In this blog post, I am going to write to you about what God has been sharing me with during the last two weeks that I’ve had since the time when I arrived into Penang, Malaysia. I will also hopefully show you many different examples of new ways of where I’ve grown in seeking people with the Lord’s help and how you can “Be the light” as well all throughout the time that you are reading it. I hope it encourages you and makes you feel excited as well.
I’ll start this by mentioning that in the beginning of this month my World Race group of 18 people had to meet up at a “mini debrief” in Penang, Malaysia, which was because our squad leaders, Kate and Reese felt that it was necessary for everyone to have a time at the end of the month to talk about all of their experiences in Thailand, which I thought was going to be great to have. I also would like to mention that our logistics team actually made it possible for our whole squad to be in two different AirBnBs right near each, which had one for the all of the guys and one for the girls and that was really cool. It was a time where we got to hang out and have a prayer and worship time, and had some activities like me presenting the rap song I made, which was fun and made me a little nervous to do. Kate and Reese did different topics of messages to us, which I felt were really interesting to witness It was also nice to be able to connect with all of them again since it had been a month since we all had seen each other, so I enjoyed the 3 to 4 days with them. Being with them again made me feel like I had my amazing “family” with me again and it also was a time where we laughed a lot and had a great time. I can’t wait for our whole squad to be able to do that again and I know that the next gathering will great too.
The next thing I’ll share with you is about some different examples of the growth in how I learned how trust more during that time. I begin by reminding you all that something that my team does everyday is that we pray and we ask God to show us where we are supposed to go and how we are supposed to get there that day. For example, this is a type of conversation I had with God, “Hey God, you know we all trust you with everything and we want to go where you want us to go, so I want you to tell me the new location and the type of ministry we are supposed to do there.” Then right after we prayed that, all of us, didn’t hear any word from God at all about “next step”, so I felt a little annoyed that I didn’t know where it was. I also felt like it was possible that He was to have us stay in Penang for a long time, so I was a little doubtful, but I trusted the Lord would show us that so that made me feel confident in the decision.
Then we decided to take a break for food and when we got back, Jacob told us that he felt God showed him the idea of volunteering at a workaway (working at a hostel) in a place called Cameron Highlands, which sounded like such a random place to me, but it made feel like I wanted to go there. It sounded like it would be an amazing time because I saw that there was a lot of hiking trails and the place nearby it has a kind of jungle feel to it and tea plantations as well. So after we talked about it some more we all decided to go online and created the profile that we needed to make for the workaway, however after a couple of days we didn’t any answer from the place, so I had some doubt about it. At that moment, I felt like God wanted us to be in Penang for a very long time and potentially wait and see if it was still an option down the road and this is what happened.
So after all of that we ended up staying 2 weeks and at times I got tired of being there because I knew that the workaway was something that I truly felt we were supposed to do. However, whenever I felt that way, God told me, “Daniel I want you to wait and see all of the people I will introduce you to in Penang and all of the things you will do to help them know about Jesus.” During those times, there were a lot of things that made me feel really good about staying in Penang like when Matt. found a really nice place to stay there that was a little over our World Race journey budget, but it was a very convenient place for my team. The reason I say that is because there was another team C.A.K.E. who were right across the street from us and we had the time to talk to them whenever we wanted to. An example of that was when we all met up with each other for dinner and spent time talking and having fun conversations together or even another time when we all got roti at night and I’m glad they got to spend time with us. Something that I also liked was that my team wasn’t moving around a lot like we were in Thailand. It felt like I could stay in Penang until we felt like we were supposed to leave it and it was nice to be able to explore the area. This is definitely the way I prefer to do my type of traveling.
Another fun thing was that I met with the other team members from the other groups for an time of overnight prayer at a gathering in the “Penang House of Prayer” place. To me it felt like it was a place where I knew God was going to move in our lives and speak directly to us there. I thought it was going to be somewhere where I could spread joy and be a light in other people’s lives by doing things like praying with some of them there. I also felt like it was going to be a time of worshipping God and praising Him for all of the different things that He does for all of us, which I really enjoy doing. God told me during it to “Relax Daniel and enjoy being in my presence where I can speak to you and you can also help others here too.”, so as He said that I knew it was going to be a great experience.
In fact, something cool happened, while I was standing up praying for people I knew and other things too I noticed a man named SK. He was someone I saw who was crying in a corner and I just knew that he was feeling alone and sad, so I decided to ask him “What’s wrong SK? How can I help you? Can I pray for you?” Then in my spirit I felt like God was telling to “Just pray for him even if he doesn’t want it because it can only help him.” So then I obeyed God and started praying for him and I knew it was helping him because while I was doing it, he started laughing out really loud. Then I asked two of my other squad mates, Emily and Travis to pray for him and so they did and after they finished he looked happy and filled with peace, which was awesome. Then God kind of laid it on my heart to spend time with him, so I said to him, “Hey SK I want to spend some time with you before I leave from here, do you have any time we could do that?” He then said to me, “Sure thing Daniel I’m available to come by to see you on Sunday after church.” Then I said, “Okay SK let’s do that.” Then on that Sunday we ended up getting together for food with a bunch of people from the church as you can see this conversation is an example of how being obedient to God and stepping out in boldness will help you make other people feel connected with Him. I encourage you to try that.
In conclusion, my team actually just now found out that we are going to do the workaway in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia and I’m excited for an opportunity to work for the hostel. During this experience I believe that God is going to grow me in how I interact with other people and I’m excited that I can help bring positive energy to people and answer questions when they have them. I am also looking forward to being able to go hiking and also being able to fully know the area, so I can do some other cool things here in the future as well. I know that God is going to teach me something about myself that I don’t already know and I feel like when I fully trust Jesus’s direction, the light will be shown and the seeds will be planted. Let’s get to work now.
