Hello once again after a long time of not blogging. It seems like it would be so easy to blog all the time, but Gods plans are so unpredictable that every time I try to write a blog He has something else planned. Logistically the travel from Phuket, Thailand to Malaysia was a hot mess. The world race usually sets up most of our long distance travel especially when we travel by plane. When it comes to traveling from one country to another by land it is easier for the logistics leaders to set up travel on the field.
Travel day began at 4 am in Phuket, Thailand and vans were supposed to be outside of the hotel by 5 am to take us to the bus station. What I mean by “us” is 54 Americans! Well the vans never arrived, so we had to set up vans through the hotel so we could catch a bus that was already paid for, and which was leaving in one hour. Finally we made it to the bus station, and headed off to Hat Yai, which is right outside of the border of Malaysia. Once we arrived teams had to go separate ways so that they could get to their 6 different locations in Malaysia. I rode to the train station with 11 teammates to help them get a train to their locations. A travel agent told me that there are always plenty of seats open, but all the trains were full lol. World racers know how to make fast travel plans so we all ran to a travel agency, and had a van set up within 10 mins. Side note: Traveling over seas is not scary and it happens to be very easy (just not with 54 people). Four teams got on buses heading to Kuala Lumpur and the last two teams took vans to their location. The next step was to cross the border, and overstay fees were lurking around corner. Haha none of us had our passports throughout the month because they were at the Vietnam embassy getting visas, so we did not know that our visas for Thailand ran out the day before. To make a long story short we were all illegal immigrants for a day. The lovely part of this story is that our trust should always be in Christ because He has a plan for His people.
My team is staying in Sungai Petani, Malaysia with the amazing Pastor Thomas who was so eager for us to come work with his ministry. Pastor Thomas works for the government so everyday we start ministry around 5:30pm. The first part of the day we have created our own ministry, where we go on prayer walks around neighborhoods. It has been an awesome ministry in which we have been able to enter Hindu households, and pray over families. Their idols surround the room, but at the particular time when we are praying Jesus consumes their attention and the idols fall. We are invited in to houses to have cold drinks, lunch, to give facebook info, and to love people the way Christ would love them. At 5:30 the pastor comes by to pick us up in the van he bought specifically for world race teams (Thomas loves God so much and he shares that love with missionaries). We then travel to a near by hospital to pray over the sick until the visiting hours are over. The highlight of our visit is a small baby by the name of Glory. She is 1 ½ years old and has been in the hospital for most of her life because of the hole in her heart, stomach not working properly, seizures, fever, and fibrosis in her lungs. I do not care how strong of a man you are this little girl will steal your heart, and bring tears to your eyes. We always pray over her first then continue walking around praying over anyone that wants prayer. This is so cool because a lot of times patients will call us over to pray for them (the light of Christ). The only downside of praying in Malaysia is that there is a large amount of Muslims throughout the country that cannot be prayed for in the name of Jesus. There are missionaries that go to jail every year for speaking with Muslims about Jesus. You know something has to be powerful about the name of Jesus if you can go to jail for saying His name.
One man that we prayed over was in the stroke ward, and seemed to be unconscious until we started saying the name of Jesus in our prayers, which made him say “yes, yes, yes.” Wow God is good and He can move in any situation! After a week of praying over people, and seeing conditions remain the same we became broken. Then as we were leaving the hospital two days ago a woman came up to me, and said thank you so much for praying over my husband because he was able to go home. That made my heart happy, but also brought me to the realization that no matter what happens my heart should be glad because God knows what He is doing. We have had to learn that the hard way this month especially with praying over Glory day after day. This little girl is filled with pain that is written all over her precious face. Our prayers were heart felt and guided by Christ, so why was she not healed? Well it all comes back to the knowledge that God is mysterious in all His ways. Yea I love Glory and know that healing would be the best thing for her, but God loves Glory with an immeasurable love and He definitely knows what is best for Glory! I believe that as you grow with God you start to sink into a deep ocean, which causes you to fully trust in Him. This means that you were never promised to fully understand an infinite God with a finite mind.
This month has broken me to the core, and with that comes a greater trust, love, and devotion to Christ not infinite knowledge. At training camp they gave us a great analogy of Gods growth process. The process consists of God giving you a sweater that is too big for your body, but as time passes on you will grow into your sweater. The trick is that as soon as it begins to fits nice, and you feel comfortable He will give you a bigger sweater. This process is a self-check system to see if you are putting trust in your self or the Almighty God.
I’m convinced that one cannot live a life fully for God and this world. In this I mean that so many times we try to follow Gods highway with our own built in worldly exits. For example we are steadfast in the spirit following Him every where we go then we see something of this world that steals our attention, and we create our own exit to get off of His path. It is not easy to always continue on Gods Highway, but His promises are so good and He has an outrageous love for us. I’ve been challenging myself to try and always stay on His path because once you start seeing the fruit not even a car wreck will take you off His highway of love.
Remember we worship the only God and He has infinite wisdom, outrageous love, mysterious ways, graceful footsteps, open arms, and an eagerness for more of you! ( Below are some pics of our ministry)
The bedroom for dreamers!
Yea thats right we can sit down this month! Our legs may lose some muscle from the months of squatty potties but i really don't care. The beauty of a western toilet!
Our house which is actually legit!
Pastor Thomas, a man after Gods own heart and a great brother in Christ!
