We've been in Malaysia at YWAM for well over a week now and ministry is in full swing. We are actually with another team this month, Children of Light, and are working with 3 different ministries.
The first is a soup kitchen that is for drop-ins (homeless, addicts, alcoholics, etc) that serve breakfast and lunch on MWF. They also provide showers, mattresses to sleep on for a few hours, new clothes, etc. I've worked there twice so far and they average around 90 people each day with probably 95% being men. I've had the opportunity to talk with a few of them and most are extremely broken and in desperate need of some hope. It's an awesome ministry, but their desire is for the lives of these people to be transformed. They are happy to serve the needy, but they don't want that to be all they do. We also go out once a week to meet and talk to people on the street for a couple hours in the evening. Chip and I have had the opportunity to talk to a couple of men that we hope we'll continue to see the next couple of weeks.
Our second ministry is a hospital where we spend the mornings going around with a chaplain to pray for patients. This morning was my first morning doing this and it was so awesome. I met about 10 different patients with most being from Indonesia and had the chance to talk for a few minutes and then pray over them. It's definitely not something I ever thought about doing before, but I really enjoyed it. I could tell the patients were genuinely thankful to have us come visit and pray for them even if they weren't Christians. In the afternoon we fundraise within the hospital for children who need heart transplants. So far we've raised about $1,500 USD in about a week. A surgery for one child costs around $8,000 USD. I've even been playing a little guitar in the lobby to try to get people's attention. Unfortunately, I think they just want to know where that terrible noise is coming from. Ha.
The third ministry is a Christian coffee shop, but only Alison and Amanda are working there from
our team.The coolest part though is that on the 4th floor of that building is a place called Penang House of Prayer (PenHop). This ministry has been around for a few years, but their vision is for it to be a place of 24/7 prayer and worship. We've gone a couple of times already including a Friday night burn where there is worship/prayer from 10pm-1am. PenHop has been an incredible blessing to all of us and I really look forward to every chance we get to go there.
It's been an awesome month so far and I'm looking forward to the next 2 weeks!
