Malaysia was beautiful. We lived in a town that was carved out of the jungle. So we were surrounded by mountains and forrest on all sides. The picture below is my favorite view from our roof. It was so hot inside so when the sun began to go down our favorite past time was sitting on the roof of our apartment. We would sit and watch the sun go down and the stars come out and dream about the future.
Our hosts this month were the Kumar family. They have hosted over 30 World Race teams. Josephine and Pastor Kumar welcomed us and loved us like their own children. Their 4 children.. Judith (16), Kenrick (15), Joash (9), and Joanna (2) quickly became younger brothers and sisters to our team.
Left to Right: (Judith, Me, Josephine’s sister, Joanna, Joash, Josephine, Pastor Kumar, Kenrick)
One of my favorite nights with this family was going to the roof of our house and lighting sparklers and then going to their house down the road and eating dinner and Despicable Me 2. They really made us feel like a part of their family.
Every Thursday night we had KJ fellowship at their house where we worshipped together and Pastor Kumar spoke words of truth and encouragement over us. One night Josephine and Pastor Kumar prayed over each of us and prophesied. It was beautiful and overwhelming to hear the words of truth from the Lord spoken through them.
One of our first nights in Malaysia a few of us went to a birthday party with our host. It was for a little girl turning 4. Sitting around the room eating cake I looked at the people in the room there were Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, and American. It was one of the most diverse birthday parties I had even been to and I loved it.
The community of Gua Musang that we lived in was an Islamic State. So talking about Jesus was seen as conversion and that was illegal. In Malaysia Islam is not the sole religion so Christianity is not illegal, but that is left up to the government in each individual state and the one where we were was solely Islamic. We could talk about Jesus if people asked us anything, but they typically didn’t so we loved them as best we could and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. So because we were in an Islamic State Pastor Kumar and his wife show the love of Jesus through teaching English classes at their school KJ Generation. So my team taught about 15 English classes per week to people ranging from 3 years to adults. Some of our students were Chinese, Malay, Indian, Christian, Hindu, Islamic.
I had the beautiful struggle of teaching the 2 little girls in the above picture. Hephzibah (on the left) was the little girl that just turned 4 and Qing is 3. They were learning English so we went through their alphabet and did phonics. Hephzibah’s mother Ruth helped with most classes. These 2 have a very short attention span and Hephzibah liked to be near her mom at all times.
They had books that we worked through that had alphabet activities, numbers and even science. One of the last days Ruth helped them make these planters with paper towels as the water source in the bottom.
Some days after finishing our work we would even watch Sophia the First. Everyday was a struggle and their were tears shed regularly by me and them. But I pray that they felt loved regardless of how much they learned. The Lord taught me so much about patience this month.
This was also a really cool month for our team to really bond and feel like a family. We lived in an apartment that had 3 rooms divided by partitions. We also had our own kitchen and washing machine… It was a dream. The last week I slept on the roof with 3 of my teammates. I put a mattress on the roof and slept under the moon. It was actually one of the coolest things to go to sleep every night looking at the moon and stars.
Many of our days ended with a team movie night accompanied by popcorn of course.
Our favorite restaurant in town was an Indian restaurant about a 5 minute walk from our house. We made some great friends there. Every day we walked in we were welcomed with a smile from our friend Ari Feen from Pakistan. He almost always knew our order before we said a word… We are creatures of habit when it comes to our food. We got this huge cone thing our last night in town and it was soooo good.
Most nights we would sit on our roof and hear the Islamic call to prayer and I would pray for this place and these people. This was one of the kindest communities of people. I pray that one day they know Jesus.
My team spent all month in the jungle so we didn’t get to experience or explore the city in Malaysia much. So we went into the city of Kuala Lumpur a few days early and did some exploring and adventuring. The jungle was really hot so before going into the city I prayed for a bed and A/C. Jackpot.. We got both!! My teammate Julia and I basically stayed in our room for 2 days and ate pizza in the A/C.
So something I really wanted to do on the race was ride elephants. We went to an elephant sanctuary and we didn’t get to ride elephants, but we did get to bathe them so that sufficed.
We also got to feed the elephants mangos and take artsy pictures like this.
Along with elephants we also got to go to the Malaysian Palace where the King lives. We learned that the King had no power in the country, but he does live in a palace.
We also walked up hundreds of stairs past vicious, hungry monkeys to go to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves is a limestone hill that has a series of caves and cave temples. The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India.
On our way to the elephant sanctuary we also stopped at a deer park where we fed deer, played with hedgehogs, and held giant snakes.
At the end of this month we went from Malaysia to Guatemala and on our way to Guatemala we had a 12 hour layover in L.A.
About 8 of us spent the day riding around and seeing the city with our squad-mate Andrea and her family. It was my first time in L.A. and despite the jet-lag it was a fun day.
This is a selfie with the Hollywood sign in the background… so touristy.
While in L.A. we did some exploring. We drove through Rodeo Dr, we took pictures with the Hollywood sign, we went to the Griffith Observatory, and of course we went to Target and In-N-Out Burger.
What I learned:
This month was hard. I learned that it’s okay to cry. Most days felt like I had more on my plate than I could handle. Teaching a 3 and 4 year old is hard especially when they don’t always understand you and you are a stranger to them. We taught this month, but our goal was not to teach English it was to love our students. It didn’t matter how much our students learned… it mattered that they felt loved.
The Lord taught me what it looks like to have and use the gift of mercy. He taught me what it looks like to feel what others feel then give those things back to the Lord because they are not mine. Many of my teammates struggled this month along with myself and we had lots of hard conversations. Everyday I woke up and prayed it is well with my soul because despite the difficulty of teaching and the heartache of mercy I wanted the peace of the Lord to consume my soul regardless of my outside circumstances.
We’re doing the thing!
Much love, Carson
