Malaysia!

March 6, 2017 | by archiveworldraceblogs

Hey everyone!

Well we made it to Asia safely! Haha… a little last notice, but we dove right into ministry and had quite a busy month. I have so much to share with ya’ll so be expecting more blogs to soon about our time in Malaysia, which was hands down — my favorite month! 

We just arrived in Thailand yesterday so now we will be spending our 6th month of the race here. My team and I had to take an overnight train to Bangkok for the evening and tonight we have another overnight train ride to Nong Khai, the north eastern border of Thailand; this is where we will be staying and doing ministry this month. 

 

 

 

During our time in Malaysia, my team and I were living and doing ministry in Penang. We were beyond blessed with wonderful living conditions. We had hot showers, comfortable beds, a kitchen, a living room with couches, and real toilets! I know that’s a given right? 

Not in Asia!  Unless you are at a nice cafe or restaurant, you will most likely see one of these bad boys also known as a “squatter” or sometimes called “squatty potty” and if you’re seeing one of these, you won’t be seeing toilet paper. There is always a hose though and that is used for washing. We still haven’t formulated an effective technique in our heads as to how to keep our pants dry with a hose in hand, so we stick to the toilet paper we generally always have in our back pockets.

 

                                  

 

 

Last month ministry looked like a number of things.

 

On Wednesday evenings, my team would do homeless ministry with another missions-based organization called YWAM that is already established in Penang. Another team from our squad was staying at this YWAM base and doing ministry with them for the month so we would get to see and serve with them on Wednesday evenings. Homeless ministry has so many layers. I have definitely seen and experienced things while doing homeless ministry that I have never seen/experienced before. Because of Asia’s billion dollar sex industry, here prostitution is in your face. The circumstances to how some of these men and women have gotten into the business is tragic as human/sex trafficking is HUGE here in Asia, especially in Bangkok and the Philippines. My first week of doing homeless ministry was pleasant as I went into a park and talked to some strangers, but the second week of homeless ministry when I stumbled upon the darkest street I had ever walked on before, left me in pieces. I laid in bed that night with a cloud of gloom hanging over me and for that night until the next Wednesday night I could not sleep. I even had to move downstairs to the couch to be alone in order for my soul to experience complete peace. We prayed heavily for me to find my sleep again and a few days later I did, but only after I returned back to the place where I had lost it. Turns out God had a few more things to show me about that street…

 

Three days a week, my team would teach at a refugee school. It is difficult for me to get into the details of that so publicly because it is quite a sensitive subject but I will gladly shed some light on the refugee crisis happening in Myanmar, once known as Burma. Most of us have been aware of the Syrian refugee’s and other middle eastern groups for a few years now, mostly because it has come to our country so we have been made more aware of it, but have you ever heard of the Rohingya people before?

They are one of the highest persecuted peoples in the world yet we hardly know their story, if at all and this now considered “ethnic cleansing” has been happening for over a decade.

While this genocide is taking place on the other side of the globe from us their story still deserves to be told and to be heard. I have attached some youtube links that describe in greater detail their very unfortunate and heartbreaking tale. 

 

https://youtu.be/qShNlGrpjjI

 

https://youtu.be/i3PG3lb8mRE

 

The school we were teaching at last month is a refugee school made up of Rohingya children; some who have seen and experienced far more than anyone should ever have to. Children who have no rights to anything. No passports. No healthcare. No insurance. No college. Last week was one of the toughest weeks I have had in a long time as I had to say my final goodbyes to these beautiful children. Their big beautiful smiles, handshakes, hugs, kisses on my hands, and adorable brown eyes will forever be sketched on my heart. I hope that you all can spare even 10 minutes out of your day to watch the videos or read about the Rohingya people and to pray for them. 

This is their little shoe rack. Unfortunately I cannot post pictures of their cute little faces for their safety and the schools. 

 

                    

 

 

Lastly, my team and I were SO privileged to have had PenHOP as part of our ministry. PenHOP stands for (Penang House of Prayer). There are some houses of prayer in the states, but I had never heard of them before and wasn’t aware places like this existed in the world. If you have an International House of Prayer in your state or near your hometown, I encourage you to check it out as it is such a life-giving experience to be able to sit with the Lord and reflect, listen, wrestle with, embrace the presence of, and ask for your hearts desires! We spent so many hours in penHOP last month and when I think about the experience overall, I remember all those moments I humbled myself before the Lord on my knees and asked for his un-ending grace. I remember the moments my heart craved PenHOP just sit with the Lord and feel his peace. I remember the moment I cried out to the Lord for the Hindu and Muslim people to turn to him, my wet stained shirt evidence of a heart being replaced with the Lords. I remember my last day in PenHOP like it was a yesterday… that day as my heart was imploding inside of my chest, I realized I would rather be exhausted 5 days a week and have many frustrated moments from teaching than not be apart of those little Rohingya refugee lives at all. 

PenHOP was a place where the Lord brought my biggest prayers into reality. Everything I asked the Lord for last month, He gave to me and more, but what he gave me most was the gift of PenHOP… to sit alone with him for hours a week, something that is very hard to find on the race. 

 

 

***Malaysia***

 

A place full of religion and religious practices. Malaysia is such a multicultural country. 

Here there are Muslim’s as the majority religious group, Buddhists, Hindus, and with 10% of the population … Christians. 

 

Penang is known for their food and street art. A lot of the times we ate in hawker stalls which are basically big outdoor/covered food courts with different vendors. You can either get Thai, Indian, Malay, Chinese, Seafood, and other varieties of food. Because there are so many different people groups living in Malaysia, the food is accommodating to all people. The food is also very cheap (in the hawkers) so usually a bowl of food would cost us between 1-4 dollars. 

 

We arrived during the celebrations of Chinese New Year so we got to participate in some of the events and to see the culture. I am working on a video to post so you guys can see some of the things I am talking about. I hope to have that done soon! Thanks for your patience with these blogs. Between jet lag, the business of the month and the unending cloud of exhaustion that hung over me, I found it very challenging to muster up the energy to process my feelings, let alone write about them. 

I hope this will do for now!  Talk to you all again soon! 🙂