this doesn’t have anything to do with paprika, emily just says this all the time and i couldn’t think of a title but STILL READ IT.
Ministry here has been literally different every singe day. Things get canceled and changed and switched. We didn’t really know how crazy our lives in Malaysia were going to be until we got here, but I’m kind of living. We have helped in a thrift store below where we are staying which is always a good time. We go to the back room, away from the AC, and organized clothes. We take them out of bags, put them in groups, and then put them back in the bags with labels on them. It’s very mindless which lately has been something we have all needed. There is usually christmas music playing in the background but most of the time we bob to our own music. Weird hearing Christmas music when it feel like summer. Not living for that.
Other days we go and help out at a soup kitchen. This is personally my favorite ministry. We start off the morning by praying for the day, the staff, and the people who will be eating there. We go get bread from a coffee shop down the street who so kindly gives the center it’s leftover bread and pasties. We cut veggies to get ready for lunch and butter the bread for breakfast. We greet people with smiles and coffee as they come walking in. Some are very thankful, others are not as kind, and some just don’t know that much english. We fill up their coffees and sometimes they yell at us for not giving them bread but we handle it with grace and love them through it. We start making lunch soon after breakfast is served which usually consists of rice, some sort of chicken, and a veggie. I am still actually shocked at how good the food is. The people that make is are amazing cooks and make the absolute best food with limited resources. Cool stuff. We start an assembly line and make the plates for everyone. We usually have about 85 people to feed so we have to be very careful about how much food we have to go around. The kitchen is usually really loud and chaotic but we just stand there quietly and scoop food onto plates. After this we clean dishes, sweep and mop the floors, wipe down tables, and take out the trash. One of the ladies that work there is super sweet but kind of intense, which makes sense because she has a lot on her plate. She was yelling for most of the day but after we finished, she put her hand up and said “I LOVE YOU” as she gave each of us a hug. Very unexpected but it made me whole day.
Other days we go to the mainland and teach Paster Kumar’s kids english. We take the ferry to the mainland which is honestly so fun, and meet Paster Kumar at the bus stop where he takes us to this apartment sorta thing where we play with the drums and wait for the kids to get there. We teach them english for a while and it’s honestly really fun. The kids are so smart and a joy to teach. After we are finished teaching, the kids go home and we get dinner at this sketchy food court outside which has some bomb sweet and sour chicken. Yum. After that we all pile into Paster Kumar’s car and head to his house for night church. This man is on fire for the Lord and you can tell in the way he preaches the word. He talked for a while and told us about the faithfulness of God in his life. He then started praying over each of us and the Lord spoke directly through him. (I wrote a blog about what he prayed over me last week of you wondering.) We finished church and were surprised with soda and the fluffiest break I have ever had. The people here are so kind and hospitable, it’s amazing.
Some nights we have outreach with one of our ministry hosts wife. She is so sweet and really has a passion for woman ministry. We pray for protection and ask the Lord to speak through us as we go out and make new friends. We walked toward an area where many homeless people live and came up to a guy that Ben had talked to the night before. He really did not speak that much english but we did our best. He was hand rolling some cigarettes when we went up to him but after kindly declining his offer for one, he put them away. He started doing magic for us and was very good at it. We couldn’t really ask him if he knew the Lord because of the language barrier but we did out best to communicate. I’m learning that sometimes ministry can just be giving someone a friend, or a person to talk to. In a teaching the other day our mentor Hailey asks us if we were willing to be the third. Most of the time people won’t accept Christ into their life right away but we have to go plant many seeds first. Say it took a person hearing about the Lord ten times before they wanted a relationship with Him. So only the tenth person that shared the gospel with that person would see the fruit of it. The question is whether we are wiling to reach out to people and put in the work without seeing that person be saved. It’s a question that humbled me. The homeless guy that we talked to that night didn’t understand what we were talking abut when we said the word Jesus, but we gave him a friend for a little bit. Someone he could show his magic too and attempt to make conversation with. People living on the streets rarely even get noticed, and that is just not very Christ like of us to lower our head and walk right by those people. They are children of God too and do not deserve to be overlooked.
One day last week we went to another one of our ministry hosts, Chad’s, home and help him fix it up so he and his family can move in. They currently live very far from their jobs and felt the Lord was telling them to one closer to work and school. The house that they are renting is pretty run down and needs some work. it was cool to do something for someone who is doing so much for the Kingdom. They decided to leave a room in the house open for anyone who needs a place to say. They want their home to be a welcoming place for anyone who needs somewhere can come and stay. We painted rooms and scraped paint off other walls but overall it was a really good time.
When we first got here we went to a school for refugee kids and helped out one of the teachers who worked there, Kelly. The school does not get the care and attention that it needs so we cleaned it. We cleaned and organized book shelves, swept, cleaned out this sink that has black stuff in it, and mopped classrooms. The school was loud and crazy and kind of gave me anxiety but I’m glad we got to go for a few days and help out. As we were cleaning and putting back the books, the kids watched us do it and suddenly cleaning and stacking books turned into the most intense competition ever. They would pull books off the shelves, wipe them off speedy fast, and throw their hands up when they were done. It was adorable until one of the boys sprayed lysol in a girls face and I had to break up a fight. Kids these days. Overall it was an honor to know them for just a few days and be the hand and feet of Jesus in that place.
