Yeah I know.
It’s taken me an entire month to write a blog about Malaysia. Part of me has been slacking, and the other part just hasn’t had time.
I also felt as if I couldn’t even find the right words to describe Malaysia to you. Every minute has not been what I expected. And every moment I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
It all started with team changes. I had to leave a group of 6 fun loving girls that had become my best friends, to join a new team of girls. And in my wildest dreams, I would have never even guessed the girls I was placed with. It was not that the team was bad, or I was upset, I was honestly just shocked. We all were. Random was how we all described it, but not to the Lord of course.
We first showed up to our home in Sungai Petani, and were freaked out. We had one small room that could barely fit the 6 of us that was right above the church we were working with. A fear of how we would all go stir crazy, never being able to leave the church, began to sink in. There was nothing surrounding us within walking distance. We were stuck. And we have no wifi.
Mostly that was just God’s way of forcing us to press into each other. With no one else to talk to and nowhere else to go, a friendship formed that I can’t even describe today. It was so unexpected, and oh so beautiful. These girls push me spiritually, and never fail to make me laugh. They are quickly changing my life. I would not want to be here with anyone else.
Everything started changing right around christmas, ad that was mostly due to the caroling. Three nights in a row, with the entire church family, we went christmas caroling until 3 am. We laughed, danced, sung, but above all, we became part of the family.
This family, which I will go into much greater detail in a later blog, loves us so well. We are always in their homes, eating their food, and usually laughing super loud or dancing crazy. Typically that’s the men in the family’s fault, not our own. Regardless, they treat us as their own.
Ministry here is your usual church things. We preach, lead worship, participate in prayer meetings, bring the word at home visits, and work in an orphanage for adults who have disabilities that have been abandoned by their families.
Dancing is also one of our biggest ministries. This culture is big on dancing, and always ask us to get up and perform at events and services. At first it was straight chaos, because we had nothing planned and were completely surprised. But now of course we have two different routines choreographed that we have performed at around 10 parties, events and services.
So basically Malaysia has been full of surprises. I never thought I would come to love my new team as much as I do and as quickly as I did. I never thought that one huge Indian Family would ever accept me as their own and teach me about unconditional love. I never thought I would preach and lead worship. I am thankful for a God who never gives us what we would give ourselves, because he gives us greater.
