This month we are working with Bethel Assembly church in Sungai Petani, Malaysia.
Our ministry contact is Pastor Thomas. This man is legit! We were all kind
of expecting a strict man in a suit, so thankful that's not what we got! The first
time we saw Pastor Thomas, he was sporting jeans, a tee, and flip flops!
His hair is longer than mine and looks so cool! He sat down and shared his heart
with us the day we arrived, and it blessed me so much. I had been feeling really
homesick, missing my family, and was having a little culture shock going on.
But getting to hear his heart and learn more about our ministry this month,
flooded me with peace!
Pastor Thomas is 29. His father passed away in January and, being the oldest son,
he took over the church and started supporting his mother. He said that when he took
over the church he decided not to turn into a typical strict pastor, because he wants
to be someone that people can relate to and approach. He is all about just loving
on people and being genuine! He learned 4 instruments, so he could
give lessons to people in the community and introduce them to Christ that way. He
also plays soccer on Saturdays with the community, so they can see his loving attitude
and a lot of people are drawn to church through that. He said people usually don't
"convert" from Islam, in order to respect their families, but accept Christ secretly and
attend church. They have a lot of issues with gangs here, and the elder of his church used
to be the biggest gang leader around! They have been making a HUGE dent in the community to
try to get youth out of the gangs and spend time with them.
On our first night here, we were able to go visit Pastor Thomas' nephew, Danny, in the hospital.
He has Dengai fever and was really sick. So, we got the opportunity to pray healing over him.
We learned that we will be doing a lot of hopital ministry this month, and looking around the
hospital, I got really excited! I can't wait to see what God is going to do there. Pastor Thomas
said even though people are muslim, they still go to God for healing. So God is more like
a God of convience when they want something, but a lot of people become Christians when the
Lord heals them of their disease.
After we visited Danny in the hospital, we went to Pastor Thomas' mom's house. She
fixed us all hot tea and we just had a great time fellowshiping with each other.
It warmed my heart getting to play with Pastor Thomas' one year old daughter. Seeing
her smile and hearing her laugh reminded me of home. A baby is the same every where lol!
They also asked us to sing before we left (keep in mind 1/2 of us "can't sing" and none
of us had practiced)! So after shooting each other terrified glances, we sang!
We all sang Amazing Grace and Nothing But the Blood! Not the best renditions
in the world, but we did pretty great I think! It brought a smile to my heart as we
all belted out these songs together, I know the Lord loved it. To finish up our day,
we went to a local Malay restraunt, where we ate…ALOT! It is rude to not finish
everything on your plate and we had a lot of plates!!! I have never been so stuffed
in my life. Thankfully, it was amazaing food, so my taste buds didn't mind. My
stomach later is a whole different story!
I love Malaysia! The people are so full of love and so giving. The whole people staring
at you all the time, because you are the only white people in town thing, has taken some
getting used to! But the smiles, laughs, and faces of the children when you wave at them
is priceless. People over here view white people like celebritys and it brings them
so much joy when we do something as simple as saying, "hi." We are so blessed to have people who receive us so well and love to talk to us!
It's going to be an awesome month!
LOVE YOU GUYS!
P.s. I will add pics to this ASAP! The WIFI doesn't like me very much 😉
