When I first got to Malaysia, I was overwhelmed by the dominance of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. From the initial research I did and the evidence I saw all around me in Kuala Lumpur, the nation’s capital, Christianity seemed to be nearly nonexistent (9% of the population, to be exact). As I wrote in my last blog, Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, and all Malay citizens are required to be Muslim. It’s against the law for them to question their faith, and if they convert to a different religion they lose their citizenship and all the privileges it carries. Everywhere we go we see temples, mosques, and people worshiping foreign gods. It’s rare to see a cross or a church.
But God is faithful. We knew that if we prayed and followed Holy Spirit’s leading, He would lead us to Christian contacts. Within our first 24 hours of landing in Malaysia, God had hooked us up with six potential contacts. Some former World Racers who had passed through KL had posted information on our World Race information website about a church and the contact info of a former World Racer who lives in KL. So we contacted the former Racer and made plans to meet up with her on Tuesday. And we visited Kingdom City Church on Sunday. We were blown away by the size of Kingdom City (1,700 members) and we were so encouraged to see and hear about all that Jesus is doing in Malaysia. While at Kingdom City, we made quite a few friends and made plans to join their street ministry team. We’ll be doing that tonight and I am SO excited about it. We heard many stories about the salvation, healings, and miracles that they see when they go out to pray for people in the streets.
Last night we met up with our former Racer friend for dinner and she told us her story, as well as information on many Christian ministries that she is connected with. She also told us stories about Malay citizens, or “M’s” as she referred to them, who have become Christians and meet together to worship in secret. She said that there’s estimated to be 100,000 secret Malay Christians. That excited me beyond belief. She said that God has given a special grace for the salvation of Muslim people, and He often reveals Himself to them through dreams and visions. She said she and her friends often share their faith with M’s, but they have to be very careful about doing so because it’s against the law to evangelize. She also told us stories about secret Malay Christians being found out and imprisoned and forced to renounce Christianity, or leave the country. I still can’t stop thinking about 100,000 Christian Malays meeting together to worship in secret. Jesus is definitely up to something big here in Malaysia.
After dinner we joined her to her weekly prayer meeting called The Burn. It’s basically a group of Christians (mainly of Chinese decent) who gather together for two hours every Tuesday night just to worship and exalt Jesus. This rocked my world and so far it is my favorite experience of the World Race. Many of you know my love for IHOP, the International House of Prayer based in Kansas City, MO. Well, these Chinese Malaysian Christians love it too. The heart of IHOP, and the Burn, is to enter into God’s presence through prayer and worship, to hear the Father’s heart, and to partner with Him in prayer to accomplish His will on earth. Last night reaffirmed the desire that God placed in my heart three years ago while I was in Spain: to spend my life building houses of prayer all over the world. It’s so exciting and encouraging to see God raising up houses of prayer all over the world.
And it wasn’t just any night at the Burn. The Watoto choir (the African Children’s Choir from Uganda) was in town and the older members, who are about our age, were attending the Burn for the night. It was so amazing to worship with our Christian brothers and sisters from around the world. The regular Burn attendees were so blessed to receive missionaries from the United States and the choir from Uganda into their little prayer meeting. They kept talking about how it is just like Heaven. And it was.
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” — Revelation 7:9
While I was worshiping in the prayer room, I was meditating on the beauty of the Gospel. Encountering so many different religions has highlighted some of the ways Christianity is so different from other religions. One of the biggest differences is that our God gives us free will. Other religions are forced upon their people, like the Malays who are required to follow Islam and aren’t allowed to question their faith. But Jesus laid down His life for us to give us the option of having a relationship with our God. He loves us radically and lets us choose whether or not to love Him back.
We’re heading out in an hour to go take this God of freedom to the streets. Hopefully the people we meet will choose to give their lives to this God who loves them so much that He’s willing to let them choose Him.
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” –Deuteronomy 30:19
“…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” –Joshua 24:15
