MONTH THREE: Malaysia/Singapore Stories

We kicked off with Mini Debrief – the whole squad together in Georgetown, Penang for a few days. A beautiful time to process the month that was and pray into all this new month held. Our team’s discernment time for Malaysia was so so exciting! Hunter had a clear vision of us in two big cities, each with characteristics of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Ronny had a dream of us running around big airports, Sam had a sense to go beyond Malaysia (lol, cue Singapore!), Lindsay had a connection in KL, and I had connections in and so much peace for Singapore. We also felt called to be rooted in places longer (versus the stay-two-nights-then-move-on vibes He affirmed for Thailand). Leadership approved our travel plans (Singapore/KL) and we set off – full of excitement for the MORE God had promised. I love this aspect of Unscripted, how intentional and prayerful all our movements become.

We stayed a couple extra days in Penang to include my 22ND BIRTHDAY!! My sweet teammates deserve an Oscar for the day: “breakfast at midnight”, church, local food, walking around the city, street art, a photoshoot, sunset hang outs on a broken pier, and a surprise burger dinner with the whole squad!! The most beautiful day everrrr. If you’re considering the World Race, I’d legit recommend just for the birthdays lol. WR bdays are the most special, especially when ya could be sad missing home/family. SO MUCH LOVE

We joined an Every Nation church on the Sunday (a powerful glimpse of the Kingdom). The kindest, most real couple took us out for lunch and gave us great insight to Singaporean culture. Such a transient population – with students from all over Asia and foreign workers both only there for a few years. Only ~3.6million of the ~5.7million population are residents/citizens, and we for sure felt the level of pride those citizens carried. So interesting to sandwich our time there with time in Malaysia, hearing both sides to the narrative of Singapore’s independence. Ronny also met someone at church who knew of a soup kitchen that we could serve. 

Prayer: in so many forms! Sunrise rooftop prayer started our first day. We found a secluded rooftop garden on a parking building (classic Singapore) the night before, and it welcomed a doooope time of interceding for the city & our time there. Another day, at an International House of Prayer, I got a call from Mum telling me that a dear 23yo friend at home has cancer. Broken by the news, and still reeling from the Christchurch shooting a few days prior – I numbly turned to prayer, which became this fighting kind of prayer God has been leading me into. Previously I would have just prayed for comfort/peace for her family, now I’m fighting for full healing. Claiming that we are ‘God’s fellow workers’ (1 Cor 3:9) and that our words too create realities, like my Father in Genesis. I just love the Lord’s timing – to receive that call in a time and space where prayer was already the focus. I also received prayer at IHOP from the sweetest lady and it was so powerful and specific to things I was walking through. That prayer gave me language to how I was feeling and affirmed so powerfully that the Lord sees, knows, and loves ME.

Willing Hearts soup kitchen – what an honour to serve with them. They prepare 5,000 meals a day that are taken to 40 locations in Singapore. Meals go to the elderly, disabled, homeless, low income families, struggling children, and migrant workers. Read more about the awesome mahi they do here: http://www.willinghearts.org.sg  Our team helped in all areas: cleaning, bagging bread, washing rice pots, making food baskets etc. I made a sweet friend (74yo) who has been volunteering there 3 days a week for 10 years. Her selflessness, passion, and fun attitude were a joy to witness!

Personally, I just loved walking around the excellence of Singapore. It felt like a movie! So so clean, intentional architectural synthesis of nature, perfectly executed design, seamless cohesion of green spaces and concrete jungle, efficient & beautiful public transport, and soooo much more!! I was reminded of the ultimate arc of the creation mandate, to move from the Garden of Eden to the glorious City of Revelation. Walking Singapore filled me with such joy at this picture of fulfilment  – got me excited for all that the Lord is doing on this earth, and also for a potential study/career path in Urban Design when I get home… Watch this space 😉

Our hostel was across from a mall in KL – meaning most of our days were spent in said mall for food & wifi. Our regular servers there quickly became friends. Shawarma every lunch with Murad from Bangladesh, mango smoothies with Pongkit (Chinese Malay) and later Soham from Nepal. We went to the movies when they clocked off (Shazam at midnight, hello) and explored KL together on their off days. Ronny beautifully shared their stories in this blog https://ronnysison.theworldrace.org/post/water-with-ice if you want to read more! One major shift of this trip is opening my eyes to see all the humans we encounter each day. I used to pass off interactions with baristas, cashiers and uber drivers as merely transaction capital based – as if that excused me from deeper conversation or sharing stories. Now, every person I encounter when going about a normal day is an opportunity for connection and, if the Holy Spirit leads, to share the hope of Jesus. This view has led to the best conversations and friendships! I encourage you to keep open eyes/a willing heart to engage with those in front of you. 

Teaching for a week: One of the staff-turned-friends from our hostel connected us with United Learning Centre, that serves ~60 refugee Chin students from Myanmar aged 4-17yo. They have a high rotation of volunteer teachers each coming a few days a week, some expat some local. It was pure joy to experience the fun, kid friendly space they created for these treasured students who have experienced significant trauma. Another thing I LOVE about Unscripted is the posture to always seek the more the Lord has for us, even in structured ministry. Rather than just ticking off that we ‘did ministry’ (what even is ‘ministry’ tho lol), we kept open eyes to all opportunities for deeper engagement with the kids or volunteers. I helped teach the older students who worked through ACE booklets, and was able sit for ages with one of the louder boys Simon and help him get to an ‘aha’ moment with the 8x table. Hanging out with him made me miss YOUTH @ The Well so much! 

There are a lot of homeless people where we were in KL, and the Lord laid them on our hearts often. One night Ronny and I bought donuts and walked around sharing donuts and hearing their stories. We made some sweet friends that we connected with daily as we walked to school etc. This spurred some pretty rad conversations in our team around generosity, the complexity of homelessness, cyclical dependence, empowerment, and unconditional love. I’m constantly reminded of the quote “the image of Christ in me greets the image of Christ in you”, as we move through spaces that seem hopeless. Each human you and I have ever laid eyes on bears the Lord’s image simply by nature of their creation. Who are we to box that up and walk on past, either from pride OR fear of our own saviour complex?