This quote was painted on one of the walls at Bethany Home, a training centre for epileptic children. We spent our last week in Malaysia there, and it
was a very difficult week for me… in more ways than one. There were
almost too many volunteers there, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to
do with myself. We weren’t necessarily given any particular jobs for
the week, but were told to encourage the staff. Sounds easy, right?
The thing is, the staff were working around a schedule, so I often
felt like I would be intruding if I joined their classes, etc. I also
have no experience in this area of ministry, so that was new for me,
and I’m not entirely sure it’s a strong point of mine. Another
struggle was the simple fact that we were only at Bethany Home itself
for 5 days, which wasn’t a lot of time to get to know people. Combine
all that with a sore throat and the team transitions I was still
working through, and you’ve got a rather unhappy Mandi.
lot about joy and what it means to live Colossians 3:12-14:
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and
patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another is any of you
has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And
over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in
perfect harmony.”
These qualities were oozing out of the
staff and volunteers at Bethany Home, and it was humbling for me to
see. The love in that place was so thick, I felt I could reach out
and touch it. It was truly incredible.
