Yeah! Month 6: Welcome to Malaysia!
KUALA LUMPUR
I’ve been in Malaysia about a week give or take. We flew into the capital, Kuala Lumpur (KL). KL is the most westernized city we’ve been in since we departed the States. KL has about the same number of people as Phnom Penh (1.6 million) but if you include the suburbs, it has about 7.2 million. This city is a happening place and parts of it reminded me of Seattle (highway overpasses and a tower that looks like the Space Needle). (Malaysia has about 28 million people).
Oil palm trees are everywhere; the welcome sign at the airport
My teammate has an uncle living in KL so the two of us stayed with his family for a night in luxury our first night there. They treated us to dinner and drove us through the city. We ate at an all-you-can-eat buffet which I’m not used to seeing. The dichotomy of what we ate and where we stayed compared to most of the other places we’ve ate and lived really impacted me that evening. I nearly cried. It’s hard to be immersed in poverty one second and “luxurious” living the next. It was the same feeling I got walking into a Whole Foods grocery store in Los Angeles during my layover two months ago.
Something I've been processing the last two months is the drastic difference between haves and have nots. While I observed indications of economic growth in Phnom Penh, it still seems a much poorer city than the cities we've been to in Malaysia. And that said, I find that because there's more money here in Malaysia, there's more poverty in the spirit. (My qualifier, obviously, is that this isn't the case for all people here or there). But I also lump the States in that category of spiritual poverty. It seems where there is more money, there is usually more greed, more selfishness, and more self-absorption. I'm really struggling with this and processing whether I am really giving enough to those in need, especially those that I come across on this journey. I can travel to 11 countries and serve the people I'm working with, but do I help the homeless man I walk by daily here?
Anyhow, the world's tallest twin towers reside in KL and they are some of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen.
Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers; typical view of World Racers sitting and waiting for a ride
ISLAND LIVING
you can take a ferry ride or drive the 13.5km bridge across to Penang Island, our home for this month
My team is based on Penang Island this month, a six hour bus ride north of KL. We are living in the island’s largest city, Georgetown. The population is about 1.2 million and is apparently the second largest metropolitan area in Malaysia. I believe it! The traffic is bad and it has been the least pedestrian-friendly place I’ve been so far in the last five months. How is it possible that people will intentionally speed up and try to hit you while you're crossing the street? Regardless, the culture here is fascinating.
Georgetown has a unique blend of local Malay, Indian, European and Chinese/Asian cultures. This is due, in part, to its ideal location for trade routes centuries ago. In fact, Georgetown has a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.
About half the population is Malay/Muslim, roughly 10% is Indian/Hindu, roughly 20% is Chinese-decent/Buddhist, roughly 10% is Christian, and others.
evidences of different cultures: mosques, temples and churches within a block of each other
We are living in LITTLE INDIA of Georgetown. YES! I get to eat Indian food every day and so far I have. I LOVE it!
Vendors with 15-30 cent fried lentil balls and samosas; restaurants with $2-3 curries
MINISTRY
In a nutshell, we are loving people by primarily helping the sick, feeding the homeless, and teaching the poor.
We are partnered again this month with YWAM (Youth With a Mission). Peter, a local Malay man, is our host and he was born here and desires to see the people here come to know God. They have us doing a variety of ministries this month. We spent our first full day with them cleaning a beautiful historic building they own that they use to host teams every month. We scrubbed, mopped, dusted, etc. The inside of the building was absolutely beautiful.
We spent the morning asking the YWAM staff about Island life and the culture here. Of course I had to find out about snakes and what kinds might be living on the island. Vipers, coral snakes and some FLYING SNAKES in the jungle, to name a few. Yikes. I knew that might be the case but I wanted to be informed. There are some hiking trails in a national park on the northwest part of the island I want to tackle during our day off and I want to know what I might run in to.
Yesterday we began our week-long ministry at the Penang Adventist Hospital. It’s a world-renowned hospital facility, with many patients coming in from other countries like Indonesia. We ran from the bus stop to the hospital because it was raining so hard and we weren’t prepared for it, having left our raincoats at home. It was really funny. In my mind, I kept thinking AMERICAN INVASION, with five American women running into this hospital. I also thought this as well because Malaysia is a predominantly muslim country and apparently you can get arrested if you are caught spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are 40 or so of us here this month spreading God's love in Malaysia.
At the hospital, we will spend our days fundraising for the development department that donates funds to those patients who cannot afford heart transplants. They currently have 3,000 people on the waiting list to receive a heart transplant. The operations cost on average about $8,000 (USD). We raised almost $300 during our 4 hours of work the first day. People were very generous, despite being at the hospital themselves for their own ailments. We will be there from 9am-3pm with a break for a free (work-earned) vegetarian lunch in the hospital cafeteria.
Sort of like the Salvation Army bell ringers at Christmastime, we ask people for money in the hallways of the hospital. We also have a guitar and some of the girls have been singing as well. Yesterday I stationed myself in front of the hospital bakery. Happy, well-fed people = likelihood of more money to be donated. That’s my theory, anyway.
This Adventist Hospital has it right when it comes to food: "no meat allowed" and a bakery with mostly sprouted baked goods.
Other ministries the rest of the month include:
St. Nichlos Home for the Blind. I understand we will be doing administrative work there.
Kawan Homeless Drop-in Centre, a homeless drop in shelter where people can get warm meals (breakfast and lunch) and take a shower or a nap. I understand we will be cooking and spending time with those people who drop in during the day, just loving on them and listening to their stories. The center is run by YWAM. As part of their homeless ministry, they also run a used clothing shop where we will spend time sorting clothes and such.
Door of Hope. Once a week in the evening from 5-9pm we will be teaching english to a low-income group of Chinese migrants.
One of the greatest commandments is to love one another. Another weeknight evening, half of us will go out and speak to and love on the people who are out on the streets, whether they are "working them" (sex industry workers/prostitutes/lady boys) or they are homeless. The other half will stay behind and do intercessory prayer for the teams.
It’ll be a busy month! As I finish typing this, I hear one of the calls to prayer coming out from the minaret of a nearby mosque.
MONKEYING AROUND
On my first day off this month, I discovered while hiking up Penang Hill (highest point of the island) there are monkeys here. These monkeys are habituated to humans (fortunately and unfortunately).
Waching the monkeys pick bugs off each other reminded me of how us racers are to each other. Living in community on the World Race is a lot like how these monkeys are with each other. For some (not me, thankfully), we have picked lice out of each other's hair. Like the momma here taking care of its baby, we care for each other in a similar way. When we are sick or tired, we are there for each other. We extend grace and love on each other, even when we don't want to or don't feel like it. We encourage one another and build each other up with the purpose of calling each other into greater living. We give and take feedback even when it's difficult. Essentially, loving each other unconditionally, as God loves each one of us. Helping to remove the bugs out of each other. That's what community looks like.
….love from Penang Island, Malaysia….
