Helloooo from Indonesia!
It has been a little while since I’ve gotten an update out, so this blog post is a little on the longer side, but hang with me! We were originally only planning to spend three months in Asia, but God laid it on my leaders’ hearts to add Indonesia to our route, and I’m so glad He did! Our first two months were in predominantly Buddhist countries (Cambodia and Thailand), and then we moved on to Malaysia and Indonesia which are both Islamic countries.
The whole month in Malaysia was such a highlight for me. We spent two weeks in Georgetown on the island of Penang, and I fell in love with the people there. I feel very confident that I will be back some day to visit all the incredible people we met there. Penang is such a melting pot of cultures; every person we met seemed to hail from a different country – India, China, the Middle East – all of these plus many more make Malaysia a land of incredible diversity.
I wish I had the time and diligence to write out each impactful encounter I had in Malaysia, but I’ll just attach photos of a few of the people who meant the most to me while I was there.
MK and Sandra
This is MK and Sandra, some of the nicest people I have ever met. I wandered into their coconut shake shop one day and introduced myself. I ended up going back every day until we left, bringing several members of the squad to meet them too. I began calling MK and Sandra my Malaysian parents, and they said I reminded them of their daughter. They ended up inviting me and my team to their niece’s wedding several hours away in Seremban. We were so honored to take part in such a familial event with them (literally on stage as part of the wedding ceremony), experience the Hindu culture, and meet their daughters. Their family shared so much love with us and I am so excited to stay in touch and see what the Lord as in store for them.
Daneil
This is Daneil, or Roti Daneil as my whole squad likes to call him. He is one of the hardest workers I know and always has a huge smile on his face. He makes the best roti in all the land. Roti is kind of like an Asian crepe and makes the perfect midnight snack. We visited Daneil every night and got to know him and his brother Man at their roti stand near our guest house. One of our last days in Penang, Daneil shared with me that he was exhausted and stressed out and had pain in all of his body. He works at the money exchange every day and the roti stand every night and does not get much sleep or downtime. Before we left, my team and I prayed with Daneil for God to take his pain away and give him peace and rest. I still keep in touch with Daneil and plan on seeing him again whenever I can make it back to Penang.
Madeline
We met Madeline in Cambodia back in January at Phnom Penh House of Prayer. When we found out Penang had a House of Prayer too, we decided to check it out, and we were shocked to see her there too! They were doing a month long internship called ‘Burn” for young adults around Asia to ignite a fire in their hearts for growing in intimacy with the Lord and spreading the gospel. It was such an inspiring experience to meet some of the interns and join in on a few of their services including an all night of prayer interceding for Asia .
Pinky
Unfortunately I cant remember this man’s actual name because my teammates and I just refer to him as “Pinky”. I was immediately drawn to Pinky when we passed him on the street one of the first few days we got to Penang. When I saw him a second time I was determined to get to know him, but sadly his English was about as good as my Malay, which is not saying much. We became friends though. He worked a stand at the market down the street from where we were staying every morning and would drink a ginger Pepsi while he waited for the bus inside the 7-Eleven every afternoon. I would go sit with him and try my best to make conversation. I hope he remembers me when I go back and visit. Hopefully my Malay is better by then so I can tell him how proud God is of Him.
Shirley
This is Shirley. What a woman. My whole team instantly fell in love with Shirley when we met her. She owned our guest house with her brother and worked the reception desk every evening. We loved just sitting with her and hearing her stories. She shared with us that the guest house used to be a restaurant too and she was the chef. She said she missed cooking for foreigners so she made us AMAZING chicken curry. I hope she felt as blessed by us as we did by her.
Tracy
Unfortuantely I don’t have a good photo of Tracy, but she is an American missionary we met at church in Penang. Tracy runs a ministry called “Unveil Your Calling,” and after hearing about our lifestyles on the World Race, offered to facilitate it for our team. At the time we met Tracy, God was calling our team to another island called Langkawi, but Tracy was willing to fly there to stay with us and serve our team. (If you want to read more about how God speaks to us and how we knew He was calling us to Langkawi, read my teammate Kaelyn’s blog, Agalliao.) In Langkawi we spent three days with Tracy listening to messages, going through a workbook, and processing how uniquely the Lord has made each of us to serve His kingdom. It was heavy at times but brought my team closer and helped each of us acknowledge our strengths and empower each other to serve God in the way He created us.
Team CAKE and our squad leader Kate
These people love me so well. Malaysia was a month of stretching for all of us and stepping out in vulnerability, but I think we can all say we are closer because of it. It was such a blessing to have Kate join our team again for the second half of the past month. She leads us with such humility and wisdom and brings so much joy to our group!
These are just a few of the people who had an impact on me last month, and I pray God used me to have an impact on them as well. One of the things I learned in Unveil Your Calling is that if we acknowledge our strengths and spend our energy developing and fine-tuning them, rather than harping on our weaknesses and trying to grow in those areas, we are more likely to be successful and find joy in our work, which means we can have a greater impact on the kingdom. God made others strong in areas where you are weak, so if we work together as a body and do what God has created each of us to do, letting others do what God has created them to do, how much more can we serve Him and live in abundant life with Him?
This is a quick test to to view your strengths in a more tangible way so that you can rejoice in who God made you to be and and live out your strengths.
According to this test, I am an optimist, deliverer, empathizer, chameleon, and peace keeper. What are you? How are you using your strengths to further the kingdom and glorify God?
Last thing – I have less than two weeks to meet my final fundraising deadline and am still $2000 short. Please consider donating or praying for me and my teammates to meet our goals! So thankful for each of you, and thanks for sticking with me!
