To my dear supporters,
I hope you will enjoy reading about my last month in Malaysia. For me it was one of my personal favorites. I thought I would let the pictures do most of the talking. (By the way, if you notice that I am wearing the same outfit in every picture, it is not because the pictures were all taken on the same day. It was month 11 and I was running out of modest clothes with no holes in them.) Anyways, we sang quite often in Malaysia and one song in particular that many of the Christians knew is called “This is the day.” You may have heard it yourself as an old hymn or maybe even as a Bible verse. It went something like this, “This is the day! This is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made. We will rejoice, we will rejoice! And be glad in it, and be glad in it!”
We drove all over the country in this big red van, also commonly referred to as “the sweat box.” Our ministry included much traveling to churches and homes in various states of Malaysia, but we mostly stayed in the state of Kelantan. Some days we even drove 3-5hrs, and God always provided us with safety and strength….and gas for this guzzler!
The first day we arrived in Malaysia I worked up enough guts to try fried tarantula. I never say no to free food! Let’s just say it’s not something you want to eat on a first date…the harry legs stick with you for a while.
I also had a common Chinese delicacy of bird nests made purely from bird saliva. The funny thing is that there were these really loud, annoying birds right outside my window all month. I really wanted to shoot them, but then I found out that a Walmart-sized bag of their saliva nests was worth about $5,000 USD. It is thought that these nests have vital nutrients that make your skin and hair beautiful. Anyone want to go into business with me?
But, I didn’t eat tarantulas and bird nests all the time. I got to enjoy other types of food, mostly Indian food. Spicy!!!! We had a lot of chicken curry and rice. All meals were served with fresh fruit, sometimes yellow watermelon!
Malaysia is so beautiful and green! I’ve never seen so many ferns and palm trees in my life. One day on the way to ministry at Pangor Island, I saw a herd of wild rhino in the jungle. They were all congregated together like a family reunion. Oh, and the rubber trees. Did you know that rubber came from trees? Well, you do now. Many people work in the rubber tree industry.
Pastor had a lot of energy himself and probably wondered why college age girls need so much sleep. He made sure we didn’t work ourselves too hard, so he took us out for some adventures. I really love waterfalls, like really, really! This was definitely one of my favorite days of the race. If you look really closely you can see me jumping from the rocks. I got in trouble that day for climbing up to far. I blamed it on being raised in the mountains.
As usual, my team found plenty of things to laugh about this month. I’ve never had so many inside jokes and now that the race is over I am going to miss sharing these laughs with them. Sharing life with different people in a different country and different culture will at first make you think that they are doing things weird. But, then you have to ask yourself if you are the one who is abnormal. My typical conclusion is that there is no normalcy. Everything is different for everybody and that is A.OKAY. Life would be boring if we were all the same.
Pastor loves himself some Roti. It is a Malay favorite and so cheap too. I’m talking $1 for Roti and fresh juice. The apple juice is my favorite. It tastes just like you are eating a big green apple! The Roti is like a pastry and you can have it sweet with sweetened condensed milk (my favorite) or spicy with curry or even cheesy. The funny part about this is that pastor likes to eat it at 3 or 4am, so we had a lot of late night Roti trips. It’s like America’s Taco Bell! I’ll forever laugh when I hear of Roti. It is so good though!
This picture was taken at an overlook spot during one of our long drives. This was the last month with my teammates. After spending eight months with these beautiful ladies I can say that they have all been catalysts in my spiritual growth. They truly love me for who I am, my weird quirks, sweatiness, and all. I love them dearly as friends and sisters. They are some of the most amazing people you could ever meet and I’m so thankful we were able to share our last month together in Malaysia. When I think of them I think about how much God blessed me this past year.
Photo by Alysa. 🙂 
One of the many ministries was working on the land. This land is being prepared for shelter for needy families and will be called Immanuel Missions Home. Praying for someone to adopt this project and give $150,000 USD for it’s completion. Pastor gets up and works at the land at 7am before the sun gets too hot. He is currently installing pipes with the next world race team that came after we left. I know God will provide all that is needed!
No matter where I go in the world, I seem to find some children to love on. I’m holding a little firecracker in this picture. She looks sweet and innocent but she’s a mess. 😉
I’ve never thought of myself as a singer before but for some reason I keep appearing up in front of groups of people. We were able to lead worship and preach all month long, something challenging yet humbling to do.
The story of this picture is quit unique. After my teammates prayed for this lady she was miraculously healed. She had a bewildered look on her face when she got up to walk after having a hurt foot. She even said herself that it was a miracle. When we came back to visit her we asked if she believed in the Jesus who healed her. She said she did believe that Jesus healed her but that she wasn’t sure if she could let go of her other Hindu gods. She wanted to worship all of them because she was afraid of what her Hindu neighbors would think of her if she became a Christian. We gave her a bag of rice, only come to find out that she had been storing all the many bags of rice, that have been given to her over the years, in a storage room. She is afraid that the rice will brainwash her and Christianize her. True Story.
This picture was taken with our new Chinese friend named Crystal. I’m so thankful I met this lady. I am encouraged when I meet Christians in other parts of the world who are strong in faith. She was such a joy to be around. She welcomed us into her home and cooked us the most amazing meals. She linked us up with some Chinese children’s ministry and taught us so many things about the relationship between Chinese history and Christianity. Ask me sometime about the Chinese Christian who was released from jail. It’s a cool story with visual aid. 🙂
Dressing up with a new friend. When in Rome! I mean, Malaysia!
I was able to mentor young children. Long division in the morning, yay.
The Indian culture was very interesting.
Most of all, I learned from Pastor Yesu and Sister Theresa. This is an amazingly Godly family that I have been blessed to know. Pastor Yesu has one of the most amazing testimonies I have ever heard. In the nineties he was beat up by a street gang for sharing the gospel, and the result of this was hospitalization and permanent damage. He now suffers from glaucoma and walks with no ankle. He forgave those who harmed them and even led some of them to Christ. He is very brave. One time this huge spider the size of my hand climbed into my window of the van and was about to get on me. I screamed like a little girl and jumped out of the van. He told me not to be afraid because I have dominion over the animals of the earth. I’m still not sure I’m brave enough for that but next time I see a spider I will give it a try. Sister Theresa will work all day long to cook you a nice meal. In one month I never heard a negative comment come from her mouth. Her faith is unshakable. She is compassionate and giving. Together, they represent joy and love like people you’ve never met.
House visits with Pastor and Sister Glory include sharing personal testimonies with the gospel, prayer, and giving of food. Sister Glory (pictured on the left) always translated for us. Her husband left her for a Muslim lady but she prays and believes that he will one day come back for her. She lives by herself and is very dedicated to serving Christ. She believes that God sends her World Racers to take care of so that she won’t be lonely. I love her so much!
Praying for a crippled man.
Church visit on the island of Panang. We made a new family within a few short hours. This little Pentecostal family followed us to our van with lots of sweet goodbyes. I’ll never forget when a couple of the teenage girls said that we were the first Americans they had ever met. They thought that Americans were jealous, mean people but they learned that if you love Jesus then you have the same heart and spirit. She said, “We are the same with Jesus.”
I spoke on forgiveness this particular night. We prayed over each person in this family after our worship and Bible study during this house visit. We drove 3hrs just to get to this one house but it was so worth it. Plus, they had a really cute puppy!
Praying for a young boy with Down Syndrome.
Praying for a widowed lady who just recently lost her husband. She was filled with tears of sorrow. She broke down crying and all I could do was just hug her. She was so sweet and I know she had to be lonely. In her culture she is not allowed to leave the home for a year because that is designated as her grieving time. I’m so glad that God brought us to her to show her some much needed love.
This precious baby had a disease and his little lungs were caved in. The family is devastated. We prayed over him and invited the family to church that night.
The family with the baby showed up for church. It was their first ever attended Christian church service. Praise God!
One of the many, many house visits! Too many group pictures for this blog. God opened the doors to many Hindu families. Many and most of the doors are still shut to Christians, but we are praying for more to be open to hearing the gospel!
Children’s ministry. Let the silly songs continue!
Ladies of the church on Mother’s Day. I shared my testimony, and then we had coffee and curry! 😉
She was so cute. We sang Amazing Grace to her.
Sharing the love of God.
This lovely Hindu family made us a nice meal. Very hospitable culture.
Praying for a man suffering with Alcoholism.
10pm-3am feeding the homeless sleeping on the streets and sharing the gospel with them. This is us preparing for the night. We actually didn’t get home until 6am. I then slept on a bare church floor and used my dress as a blanket. The ministry was so worth it! We were not able to share with the ethnic Malay people because they are born in to their religion of Islam and have no religious freedom. In other words, we cannot openly share the Gospel with these people. However, we have the freedom to share with the indigenous people, which make up a rather large population of Malaysia. We may have given dinner to a hundred people that night, and I was personally able to share with many. One man in particular caught our eye as we were just about to leave. He was alone in the corner of the outdoor bus station. I walked up to him and gave him some rice. I asked him some questions and he immediately knew where I was going. He started getting angry, saying he knew Christians were hypocrites and that he knew all the verses and everything I was going to say, but that it was too late for him. He had already been burned by the church. I actually felt pain in my chest for the hurt that this man had held up inside of him. When asked his name, his response was “NOBODY, I’M NOBODY!” Then, he got up and ran away. This was a broken man who had given up on man and given up on God. The conversation played in my mind again and again as I had no choice but to leave him, but I knew that God would continue to chase after him.
BIG THANKS
to all my supporters. You have impacted myself and so many people all over the world more than you will ever know. I am so grateful to have you in my life and I hope that you’ve had the chance to read my blogs and see what God is doing all over the world. I hope that you are very blessed for giving. I will continue to thank you personally the best that I can. Most of all, I thank God that you are Kingdom called.
