Rumah Shalom is a foster home for girls on the edge of the city of Kuala Lumpur. This month we spent every day with 11 beautiful Indian girls who shared their home with our team of eight.
This home did not have any life to it when we first arrived. The walls were bare, there were no pictures of the girls around the house, the wood pieces of the floor would stick to the bottom of our feet when we walked down the hall, the doors would not shut and the bedrooms did not have any character to them. Everything about this home screamed temporary and our team decided that these girls deserved more than temporary.
Our team wanted to make Rumah Shalom a place where these girls could call home. A home that is filled with LOVE, encouragement, rest and to really bring life to the word shalom (peace) in this home!
Our team strategized and we decided to remodel the home at the end of the month. We planed a day to get the girls out of the house. On a Friday we replaced the doors, painted the walls, fixed the floors, replaced the curtains and we framed pictures of the girls and put them on the wall.
That Friday we began the remodel around 7:00am and we spent the entire day working. At 2:00pm Emma and I took the girls to the mall after school. We took them to the arcade, we saw the movie Mirror Mirror and treated them to McDonalds! Some of these girls have never been inside of a mall before or to a movie theater. I really enjoyed seeing their faces light up when they were out of the house. It did not compare to how they reacted to their new home however.
This has been my favorite moment on the race! JOY filled my heart when I saw the work of my teammates beautiful hands. I do not know how we pulled it off. Our team divided up the supply list of the things we needed to get for the house. Kearstin and I had the lovely task of getting drapes for the home, which by the way is NO EASY TASK! I dread the day I shop for drapes again. Nevertheless we decided to purchase blue drapes. We unknowingly bought drapes that matched the blue paint Heather bought for the house perfectly! God blessed this project immensely by multiplying our resources and by working out the details. I do not know how we had enough paint for the entire house and the fact that we had the funds to accomplish this remodel is beyond me.
The goal for every month of ministry is to leave the place better than we found it. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we in fact left Rumah Shalom better than we found it. Erica and Kearstin painted beautiful pictures on the walls of each room with a verse next to the painting as well. Thank you to all of my supporters who made this possible.
Here is a video of this day!
With love,
Leanna
