Ministry in Malaysia!

Life has been so full recently! One moment I was in Swaziland living a slow, quiet life, finding the beauty in being still. The next moment I find myself in Sungai Petani, Malaysia attending church services almost every other night, Christmas caroling with my whole squad, learning to tambourine dance, and waking up each morning with no clue what the day will bring. Each week here has looked completely different, but I’ll do my best to share what ministry has consisted of so far!

Here’s the rundown. On Mondays and Tuesdays, our whole squad is working in a school teaching Rohingya Muslim children. The pastor of the church we are staying at found a room to host a school for these kids, as the country of Malaysia won’t allow them an education in any of the schools here. We get to come to this classroom and tutor the students in english and math. It’s such a blessing to have the opportunity to help provide an education to these children who would have no other way of going to school. Of course it comes with its difficulties, but seeing them so eager to learn each day has made me realize what a gift it is to have grown up in school all my life.

On Wednesdays and Thursdays, the rest of the squad stays at the school while mine and one other team go to a bakery which supports adults with down syndrome. Their mission is to give these adults a place to thrive as sadly there aren’t many places elsewhere for them to go. The students spend most of the day baking, and we get to simply hang out with them and show them love! The owners of the ministry have given us lots of freedom with how we want to spend our time there, so we are currently in the process of coming up with lessons, activities, and crafts we can bring to the bakery.

I would say the most difficult part about Malaysia so far would be our sleeping situation. The guys and girls are divided in two rooms right outside the church that barely have enough space to fit us. Our sleeping pads line the floor without even an inch of space in between them. My room with 24 other girls has one shower and one toilet. Imagine the chaos. I’m constantly finding myself tripping over peoples stuff, bumping into other girls, kicking off random things that somehow ended up on my bed, and hopping over sleeping pads to get out the door. You know you’re living in community when you can’t turn on your side on your sleeping pad without hitting the girl laying next to you. The Lord is growing my patience, and I’m learning to see the beauty in living so close to one another. As difficult as it’s been, we are truly so grateful that the church has offered up two of its rooms for us to sleep in!

The church we are partnering with has services every night, with Friday’s being the big service our entire squad attends. Each day of the week, one of our six teams is in charge of putting on the church service, and anyone else is invited to join. We help lead worship, one person shares a testimony, and another gives a sermon. Besides Friday’s, there are usually about 10-15 people in the congregation besides the team assigned for that night, so of course we have a translator. This past week, I gave the sermon at the service my team was assigned to! It was my first time ever giving a sermon, and it was such a blessing! I woke up the morning of with absolutely no idea what I would be speaking about that night, but the Lord put so much on my heart. I was able to include a personal testimony to go along with it, and I think that was the most encouraging part for the church.

On top of all this, there are tambourine dancing and Christmas caroling practices happening throughout the week. Each Friday night service, 6 of us girls go up to tambourine dance as part of the worship! I danced last Friday, and absolutely loved it! Every single night, our whole squad has been attending caroling practices hosted by the main pastor. Starting this week, we will be going out to Christmas carol at peoples homes! The hope is that this would bring more people to the church and that we could also be praying over the people we meet when we’re out caroling!

There are so many other random ministry opportunities I’ve participated in, but I’ll stop the list there for now. One of the biggest lessons the Lord taught me in Swazi was how to be interruptible, and here I’m definitely continuing to practice that. Whether its driving to the school on a Tuesday morning and learning my ministry will be somewhere else that day, or thinking I’m done for the night at 10pm and then getting invited to an event at the church, there have been so many moments where the Lord has called me into something I wouldn’t have anticipated.

So there’s a look at what ministry has been here so far! I’m so expectant for how the Lord is going to move, and I can’t wait to share new revelations and answered prayers with you all!!

Friday night church service! We get to wear traditional Indian dresses!

My new friend Jason at the bakery!

My team went out to breakfast with some of the pastors in the city!

The girls sleeping setup!