This month my team and Team Shekinah are together in the Malaysian/Thailand border town of Changlun, population 1500.
Our main ministry is to teach English to a multi-language kindergarten. I'm assisting the 5-6 yr. old's Mandarin class and 6 yr. old's English classes 5 days a week.
Our ministry host is P. Thomas and his loving wife, a Christ loving, spirit filled couple with three beautiful kids who has a passion for this rural community of predominantly Muslims. After meeting them and talking to them for just a short while, their love for people and for transparency are so infectious, I knew I already love them and will learn a ton from them this month.
I must say tho' I have had a few Malaysian friends (sup Nash!) here and there, I am totally ignorant when it comes to Malaysia/Malaysian culture, so here are some facts that surprised me:
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It's a closed country, there's no direct evangelism allowed to Muslims. If you get caught, you will go to jail.
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There is an overwhelming number of Myanmar (Burmese) refugees here. One of our ministries is to go meet some working in the quarries in the jungle.
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Malaysians are made up of about 1/3 Malaysian, 1/3 Chinese, and 1/3 other (Indian, Burmese, Thai, etc.) and speak a combination of Malay, Mandarin, and Indian dialects.
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There are a number of Middle Eastern kids in the Kindergarten due to their parents coming from Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries that are working, studying or lecturing in the university here.
- Most of the Chinese peeps I've encountered here are from Fujian and besides speaking in Mandarin, they also speak Hokkien, a dialect in Fujian Province.
This month, I will try harder to blog more so you can be kept up to what I'm doing, oh, and my birthday (February 10th) falls exactly on Chinese New Years Day this year(I don't think this has happened ever!). I'll be missing my grandparents' cross-year dumplings for this Chinese New Year celebration, but have already seen all the red lanterns strung around town and can't wait for what God has in store here.
It's going to be an unforgettable month as it's already starting in a way that's different from the other months!
Thanks for reading, God's presence is with me.
