Seeking His face

Its crazy to think that outreach will be over in less than 2 weeks. As I look back on all of the things that we’ve done since December, my mind slowly explodes with memories. Some good, some challenging, some hilarious, and some just plain hard.

I haven’t been the best at keeping all of you updated on what has been going on in my life, so I figured I’d give you a quick rundown on some of the things that have happened in Penang so far.

Georgetown (Feb. 3rd-Mar.5th)

• Been involved with Kawan Drop-in Center. We have been cooking meals for the homeless every monday-wednesday-friday. We have heard some incredible stories of healing and breaking of addictions.
• Sam and I lead the team for a week during that time we visited Ipoh and was asked to lead a assembly for chinese and indians students while the malay muslims had prayer. We spoke to them on choices and moral decisions.
• We also visited Penang Hill for an amazing time of intercession over the city, we had to take a train that was 45 degree angle up the mountain!
• Every saturday we are involved in a youth ministry and every sunday we lead a church service.
• We had a night that we spent on the streets. We split up into two groups. We were out from 9pm-3:30am. My group had great success we first met a man that sells chairs made out of sugar cane,
• Alan: He is 70yrs old and is still doing great with his work. He is getting older and more tired and had a stroke a few years ago but he loves what he does and is following in his father's footsteps. He is a practicing buddhists and speaks minimal english but it was amazing getting to spend some time with him and here his story.
• Anna: She works next door to alan. She is indonesian and is working here so she can save money to send back to her family every month. She loves shopping! Chris and I have been going back and checking in with her now and then. Last night though Jalena came with us and we really opened up to her and her friend about the gospel. She is a muslim and understands about Jesus, but only knows the Koran. We promised to get her a Holy Bible that is in arabic because that is all she can read.
• Toby and Lars: They are german and atheists. We spoke to them for the longest amount of time and had some very interesting debates. Once religion was off the table we really got to just speak with them about their lives and morals and values. We encouraged them to pray once back at their hostel. (I think they did it, we can be quite convincing)
• We had the world race team with us for two weeks and they have been awesome to do prayer and worship with and over the city.
• For street ministry on wednesday nights I chose to interceed for the sex workers and homeless. The Holy Spirit could not be more alive in the room that night and I just let him speak through me. We all did! God is moving here in Malaysia and I can't wait to get the updates even when I am back home.
• Their is also the choice of evangelism for street ministry and last week I went out with Travis and Lisa. They have been doing this for 3 years and their route is chulia street.Lisa has the same prositutes she sees every week and has been growing in a relationship with them in order to further show Christ's love.
• Pen.H.O.P. (Penang house of prayer). something that the base started but it is not directly connected with ywam. It is supported by local churches all over penang and it's really a place for them. It is focused on intercession, worship and the Holy Spirit
• Sam's birthday. Spent in batu feringhi beach, rented a hotel room, jet skiied, ate an amazing meal, and had lots of fun with the team!
• The day before we did an evango walk and Jalena, Adam and I met a girl who works in one of the tourist clothing shops. Her name is Bella, and she is getting married soon. She invited Jalena and I to come to her engagement party. She is muslim and so is her soon to be husband but they do not seem to be practicing. She attended a chinese school for her education and doesn't wear the normal muslim attire. We got to pray for her and hopefully we will see her again before we depart.
• Justin and Rose. Both from Montana, both stayed behind from their dts outreach and have become part of our team :)
• Youth leaders/pastors blessing dinner. Chris had the idea to get all the church's together that we have attended while here, for a dinner that our team would bless them with. It was focused more on the people involved with youth ministry, so we could really pray over them, share testomonies and they could have fellowship with each other and be encouraged that they are not alone in this city. The night turned out way better than expected and God really moved, we encouraged them to make this into a monthly thing where leaders and pastors can get together to represent the true and strong body of Christ and be warriors for the youth in this nation.

We are going into our last week here in Malaysia and though we might be tired and though we might be weary, God is going to push through and break down walls we have all been waiting for.
We are excited to see what will happened in these next 7 days!

Penang

Feb. 3rd we caught a bus in the morning to head to Butterworth, once we arrived we got straight onto a ferry to head across the water to the island of Penang. We got taxies, but got dropped off at the wrong address, luckily the right house was only a few doors down. We had a quick orientation and then went and had some lunch in the section of town called 'little India'. There is so much history and old buildings around Georgetown, it is definitely a tourist hot spot. Our team got split this time for housing so Adam and Chieko, Jalena, Lydia and I are in on house which is being shared with students from a foundations of counselling school happening on base. Sally, Chris, Isaiah and Sam are staying at Kawan drop-in center which on mon-wed-fri is where we help feed the homeless.
Sam had come up one day early with a friend we met back in Ipoh. His name is Joash and you won't believe this but he is from Newcastle and is visiting Ipoh because his girlfriend, also lives in Newcastle, her family is originally from Ipoh. Small world! We ended up meeting them at the Vietnamese service when we said our goodbyes that last saturday.
So Sam had went to a temple the day before and wanted to go again, so he invited Jalena and I to come along. It is apparently the biggest temple in Southeast Asia. We met up with some 'couch surfers' who Joash met online, one girl lives in Penang and is like a tour guide and the other guy was from Brazil, just passing through on his way to Sri Lanka.
This temple was incredible, it had things that symbolized the hindu and buddhist religions. There is a lower level and and upper level which in on a mountain so you take a lift to get up to it. Once we got to the upper level we saw a statue that is probably over a 100 ft tall and made of metal. I guess a few years ago the head of the statue was struck by lightening and fell off, so they decided to paint the head and place it on another building and rebuild the entire thing. I'm sure God had a laugh about that one.
We have spent the last two days just getting to know the area and meeting new friends. We got to go to Hillside baptist church yesterday which we all really enjoyed because the worship and sermon was in english and it really spoke to us all.
We are excited to see what new things God has in store for us while we're in Penang :)

Send off

Feb. 2nd was our last day at the school we were helping teach english at. We wanted to make it fun and memorable for the kids so we took them to a day at the pool and they loved it! It was a new experience for some but they all adapted quite well. Splashing and swimming, playing games and picking on us teachers. It was a great start to our day.

After lunch we had a skit to act out for them about always putting on the full armor of God. Once we finished, all the kids got to break open the pinates they had decorated the day before. They were full of candy and money, so the kids went nuts! We siad our goodbyes as the kids loaded up the vans to head home. It was a perfect way to send them off after out last four weeks together.

Chinese New Years Eve

Vietnamese ministry.
The service was held at our house. We had dinner followed by a sermon from Adam. He asked everyone what God has provided them with? Most of them said good health and a job in this country but they were all missing their families back in Vietnam. We had each of them sit in the middle of a circle and each of the team  members split up so we could pray for everyone individually. After service and prayer the boys started lighting off fireworks. Big, small, loud, bright you name it, they had it. At midnight we ate pancakes and ice  cream, we lit off some more fireworks and got to head down the street to the car park to light Chinese lanterns.
There were nine lanterns, enough for everyone on our team, but we only got to light off three because it is illegal in Ipoh. Only two actually made it in the sky, the other one had a hole in ita and fell down mid-flight. It was a fun experience though and a great start to a new year!

Ministries

Cornerstone youth service.
Chris, Lydia, Isaiah and I went.
Lydia shared on forgiveness and grace and I gave a testimony on my dad and forgiving him plus asking God for reconciliation. It was a group of about 20 kids, all Chinese. Isaiah started the night with musical chairs and Chris ended the night with an alter call. One kid came forward, he had been baptized last christmas but never actually let God have his heart, but he was ready. We all got to pray the sinners prayer with him and really talk to him about living his life for God. He is going to soon become president of the youth service which is a big responsibility but he said he knows God is with him and will help him through this journey.

Tamil Indian Church.
Jalena gave a testimony on comfort in time of trials, using an example of her dad's car accident. Adam spoke on comfort from the Lord as well and I ended the service with singing the song 'How He loves'. The church;s pastor just passed away three weeks ago and his wife is having to take his place. She has three kids who are also involved with the church. We taught some of the children 'Jeses loves me' with hand motions an then prayed for the congregation.

Burmese.
Chieko, Sally, Jalena and I are all involved with helping out a camp that our roommate and other resident Isaac is putting on. It is with the Burmses church that he helps run. It is all about salvation and deliverence. I will be speaking on worship and we will all be giving testimonies on experiencing God.

Treasure Hunt

For evangelism night Adam and Chieko challenged us to make a friend, get their number and make sure to follow up with them sometime within the next week. So we decided to have a treasure hunt, where you listen to God and get a clue as to where you should go.
In my group I had Adam, Chieko and Lydia.
Adam got a picture of a clock tower, Chieko got a picture of a ball, lydia got a picture of people hanging out around a table, and I got a picture of a car.
So we got our destination and headed out. There is a clock tower placed in the center of a shopping around, so we went there. As we arrived we saw a group of guys skating around, Adam went over to break the ice and us girls went and got something to drink and then followed later. The guys were all malaysian muslims, one of them a cop, which means by law it is illegal to share the gospel with them.
So after introductions we asked if there was any good place to eat, they offered to drive us to a restaurant that ended up being right down the street from our house. We arrived and ate with them, there was about five all together. We had to get going because it was getting late and we needed to meet up with the rest of the team, so the cop invited us to go jogging with him the next morning. We got their numbers and made plans to meet up the night day.
It was such a God thing that Adam got the clock tower which is shaped like ball, like Chieko's vision. We got in a car to head to the restaurant, like my vision, and we headed to dinner to all hangout around a table to eat, like Lydia's vision! God is good!

So the next morning we got up at 7a.m, we met up with the cop for a "jog". He actually took us to a park that had a track circling a field, on the sides of the track were little cardio exercise stations. We ended uo just walking around for the most part but around 7:45 a jazzercise class started in the middle of this field, it had a stage and everything! Complete with lady gaga remixes and muslim woman shaking thir hips! It was the most fun exercise we have ever had! We are hoping to make that part of our morning routine and start connecting with the felllow jazzercisers! Adam and the cop did not participate that just walked around and chatted and Adam got to know him really well, we are just waiting to see where God leads next!

Ipoh

To start off our time in Ipoh we had a relaxing first week with just meeting the staff of the base and the teachers for the school. We got to travel around the area where we are living and get a nice feel for the culture we are surrounded by. There are many muslims here and if you are born Malay it is required for you to be muslim if you want rights to the land. There are a whole heap of different cultures here though, most prevalent are chinese, malay, indian, burmese and vietnamese.
Within the first few days we went and had lunch at a chinese restaurant, Sam and Chris were introduced to a group of guys sitting next to us. They call themselves Hash house harriers and they are all over the world. They are a group of people who are all interested in hardcore hiking and go every friday. So our guys are now hiking every friday and talking to these chinese buddhist more and more about God.
Last week four out of our team of nine got food poisoning! Me included! We were sick for a good two days each. Thankfully Lydia, Jalena and Sam all got better in time to be apart of the Vietnamese ministry our base helps with over the weekend. They come to the house on saturdays, have fellowship and dinner, stay the night, hang out on sundays and go to church that night. Chris got to share a sermon last sunday and four people were saved after he did an alter call. What a God way to enter into this ministry!!
This last week was also our first week of school the base is putting on. The kids range from ages 6-16. They are taught english, grammer, geography, math, art and cultural studies. The school wants to make sure these kids learn to speak and use english on a regular basis, so that is where we come in. To help with coversations and building trusting relationships so they feel comfortable enough to talk with us and really develop a better understanding of english. Sally, Lydia, Jalena and I are all teachers for the school so we focus on math and cultural studies. The kids don't have much grasp on the big world we live in or any idea what other culturals are like so we have all this time to try and introduce them into our world while we are submersed in their's.
We have had some spiritual attacks after being sick and just feeling crappy and bad attitudes but we rebuke the enemy anytime those come along and we are praying everyday for the strength and unity we know God has instilled in this team!
Thank you all so much for keeping us in your prayers!