It’s hard to believe I have been on the race for four months and our time in Asia has come to a close. In some ways it feels as though we have just begun. In other ways, it feels like I have been gone significantly longer than four months.
As I’ve tried to process what God has been doing in me and through me these past four months, I have found myself struggling to put it into words-to make tangible for you the amazing ways that God is moving across the nations. So I’ve decided for each country to share one thing God has taught me and one person/group of people who we have blessed and have been blessed by, including what you can continue to be praying for them. This will be a four part blog, one blog for each country. This is part three of this four part blog.
None of these blessings could have happened without each one of my supporters. Those who have been blessed have not been blessed just by team Agape Life Song, but by each one of you. Thank you so much for allowing these ministries to happen, these blessings to be bestowed.
Month Three: Malaysia
What God Has Taught Me: Ministry is not always glamorous
It was not until this month that I realized I enter each country with expectations regarding the type of ministry that we will be doing. I came to expect that we would be working with orphans or street children, teaching English, or doing some type of evangelism work.
We spent our first days of ministry in Malaysia cutting up DVDs for recycling. The next week we spent our days selling tin heart boxes in the waiting rooms of the Penang Adventist Hospital.
Ministry is not always glamorous. Yet we came to learn that all of it is advancing the Kingdom, and with that, all of it is pleasing to God. While it was harder to find the greater meaning and purpose in what we were doing each day, it was a humbling experience-a reminder that the ministry is not about us, but about those that we bless. Malaysia was a re-surrendering of expectations and a reminder that when our hearts are in the right place, everything is ministry. (Not to mention, it’s pretty awesome that through selling those heart boxes we got to raise money to provide heart surgery for Cambodian children-like our night shelter boys-who would otherwise not have received heart surgery.
People Blessings: Katie (name changed to protect her privacy! J)
In a lot of ways, Katie made this month immensely meaningful for me and for many of us girls. Katie worked in the volunteering department of Penang Adventist Hospital. She is someone who we did not only work for, but became true friends with. We were blessed to spend time with her and get to know her outside of the hospital, sharing laughs and Chai tea lattes. Katie is a beautiful woman of God who has an incredible fire inside of her. She loves people sincerely and intensely and has great depth to her. She is someone who God is going to use to do great things in a country that is predominately Muslim. I believe that many will see the light of Christ in her, feel the love of Christ through her, and come to know His perfect, unfailing love.
You can be praying for comfort for her and her mother as her mother continues to battle cancer. You can pray for an increase in faith and an outpouring of love, comfort, and favor upon the two of their lives. You can also be praying for Katie’s relationship with her fiancé. Pray that her passion for God and His Kingdom continue to grow inside of Katie.
