Malaysia: The End of a Remarkable Summer

It's hard to summarize all the amazing experiences God allowed me to have in only two short weeks in Malaysia, but here goes...

First of all I want to tell you how my last full day in Malaysia ended. On Friday night before my team left Malaysia, we were invited by multiple students we had met to come to an International Cultural Festival being held at their school. During that night my team and I were made to feel a part of the school, after only two short weeks. Hanging out with several friends and running into many more we knew  while there made us feel like we had lived in Malaysia and gone to their school for years. On top of this, in the middle of the event, I was able to have one of my most fruitful gospel conversations with one of the students I had met and later that night give him a Bible. I would never have imagined getting to know so many people in such a short amount of time, and on top of that getting to share the gospel at probably the most impractible place of the whole trip. I will back up now and try to give you a sense of how I got there...

After arriving in Malaysia and getting a good night's rest after about 30 hours of travel time,  my team and I went onto campus at the local college the very first day. Our goal was simply to meet students and let them know about a Christian Conference being held that weekend, in hopes of some wanting to come. Standing in the middle of an international college in another country being the only American there (other than my teammates) was fairly intimidating at first, but as God would show me later, it was a blessing. I wandered around and handed out a few flyers at first, not getting into many good conversations. A few teammates and I then decided to head upstairs to the gym to see if we could meet anyone there. It turns out that they were having a new student orientation there and this led to some great conversation with several students. One of those students in fact turned out being the same student who I was able to share the gospel with my final night there...something I would have never predicted or planned.

Every day for the rest of the week we went out on campus, continuing to advertise the conference. One of the biggest outlets for meeting people turned out to be a language lab that we went to one day to help the students learn English. Here we met four Iraqi guys who we would develop a great relationship with, a couple of guys from Yemen, several Chinese students, and others. The students were very excited to practice their English with native speakers and it was a great way for us to talk to students without having to approach them in the middle of campus.

One of the biggest things which I feel God blessed my team and I with the opportunity to do was simply to break stereotypes, both of us and of those we met. Most students that we encountered, if not all, obtained their view of Americans through Hollywood and the movies that had seen. Unfortunately, a lot of students also thought that most all people in America were Christians, and therefore thought that Christians were just like the actors they saw in movies. We were able to help them understand that Christians were very different from that. Unfortunately, some Muslim students we met also only really knew one other thing about Christians, and that is that they went on a Crusade to kill Muslims several hundred years ago. Together we were able to learn that you can't stereotype people by where they are from or what religion they are, whether they are Christian, Muslim, American, or foreign. God helped give me a love for people of all cultures through this trip, one that I pray I will continue to have now that I am back in America and one that I hopefully can pass on to others.

Another blessing from this trip was being able to play basketball at night with students from the college. I never would have expected to go to another country and get to meet people through the use of this sport, but God's blessings and surprises at times seem limitless. One person who we met playing basketball actually came to the conference and was able to hear the gospel preached multiple times.

My second week in Malaysia was focused soley on connecting with students and continuing relationships that had been established the week before. While there we did things such as game nights and a cookout at our house, going to hear music played one night, going to a market, eating dinner, playing sports, and other things with the new friends we met. Most importantly, however, we were able to get several of these students connected with Christians who lived in Malaysia that we worked with.

My favorite food that I encountered while in Malaysia was roti. Which is essentially a very thin tortilla that they cook with different things such as egg, banana, chocolate, coconut, or mostly whatever you want. My least favorite food however was a fruit called Durian. To those who don't like this fruit it smells like feet and tastes...about the same. Most of the locals, however, enjoy the smell of the fruit and are nearly addicted to the taste. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't in that category. Other than the food, it wasn't a huge culture shock for me, since much of their industry was westernized and most everyone I came in contact with spoke English.

Trying Durian for the first time

During the trip we were able to visit a few places as well. The first place we went was the Batu Caves, which is now the site of several hindu temples:

Steps leading to the entrance of the caves

Monkeys on the steps to the caves

We also visited a market in Kuala Lumpur:

As well as a mall near the Petronas Towers:

And lastly a market for buying souvenirs, many of which were knock-off American goods.

I believe the thing that I will most take away from this trip, as well as from my summer as a whole, is that God doesn't always work in the way that we think he will, but He does always work in the way that is best. During a summer like this it is easy to see that, but the truth is that even during the hard times God is working to further His glory, and as Christians, that means ours too. The best advice I could give after this summer is simply to give up your plans to God and let Him work, and I can promise you that His plans will always be better than ours.

Thank you for all your prayers and support throughout the summer! It was a great encouragement to me knowing that so many people joined with me in this trip in one way or another to serve and praise our Lord Jesus Christ and to help spread the good news of His death on the cross for our sins and of His resurrection! Pray now that this trip will simply be a prepatory trip, and that I (and all of us) will now go out and continue to serve God with our lives!