Today was the best day on the Race and Malaysia is almost edging out Ecuador as my favorite month and I just got back from ministry an hour ago but I’m too excited to wait til I can write coherently about my day so instead I’m going to let you read my thoughts as I think them.
You’re about to know how my mom feels when I come bursting in the front door after work and talk for 30 minutes without breathing.
This had already been the best week I’ve had in all six months, and then this morning me and Courtney and Whitney were supposed to be serving food at the homeless shelter, but a day or two ago Casey told us plans had changed and we’d be spending the day at an orphanage instead. Of course that made me look more forward to today than to Christmas.
I woke up this morning too excited to read my Bible or even journal, so I just spent my quiet time telling God about my week instead. Sometimes I think he’d rather me just hang out with him more than trying to have a super official devotion time.
[The following paragraph is unnecessary to the biggest point of my story, so if you’re in a hurry you can skip it. It’s just a really funny sidebar]
We went outside and waited forever for the right bus to come by. Once we got on, we knew two things for sure: the ride was supposed to be 30 minutes, and our stop was in front of a bank across the street from a Shell station. So naturally, when we saw a Shell, we looked around and saw there was indeed a bank across the street, so we got off. We call our contact(her name is Esther but she isn’t our squadmate) so she can send someone to pick us up. We wait forever. We wonder if we got off at the wrong stop, but what are the chances that there are TWO Shell stations each with the same bank across the street? Courtney’s phone rings. It’s Esther; her guy is at the Shell but doesn’t see us. She asks us where we’re at. After some explaining we realize we are indeed at the wrong Shell.
There are some people who would get stressed out or frustrated by such a situation, but none of the three of us are those people. We just laughed the entire time. I have the best team.
Wait forever for another bus. Ride another 15 minutes to the right stop. Thankfully Esther found our lateness just as funny as we did.
Crystal Family Home is a cute little house on a much quieter side of Penang(the YWAM base where we live is right in the middle of the city). Most of the kids who live there either come from single parent homes, or their grandparents raise them and need help taking care of them. So the kids go back and visit their families sometimes. There were seven kids there today and I couldn’t pronounce five of their names so I won’t try to spell them, but they all ranged from nine to eleven years old and they are SO unbelievably polite and smart and funny. They can carry on conversations like adults. There’s a big playground right in front of the house so we played outside the entire time.
[This is what I look like after running for the first time in ten months; the kids’ favorite game is doing relay races around the block with sticks for batons, and they wanted me on their team. My coach would be so proud]
Around noon a van pulled up and all these people in fancy uniforms get out. It turns out the home is partly funded by this great big hotel downtown and the owner and some of his employees had brought gifts for the kids.
They had us wait outside until they set everything out, and when they called us in I wish I’d gotten a video of these beautiful kids’ faces when they saw the big pile of soccer balls, coloring books, board games and stuffed animals. There isn’t a word in any language for the joy in that room. I’m not sad about missing Christmas morning at my house anymore because this was ten times better to watch.
The hotel owner is from Switzerland and he’s passionate about getting kids to study hard, dream big dreams, and grow up to be good workers and help other people. He told the kids, “These gifts are for you all to share!” They were speechless, until finally they one by one whispered “THANK YOU” like they still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. He told them to promise to keep working hard in school and that they were going to live great lives.
Look at this. THIS is business as mission(CIU students, take note). This man is so successful and he’s pouring his money into this ministry because he loves the Lord and loves kids. You can use literally any job to build the kingdom. Don’t feel bad if you don’t feel called to be a pastor or a “real” missionary; God gave you your passions and he wants you to put them to work for him.
He explained to us that he encourages the children to dream their own dreams. He wants to help them find out what they love and what they’re good at and imagine how they can use that to serve God. It’s possibly the coolest ministry I’ve ever heard of.
We went back out to play(because the kids put the gifts under their tree to wait and open on Christmas) and asked each of the kids what they want to be when they grow up. One said an autimotive engineer(yall, when I was nine I couldn’t have even told you what that was) because he likes science, one said an English teacher because she loves speaking English and wants to help people, two of them said mathematicians…it was unbelievable.
We ate lunch with them and I voluntarily ate seconds of rice, with curry, and chased it with coffee. Three things I normally hate, but since Malaysia never stops surprising me I loved them both today. These are the most polite kids I’ve ever seen; they all ate their food and then got up and washed their dishes and cleaned the kitchen without even being told to. Spoiled American kids need lessons from them.
For the rest of the afternoon we just hung out with them. They read books to us and told us about their families and asked us all about the Race. One of the boys was asking us places we’d been, like “Have you seen the pyramids in Egypt? Have you been to the Eiffel Tower? Have you been to Greece?” We asked if he’d been to any of those and he said, “No, I saw them in books!” Coolest. Kid. Ever.
At some point in all our conversations, each kid told us “I am a Christian! Are you? Do you have a Bible? Do you like to read it? Do you go to a church?” Yall. These are little kids and they’re as excited about their faith as my friends in college. My jaw has dropped to the floor so many times today I’m surprised I’m able to close my mouth anymore.
We didn’t want to leave, and we’d go back to visit every day if we could, but they’re all going home on Sunday for a week and we’ll probably be headed to Thailand by then. But we may get to go see a Christmas play with them on Saturday.
I loved today. I feel like the Grinch at the end of the movie when his heart grows three sizes. I want everybody to use their job for Jesus like Francois does. I want to find people like him and tell their stories and make people want to be like those people. The bus home felt like forever because I couldn’t wait to write about all this, because the best part of everything I do is sharing it.
Sometimes I’m extra aware of the fact that I have an extraordinary life. Today is one of those days. Thanks God.
I still need $1650 by December 31st to stay here. Will you help make my Christmas as merry as the one these kids had? I need 33 people to donate $50!
