.
He also gave us a signed
copy of a book he wrote which has encouraged me a lot this month.
Their worship band ushered
in the presence of the Lord and I was overwhelmed by His Spirit in the room.
Our team was coerced to go
in front of the congregation and sing some songs.
We sang Amazing Grace and
while singing the “I once was blind, but now I see” part, a blind man in the
congregation sang, “I once was blind, but now I’m still blind.” Half of our
team lost it in a fit of laughter hearing his sing that.
They sent us on our way
after a free dinner, tons of encouragement, and book in hand.
Yesterday we visited the
Batu Caves outside of KL.
I could probably write an
entire blog on just this day, but here’s a teaser photo of the day of me
feeding a monkey a piece of coconut.
On
the ministry forefront this month has been super awesome.
This
has been a rough month for me personally.
Feeling the weight of
performance on me, but my team has been super encouraging in the process.
As I have been through
things this month with my attitude, it has encouraged my other teammates to
check their hearts.
One thing spoken over our
team at the beginning of the month is rest.
It has been good to rest in
His hands during this time.
