Sometimes as I go through my day I think, “Is this really my life right now?” We have had the opportunity to go to an Indian wedding, travel to stay two days and one night with two different Indigenous tribes in the jungle and teach classes for two different age groups all day Saturday (10.13) and all day Sunday (10.14).
One of the families we are living with came up to us one night and asked if we wanted to go to their cousin’s wedding dinner with them. Very random, but on the race random usually means you’ll end up with a cool story. So we accepted their invitation and drove for about an hour before we got to the wedding dinner. Once we were there, of course people were staring wondering why white there were white people at the wedding dinner and we were taking pictures of everything; kind of a funny combination when you think about it. The building was very big, it was all decked out with extravagent decorations, tables and chairs, a stage, a slideshow with picture and much more. We stayed for probably about 45 minutes got back in the car, went out to dinner with the family, which at this point it’s about 10 o’clock and then drive back to the house. It was a very fun night and we got to experience something that we will probably never experience again.
We also got the opportunity to spend two days and one night with two different Indigenous tribes. There are about 17 Indigenous tribes here in Malaysia and they are all different, but a very oppressed people group.
The first tribe we went to was a nomadic group who lives off the land and is very self-sufficient, poor in the world’s eyes but really they have everything they need. We were the first outside group to ever get to come into their village. They are known to be very unfriendly and hostile towards any kind of outsiders. Naturally I was a bit nervous, but the Lord had His hand upon us the whole time. We walked around the village and got to see their homes; some of them had just been trampled by elephants, like this picture below…
On this hike we got to see rubber trees too! I have never seen/heard of rubber trees, so that was fun for me. Of course I thought of my Uncle Warren (aka Warner:) because I’m sure he would’ve loved to hike through the village with us and see how they live off the land.
We also taught at the village their, but there were only 4 kids who came. All the others ran off into the jungle when we arrived because they were afraid. The four who did show up knew no English at all and were so shy it was hard to teach them much, but we did get to sing to them and teach them how to play frisbee.
That night we went to another village and stayed in the church of the pastor that we were with. The next day we painted two murals in the church and got to teach an English/Bible study class. It was so fun getting to live with them, eat with them, teach them and help and serve them for a couple days!
The two murels we painted
Saturday and Sunday we taught two separate classes a day, one for ages 4-6 and one for ages 7-9. At the center we are teaching at they do not label themselves as a Christian organization, because if they did they would never have anyone attend their classes or they would be shut down by the government. So there is a lot of prayer and confessing scripture over the times that we get to teach the students English. Overall it was a successful weekend of teaching.
On Saturday night we sat down with our contacts Kumar and Josephine (husband and wife) and had a Bible study. They shared with us the importance of knowing who God is, and who you are in Him because everything flows out of this. Knowing that God is light and life, and knowing that in Christ we are light and we are the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.” Isaiah 60:1-2
After we finished the Bible study Kumar prophesied over each one of us. It was so encouraging to hear God speaking through Kumar some of the things we’ve been telling each other about that God has placed on our hearts. Definitely words of confirmation for most of us, and stuff to chew on for others. I think for some of us it was also a good opportunity to experience prophesy and see that it really isn’t a weird thing; it’s actually encouraging and helpful.
This week we are handing out more flyers to spread the word about our English classes for next weekend, going to a school for special needs students, painting murels at the center where we teach and at the house for the people we are living with and hopefully running a Sunday school/Bible study class for kids at a local church.
