that are like “Aha!” moments, where clarity on an issue comes and God
brings into focus a greater aspect of His truth. For that moment
happened about two weeks ago at the house of one of our amazing
Malaysian contacts. We’ve been here almost three weeks ago and we’re
trying to write down our amazing experiences as quickly as possible.
When we first got here we met Martin Duke and his family. They guided us
through Kuala Lumpur, we stayed at a house in town and he took us to
some of the most amazing Malay and Indian food places you can imagine.
Martin also explained a lot of the culture to us and the political
struggles that take place here.
In Malaysia, the government is
run by the Malays. These aren’t the original inhabitants of Malaysia,
but instead they’re Indonesion or other nationalities that have trickled
in and hold strongly to the tenets of Islam. They’re the majority
population here and also the leaders of the government. The other
occupants of Malaysia are primarily Chinese, Indian, and the original
inhabitants of Malaysia, the Orang Asli. All of these groups are highly
encouraged to become Muslim, but not required. Though Muslims are in
power, rules are stricter for them. No one may preach or evangelize to a
Malay muslim and any Muslim who converts to another religion is
imprisoned.
After speaking at Martin’s church and doing
a few prayer walks around the city we went to a city in the middle of
the jungle, near the center of the country and worked with a man who
teaches English in one of the most Islamic places in Malaysia. There we
taught classes for a week and met some of the most amazing Malaysian
people. Our contact there and his family are truly amazing people and
you’ll be able to view more of them and their story on facebook soon.
We’re keeping some of the info about them off the blog to protect them,
but we loved being there.
At one point
in our stay there, our contact shared his story and as he talked about
his experiences with God and his amazing story, something incredible
began to come into focus for me. Our God is the same God all over the
world. I know that may seem simple and not necessarily profound, but it
was profound. Seeing God move in Australia and New Zealand and the
Philippines and now in Malaysia, His attributes are becoming so much
clearer. God has nothing to do with religion or what church you go to.
God is a God that brings freedom and order and life and the fruit of the
Spirit. He is the same every place we go. Godly contacts and people we
meet display the same Godly behavior, no matter the cultural
differences.
This came into stark focus this past week. We spent
the last week in another city near the coast of Malaysia. Because of the
sensitivity of the way things went I won’t disclose much personal
information. But I’ll just say that we found ourselves in a place where
we didn’t experience the same joy and freedom that we had been
experiencing in other places around the world, and in fact, things felt
very dark and clouded. We wound up confronting some issues with the
group we were connected with there and decided, in conjunction with our
leadership, that the best thing was for us to head back to Kuala Lumpur
to continue ministry with Martin. It was difficult to face what we faced
and even more difficult to confront it and feel led to leave because of
the responses, but one thing has come into focus like never before. God
is the same. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. His
people are diverse in color, country, size, shape, lifestyle, and
personality. But the nature of Jesus Christ is consistent and it is
evident in the hearts of those that choose to follow Him and forsake
themselves.
The most exciting experience I’ve had on this journey
so far is the 
hide-and-seek game of meeting people from
all over the world, seeing their hearts and character, and with
excitement being able to proclaim, “That’s my God!” We serve a great God
and it is astounding to see Him revealed in His people. I’m beginning
to love the bride of Christ more and more. There’s something to this
church thing, but I had to step out of the building to find them.
