Malaysia is by far our longest month on the race and I couldn’t be happier with that fact! I have loved all of our countries and plenty of other ministries and the people we have served and served alongside, but in no other country have so many of my passions and gifts been utilize in ministry. To be honest, Malaysia hasn’t been the most exciting cultural experiences as we live right outside one of the most developed cities in Asia and so much of the language and foods available and activities are very familiar to home. And where we live is in a compound away from any sort of town, limiting interaction with the surrounding community, so I still don’t really know what a traditional Malay person looks like or how they live.
As I mentioned in my previous blog about Malaysia, we are working at Desa Amal Jireh, which is a school and home for orphaned and underprivileged kids from the Kuala Lumpur region. We live right amongst them and inhabit such a tight knit community. About half the students go through a homeschooling curriculum here and our first two weeks here were during school holiday so we have been able to interact a lot with the kids! We really feel like a part of the family and I feel like an older brother or cousin to all of the kids here. I can’t walk from one side of the campus to the other without at least 5 kids yelling ‘hello brother Zach!’ The kids really look up to us in a different way than the staff which gives us such a unique way to pour into their lives. It’s like a younger sibling would rather listen to their cool older brother than their parents. So a lot of times we will be telling them and teaching them things they have heard before but our words carry so much more weight because of the role model status we have and it also opens up the boys to ask us some more difficult questions. Our position has given us the opportunity to talk to the boys and guide them in some serious topics as well. We prepared and spoke on the effects Hollywood has on culture and the ways that it is contrary to real life in America. Also since a lot of these kids don’t have fathers to guide them and talk to them, we took on that role as we spoke to the boys about sex and purity. (Not something I expected to do on the race! Haha) but they really listened and asked a lot of really good questions and we were able to guide them. So our role of big brother and doing a lot of life with hem has allowed us to speak into their lives and teach them a lot. Every night we guide the kids in an evening song and devotional time in which we are able to share with them what the Spirit has laid on our hearts to help them grow spiritually.
As I mentioned, being a part of this community, the Lord has been able to use a lot of my gifts and passions to help the staff and the kids. Every day I play soccer with the boys for 90 minutes. I have been able to coach them as we play and develop good relationships with the boys as we just all do what we love, chasing a ball around the field. These boys are really good, as they play everyday, and have really challenged my foot skills and endurance! But it brings me back to my own high school days when I would practice and play every afternoon and has reminded me how much I love this sport! Another gift used the past week has been my graphic design skills. The organization is having a banquet next month and they wanted some fresh, new signage to commemorate the event and incorporate the organizations branding. So I was able to sketch up a few concepts of how it could look, then mock them up in illustrator, show them used in their environment using photoshop, and then plan the building and painting of the sign in its environment. The ability to design simple logos and create a nice clean well branded piece for the event is one of the reasons I chose to be a designer. It’s a pleasure to be able to use that passion to help an organization that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford a designer and wouldn’t be able to as effectively apply their brand values to their signage for a big sponsor event. Thirdly, some of you may not know this but my backup career was to be a night school math teacher. I love solving equations and figuring out how things work. As a part of the homeschool curriculum here, the kids go through a lot of the work themselves. In some of our off time or in between jobs we have been able to go up and help the kids with work by either grading or help them solve problems. One kid Daniel was working through some graph equations and he asked me for help. Although I haven’t taken math I. Years I found myself super excited to try to solve these equations. And the. After I solved the equations, I would ask Daniel step by step what he should be doing on his problem in order to get he correct solution. And instead of just getting the correct answer, I was challenging him to make sure he could visualize what we were solving and how it works instead of just knowing the numbers. I saw his brain click as soon as he looked at the problem a new way and I found the satisfaction of being a math teacher. Also, in the past, I have spent a few summers working on the farm in Kirkvillle, NY. I love sweating and kneeling down in the dirt and smelling the fresh growth of plants and seeing a jungle full of weeds turned into neat rows of plants. The ministry here does some of their own farming to provide food for the children and it has been our responsibility a few early mornings to get up and work the land. Although it is a lot different than the farming I am used to, It was very familiar and reminded me how much I just love smelling dirt and working in it and sweating through all of my clothes.
So tis month has been a great month 6! Sure I never really found the real MALAYSIA or know it’s deep culture, but I got to see God use me in all of the ways I always wanted to be used. He also reminded me of a bunch of passions and things that were once part of my life and I loved and he showed me how I can use those passions to help others and excite myself! It has also been a very comfortable month living condition wise which has been a great chance to sit down and reflect on the last 5 months and look ahead to what needs to be done to make the most of the next 5 months!
