How The Summer of 2014 Turned Out

after the storm, comes the sun

I really did intend on hitchhiking to BC, honestly. 

Just days before my friend and intended to leave, I went out of town for the weekend. We were to leave that Monday. 

Saturday I received a text from her saying she was having troubles with her ankles the previous week, it quit for that week, but the last 48hrs or so they started giving her trouble again. Seeing as we were to leave in a couple days she wanted just to get them checked out and make sure she would be alright for the trip. She went to the hospital, and later that night informed me she had to go back the next day, Sunday. Sunday she was told they would schedule an appointment time for some tests on the Monday. The day we were to leave. I decided to wait, in case a miracle happened and she was able to come with still, and planned then to leave Tuesday. Monday night I received a text saying the dr. told her that if she continued walking much she would get shin splints. We were devastated. 

I contemplated through the night whether I would go or not. Several more things happened, which I'd like to not state in the public of everyone's nosiness, where I had decided to not tackle this trip this year, and maybe, just maybe I'd be able to another time. 

For near that whole month I laid in bed so devastated I had no will to do anything. Barely eating, mostly sleeping, not talking to anyone. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had quit my job, so I had no motivation to keep going with anything. Finally I figured I'd get a few temporary jobs, I talked with my pastor about the situation, and started picking myself up again. 2 weeks before the 4th of July my pastor mentioned something in Kentucky. She gave me a brief explanation on it and said she'd email some people down there to say I might be interested. 

A week later I had made a decision, booked a flight, the church was sponsoring me so I had no fees. I was on my way to Henderson, Kentucky.

Yes, I Am Hitchhiking to BC

For several years it has been a dream to backpack. I had told myself one day I'll go, whether I have $100 in my pocket or $10,000 in my pocket and if I happen to run out of money, I just have to trust God to provide. Everything He would do for me on the trip I would want to give back when I return. In February this year I decided I'd go to BC for the summer. I decided on an amount of money to put away for the next few months; however, this have come up with my car so it was put on hold. When I go, I wont have a lot but I'm really not concerned. Someone had suggested that I wait a year, putting money away every month and go next year. Personally, I do love that idea, but how many  "next year"'s will it take until I can't go anymore? 

I had originally planned on travelling alone, mentioning it here and there to a few people, to leave middle-end of June until August sometime. I would be hitchhiking because I don't want to spend money on gas, plus I could meet some great people! Now, an excoworker friend of mine has officially decided she would like to come along. We are now going to leave within the first week of June, definitely going to Vancouver area and just hanging out with different people we know around there. This friend however, will be going back to Strathmore at the end of June, so I'll be travelling around BC myself. I have friends who have family there and if I become desperate, can stay with them. Or if I absolutely don't have a place to go, I'll just stop at a church :) All will be good. I do have a ride from BC to Leduc July 25th. If Anyone happens to be coming to Strathmore around that time let me know! Or I'll just make more friends (hehe)

When I tell people I will be hitchhiking some have a mini freak out. Others just tell me to be careful. Telling my parents this, they are okay with it. Then again my mom is free spirited like this. How do I myself feel about this? At peace. Sure, getting in a car with a stranger, I will be aware but for some reason I feel like I am going to be kept safe on this trip, and have felt this way since I decided I'd be leaving.

I have several play lists on my iPod (one of them as my boss puts it "has a large variety. A little country, some oldies, some Christian, some not-so-Christian). One day last week I decided to listen to my Christian playlist. In that particular one I have a couple prophecies (which I always forget about) from Brenda Peters. In about October of 2012 she said (revised) that I will be travelling soon and it wont matter about where I go, but what I do and what I learn. Though this it'll only be the beginning of many journeys. January 2014 I left for 6 months to Australia and Malaysia, and as cool that was it really wasn't about where I was. It was an incredible learning experience. She said (revised) "...He is going to give you more opportunities and put ideas in your mind and they are yes ideas, so they're lined up one at a time and to step into them. You're going to see the favour of God and the provision of God...traveling is a desire God has given you..." I completely have faith God has His hand with me and as nerve racking as what maybe this should be I'm excited! 

I'll be going to post as near to once a week as I can on the trip (beginning of June). It depends if I find libraries or if people will allow me to spend a little time on their computers. If not, I'm alive and well and will be coming home again!

What It's Like, Being In Canada For A Month...

Was so excited for this moment :)

Well I have now been home for a month. They explained to us how to handle going home at our last week in Australia. They made it clear, before we even left that we might have random meltdowns, or want to isolate ourselves. 

I've struggled with what I can or can't share with others. I experienced so much, no one here can completely understand. I knew in some small way that I wouldn't be able to possibly find the words to explain it. It's been said multiple times that even unless you have gone to Haiti, you wont understand what others who have gone have experienced. This feels like so much more than the times I went. 

In terms of being on "spiritual highs" coming back to the "real" world was nerve racking. Even though we were prepped for a week I still didn't completely know what to expect. Fortunately my childhood camp "Covenant Bay Bible Camp" emailed several times asking for a lifeguard this summer. I agreed, so for the last month that is where I was. I think that was God providing a more encouraging environment for me as appose to coming home to nothing specific to do. 

By the time I made it home I had about $30.00 left in my bank account. It was in the back of my mind, but somehow I knew it was going to be alright. Odd, because knowing I was going to camp, where I'd get some money out of it, but not a lot I wasn't worried. Sure enough, during the last month I've had enough to keep going. I feel like I've handed finances over to God and man, it feels good. 

I posted a status a few weeks ago. There is still healing happening from things that could have even happened years ago. 

What am I doing now? I'm back with Landscape Plus, landscaping. I know for sure I'll at least be there until the end of December. 
          The last specific thing I heard from God was to be involved with the youth at my home church, Hope Community Covenant Church and I've just spoken with one of the people taking up the job and sounds like the help is needed. I plan to help as much with HCCC's youth as much as possible this year. (YWAM taught us that when you're not sure what to do, go back to the last thing God said and do it)

Do I have any plans to return to school? Not in the slightest. Personally, I'm awful at tests. I know the stuff, I like a lot of subjects, but tests/quizes hit me hard. I don't know what I want to do with my life, so as long as I'm unsure, I don't want to be spending the money. Feels like it would be a waste of my time and a waste of money. 
          I am interested in doing a School Of Photography (SOP), also with YWAM. It's only located in Hawaii, and I'd need thousands more in equipment before I could go. Now, I'm not sure if that's God's plan for me so I'll be saving up with the money I make. If He gives me the go ahead, I'll be ready. If He asks me to do something else, at least I have some part of me prepped. 

There are days where I miss Malaysia more than others. The things that we saw and experienced, things that some people will never see in their lives. I don't understand it everything at all. Sometimes I really struggle with figuring it out, and those particular days I think it's obvious.

Somethings that I've struggled with since I've gotten back is lack of clothing. Wearing tshirts and shorts at least down to the knees really makes the difference. It is currently August 23 and I've just begun to wear tank tops again. I don't know how short I'll be able to stand my shorts anymore. When I got back to the airport in Calgary I almost had a panic attack when I saw how much of nothing some people wear. I swear, if I decided to try and hide anyone it would look like I was kidnapping them. 
        Now, anytime I hear "Break my heart for what breaks Your's" sung from Hosanna I almost start crying. Every time. My heart was broken so many times because of some of the things that was experienced there... I don't know how to handle a lot of it. 

I've had God bless me so many times in my short time back in Canada, it's incredible to see that happening when I couldn't see it as easily before. 

There are some people I hardly know, or don't see often at all and they've said they can see a difference spiritually now (one person didn't even know I'd gone to YWAM) and that is so incredibly encouraging to hear. 

There are days where I dislike Canada so much I consider leaving. Who knew it was so cold here?? I've only discovered this after living in the hottest places for 6 months. Jeepers, I don't know how I did it for the last 18 years of my life. But, Canada is still awesome to me....so I'll stick around. 

Well, I do believe that's all I have for this post. I suppose, if anyone has questions, talk to me. There is honestly so much I left out of other posts throughout my time. 

Nothing But Supernatural. East Malaysia.

Bigger than two football fields longhouse.

Before I speak of this journey I'll give a little explanation of how we got to go to East Malaysia. 

As I was applying for YWAM in Wollongong, I saw a video of two of the leaders, Dave and Donna. When I was accepted, for whatever reason I knew they'd be going with us on Outreach, however when I got to Wollongong I discouraged that idea, thinking they had other responsibilities at the base which would completely prevent them from going on an outreach. They hadn't been on one in years, so that brought the chances down quite a lot. As it was nearing the day we were finding out where we would go, speaking with other students, many of them had the same feeling that Dave and Donna would be coming with. They don't split married couples, so we knew we'd all be going as one team (it would have really disappointed us if that wasn't the case, as we had all become quite close with one another). And as everyone knows, we came altogether, Dave and Donna as a couple of the leaders. They also didn't know why they had come. 
        God had been speaking to a couple of people about Him providing money to them to be able to allow us to have an experience that had never happened in the history of Wollongong, YWAM during the lecture faze. 
        During the last month of our outreach, someone spoke over one of our leaders mentioning Brunei. He's very specific in saying we need to look into what he's said and ask for clarification ourselves. One of the students got something about Brunei as well. During this point, it was revealed that the people, Puspa and Peter, whom we were living with had lived in East Malaysia years ago and had a passion to return. All these pieces connected. The money came forth, allow us to finically go on the trip. Dave and Donna are on the Eldership in Wollongong, so they had a pull in that area, and our team, along with the family, through God, were able to make this great opportunity a reality. 

So we set off to Sarawak, Malaysia. 

Monday late we arrived in Miri. It’s bout an hours drive to where we were staying specifically. Our team had been told that we were staying in a church. I set my expectations to the lowest. I’d be sleeping on a dirt floor, no air condition and if there was a fan it would only be one. All of us sleeping in one room, with bugs crawling all over me and bug spray wouldn’t work. I’d wake up looking like I had chicken pox and a pool of sweat under me. There would be bucket showers outside, squaties and no toilet paper. 
This church was a house church. Underneath is where they had church, while the pastor and his family lived upstairs. They gave us a room. Girls slept in the room, the guys slept in the living room. It wasn’t dirt and we had at least foam to sleep on. There was a fan in each room. Bugs didn’t crawl all over us, it cooled off at night so we didn’t wake up in a pool of sweat. 
When we arrived the house was full. Though it was nearly midnight they gave us some food, Milo (tis this hot chocolate like drink. It’s brown, sweet and can be hot, cold, blended or iced), and tea. 
Finally at about 1:00am, people cleared out and we went to bed. 

Tuesday we went out for breakfast early, which...is not breakfast. It’s first lunch. They eat noodles and chicken, or pork and it's spicy. It’s very filling..much too much. Certainly not a North American breakfast. Because of the short night we did a small amount of orientation and had a nap before lunch. 
That night we had church and were told dinner would be provided. That is concerning for a small place because they could be feeding us anything, things they like and are used to but, we aren’t. Fortunately the worst that was there was chicken feet. That’s gross. There was something that looked like a cow vomited or the grass that’s been cut after it rains, but that tasted fine. 
The service was long, but good. Lennart, Jonathan and I spoke again and did the  Everything skit. Again, there was a call for prayer. The entire church came up, some who wanted healing and some who just wanted to be prayed for. One thing that will remain with me is seeing someone pushing all the children to the front of the church to be prayed for. One girl I asked what she wanted prayer for and she said "Fear of God". She was no older than 10. I pray for the best for her. Incredible someone so young would ask for that.

Wednesday we went to a new place for breakfast AND THEY HAD TOAST! At the beginning of the week I thought “Jeepers, I’m really going to miss toast this week. I mean, I can live without it, I’ll just miss it.” Then GOD PROVIDED TOAST FOR ME THIS WEEK! And I was immediately thinking “God, you’re awesome.” I didn’t even ask and He’s just like "YES!"
After we went over to a soup kitchen for a few hours, which turned out to be a sort of school. Communication is very difficult here. They thought we knew what the place was and thought we had a plan of what to do, which we didn’t so everyone kinda stressed out. They just needed some cleaning and gardening done, which with 13+ people took only about an hour. 
That night we went to a long house. It’s literally a very long house with many families living in it. This particular one had 29 rooms. As more families are added, more rooms are added. When entering a long house you go in the middle, which the head person lives and the head person greet you first. Stepping through that door is just a very long hall, which is treated as the community room, really, with doors all in a line and more rooms beyond the doors. We again heard about possibly having dinner with them. That was even scarier because they do live out in the bush. Fortunately, God blessed us and we had pretty much exactly the same thing we had the night before, which was pretty great tasting stuff.
For the service Kayla spoke and we did the “If I Were Not Upon a Stage” skit. She did so well. Again, we had a prayer call, which I believe most of the people came forward. 

Thursday we went to breakfast and straight after for the Brunei border. We had a very short time to be able to pray over the area. The guards let us further than what we had expected to be able to go, so that was pretty cool. We had some time for prayer before we had to be at our next event. 
        That night we went to another Long House, this one much poorer. It was over two football fields long, and unbelievably wide. It was two stories, and was raised off the ground. Again, we met in the middle and after we had finished what we had prepared, a few of us decided to walk to one end. It was so big that when we made it to the middle, in between of the middle and the end, we couldn't hear the group. Once we made it to the very end we couldn't see the other end of  the this house. Incredible. For our service several people of the team shared, and again another call for prayer. 

Friday we left early for our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived late to one of the nicest hostels. PODs. The staff are fantastic and the place is amazing. Internet, breakfast, showers, running toilets, tv, hangout room. It's like a hotel, except you might be bunking with strangers. 
        When we arrived to PODs, Kayla discovered quickly she lost her passport. Scary because we left Sunday. Flying. Immediately, calls started being made to the airport and bus drivers. After hours of suspense, the bus driver called us saying someone had found it. His shift ended at 3:00am, at which point someone could meet him to get it back. Incredible how God can do things like that for us. A miracle. 

Saturday we got to wander around KL as tourists and see the twin towers. Twas an alright day.

Sunday we went to the church Peter was a pastor of, those many years ago. Dave spoke that morning after we sung a couple of Malaysian songs we had learned and done a skit. We stayed for an incredible potluck lunch before returning the PODs to pick up our bags to go back to the airport and return to Penang. 

Thus concludes a brief overview of the supernatural  week away from Georgetown. 

Nothing Too Exciting. Week8

View from Kawan rooftop

It has now been 1 year since I shaved my head. Did you know that the world was supposed to end in December? Now it’s been almost half of 2013. What happened?

Tuesday morning Puspa made an Indian breakfast for us. It was so good. But I think these people are odd. Spicy and chicken for breakfast? Who are these people? Jokes.

Wednesday was another Kawan day. One guy, Felix, has a girlfriend, Christine. They always sit in the same place, between the front dest and the counter. Very cute. Felix has a mini laptop and we started talking about random things on there. Turns out someone from World Race created a Facebook account for him and he has no idea how to use it. I explained it to him, which lead to so many more things on his computer. Here I thought I knew nothing about computers. To Felix I must be a genius.

        At the end of Kawan a man came in and told me about this boy and dad he’s taking care of. But right now he’s almost out of money and wont be able to care for them for a couple weeks til he gets more. I told him what we do at Kawan, and though it doesn’t seem like a lot to me, to him it was so much. I found this situation odd because the guy was white and had some accent from possibly Europe. I don’t know what his connection is with the family, but he’s helping them out apparently.

        

Friday 7 of us went to Kawan. Donna has started haircuts and they are really liking it. She does about 8 every time. The boy and his dad showed up. There’s something very different about them compared to everyone else. They don’t seem to be hardened up, and they’re quite pleasant, respecting.

        Friday night the youth leader from Puspa and Peter’s church took out “the first group that came and spoke at the church” which was Kaylee, Alyssa, Jamie, Kevin and me. It was so good! Very different from any of the Indian food I’ve eaten here. After they took us to the outdoor night market, which was fun. The youth leader made it very clear that we need to bargain with them. Kevin saw a painting and quite liked it, but it was RM180 (which is about $26), and he was unsure as to whether or not buy it. The man, without any bargaining, lowered it to RM90. I thought immediately if he dropped it almost RM100 without bargaining we can get it lower. So Kaylee and I pushed it. We said RM60, the man said RM70, but we refused to go higher than RM60 (Kevin began wondering aloud if that was too cheap, I quickly stopped him, and Kaylee stood strong). The man agreed to RM60. Can you believe it? Over RM100 off from original price! That’s $20 for a decent sized, nice painting.

Sunday the kids seemed so much more interactive than normal for Sunday school, which is very encouraging to us.

        After church Kevin and I walked all over Georgetown and took pictures, which was decent. It was cold that day. Shocker. It was raining and some wind. I actually had goose bumps. Got some good shots.

Today, Tuesday, on my day off, Kaylee and I decided that the boy and his dad could use some decent fitting shirts. Then we thought about getting a couple of containers because at Kawan you can hand them a container and they fill it with food for later. Then a water bottle came to mind because water is important. Then we thought maybe a backpack would be a good idea. And something, a real treat, might be nice. So we got them some M&M’s and little packs of cookies and juice boxes. We decided to spend RM50 each so we wouldn’t go overboard. I think we spent just over that. Incredible. Tomorrow we’ll give the backpacks to them.

Now, a little mini...longer mini thoughts about coming home.

Feels like I’ve been all over the world, when really it’s just been two countries. There’s so much to experience though here. Note: Before I came to YWAM I’d heard there’s so much of God we’ll never find out about because well, we don’t need to know. But I don’t think I realized how deep this stuff goes. I’d also heard of different awesome things people do for God (Shane Claborne) and thought that was pretty cool and thought maybe one day I’d like to do stuff like that. What I didn’t realize is that God has to completely ruin someone like me in order for that to begin. It’s been 5months but 19 years can’t fit into 5 months. When I go home I’m still going to be a complete mess. When people talk about heart surgery it sure is painful.

        Coming here at first wasn’t like a huge BOOM to me or anything. Sure, there are differences. Mopeds not having any rules enforced. Sticking your hand out at cars to make them stop so you can cross, walking on the road instead of on the sidewalks, which are covered with mopeds, taking a risk and just running across the road. The smells are super noticeable and disgusting. The heat almost unbearable, knowing weird foods will be tried. Squaties have to be used in public places, and sometimes those public places wont have toilet paper, so the hose there that so many other hands have touched, you will have to use too...  

        Then, living here for 3 months... You realize the majority of the people you pass are high, seeing the tourists and thinking they need to put a heck of a lot more clothes on (when they could just be wearing normal short shorts and a tank) because being here, covered up so long, it just seems so scandalous. That the people at Kawan are so incredible, whether they come in drunk or not. The people working in different ministries here are absolutely amazing people with such incredible faith, and precious hearts. That bargaining is really fun. And those other times where you make friends, some people having a good heart and others who don’t have very good intentions. Seeing how thankful some people are for prayers. Then... you realize you only have 5 showers left in Malaysia and it will all be pulled out from underneath you in what will seem like seconds. And what started out just as a trip with a school you signed up on...actually captured your heart and a piece will be left behind... Suddenly those smells, the smog, the sun beating down making you always sticky and wet, all of it doesn’t matter anymore and you wish those 5 showers could turn into 25...

        But, I know I can’t stay longer right now. I know that I will need to go back for debrief. That I will need to go home. Canada seems so different. Coming here and being ruined in a place totally different from home. To feel like there’s nothing I can do to make it seem like I’m doing anything of use. I do have a heart for the homeless. I do love orphans. I do love night ministry. I love relationships. With anyone. People in malls (I’m starting to feel like a certain someone. Everywhere she goes people know her), taxi drivers, prostitutes, homeless, pastors, youth, friends. Maybe I’ll come back someday, but until then I’ll have to find something. I’ve gone to Haiti twice, about 7 years apart. It’s been about 7 years now. Maybe I’ll go on the trip next time.

Been a Personal Struggle. Week7

Calamari!!

Friday morning we left for Ipoh. Jamie had challenged me last time to pack in only a small backpack. The sort of one that is used in school. I did it! Sleeping bag and all in that thing, and it was good.

        Our first mission when we got there was to find the two smallest people in our team to go on the bus with the children we’d be spending time with tonight. Samma and I were nominated, so off we went just before 5:00pm. When we arrived at the church with all these kids we expected the rest of the team to show up shortly after. When it was 5:10 we thought we might get started. After a few games and a couple songs without music, the team arrived. We were to be there until 7:00, then go out for dinner. The team arrived at 6:00. Crazy that Samma and I were capable of keeping them busy for an hour. That was probably one of my favourite times out of all Outreach, so far at least.

        The place we stayed at was nicer than expected. At night it was quite cool so the fact that we didn’t have air conditioning wasn’t bad. The beds on the other hand were so gross it made our subconscience keep alert. There were so many stains, it was almost completely yellow. Sweat stains and some splatters of blood. Gross. The pillows weren’t better (fortunately I brought my blow up pillow). There were bunk beds that swayed so much anytime someone on either the bottom or top moved we’d wake up. It was quite uncomfortable at night, any other time it was great.

Saturday, if you so chose, could go to play sports with the “Ipoh Bug”’s group. When I woke up pretty much everyone was gone, which was nice. I woke up and it felt like a was at a certain someone’s cabin. I’ve never craved a steamer with hazelnut cream and home made caramel sauce so much since that point. Sigh.

        Anyway, after having a nice relaxing morning (with out a steamer), and after meetings the afternoon, half of the team went to play soccer with the Ipoh Bug group. It was fun... I played with the top team. I’ve really been practicing. Just kidding. I did some stretches with kids more flexible than me, and took pictures the rest of the time.

        When we got home Alyssa, Kayla and I were scheduled in to teach two English classes between 8-9. When we got back we learned that one of the classes was changed to 10 because the students were traveling. Very long night, but very fun. We had a dance party after, which they loved.

Sunday Jonathan, Lennart, Donna, and I all piled into one car to go preach at an Indian church. The pastor had apparently just recently passed and his wife is now trying to carry it all on her own. We did the teaching on Trials and Temptations, the main passage being James 1, each taking something by it. I spoke specifically on how it can be difficult, but when we ask God He will be with us. Lennart went next speaking of Moses and how though Moses had temptations he persevered. He’s never really spoken too much before and is always quite against it but he did fantastic! Jonathan finished of with God’s comfort and even in the tough times calling on God is awesome!

        We had time off from lunch until about 6:30 when we got picked up for another church. At this one myself, Donna, and Jonathan were to speak. It was nearly all the same, but Donna taking Lennart’s position. She spoke on being thankful, even though it’s difficult especially when we feel like we can’t handle it anymore.

        The person leading the service said she’d hand it off to us at about 8:15. We had come into two separate vehicles, at two separate times again. The other half of the team was supposed to arrive at about 8:00. We were going to do the Everything skit (youtube it. Super powerful) to start with and do the sermon after. By 8:15 they hadn’t arrived. The service got handed to us at 8:25, and they still weren’t there. 3-5minutes after I began speaking I saw them walk in. There was an incredible reaction to the sermon. We did the skit at the end. It was amazing. The best it’s ever been performed by our team. After Alyssa went to the front and asked if anyone who hasn’t come to Christ yet wanted to, or if anyone who wanted to just come to God feel His comfort and just be prayed with could come up.

        After praying, 6 guys came to Christ. Not only that, but the 6 guys were all new, that Sunday, to the church! That was an absolutely incredible moment for us.

Monday we got to go to a water park, which is probably going to be one of the most memorable moments on outreach because the water is so gross here we can’t swim in it. There weren’t that many slides, wasn’t as incredible as a North American place, but I had a blast! It was a water park, theme park, hot springs, and petting zoo all in one. I got to hold a peacock on my arm! And a parrot on my shoulder! Then I touched a python...ew.. those things can eat a human. That’s called gluttony, my friends, which is frowned upon.

Tuesday was just a day off and I spent it journaling. 15 pages, double sided, taking approximately 6-7 hours.

Wednesday was another Kawan day. I helped at the front at the desk this time. Some awesome conversations happen there.

        Later that afternoon Kayla through a huge birthday party...well sort of huge. Our team and a YWAM team from Oxford came. It was so much fun! So much pizza, so many balloons, pinata, cake, ice cream, dancing. So much fun! During this time one of the girls on the DTS was asking me where I was from (I thought I saw a resemblance between here and someone else I had met, but had no idea where from). Saying Alberta, Canada, she asked where abouts more specifically. Because no one knows of even Edmonton really I said Calgary. She asked if I knew where Strathmore was, now I thought this was weird because who knows where Strathmore is, let alone Calgary? I told her I actually lived there. She asked if I knew of someone by the name of Andrew Peterson. I thought that was weird because he moved a few years ago. I asked about his siblings names and she was talking about the same one! Insaneness! SHE’S HIS COUSIN! They were both in New Zealand for a DTS there and now her team is in Malaysia! Insane, right? They travel around different places for 3 months, staying in each place for 2 weeks.

        

Thursday was worship at one of the other YWAM buildings again.

        First off, when someone in Malaysia calls people about 30+ Uncle or Auntie it’s a sign of respect. Now, the youth pastor from our usual youth on the weekends, Uncle Vive (Vee-vay), has been taking 3-4 people from our team out to lunch every week. This week I went with Jamie, Jonathan, and Kevin. It was so good! We got to eat off a banana leaf. It’s RM5:50 for banana leaf with a good pile of rice on it and 4 little servings of different awesome things. Along side that he got different plates of mutton, 2 different fish, chicken and calamari, plus some random vegetable plant things. It was a great meal! He told us that when we were finished, if we were satisfied to close the leaf in half. If we weren’t you leave the leaf open. Everyone at our table closed the leaves. He took us out for coconut jelly after. That was...very difficult for me to eat. The jelly part is fine. It’s like jello that’s melting super fast because of the heat, but I don’t like coconut.  

God's Been There. Now It'll Get INTENSE! Week6

Prom night props!

So last Thursday or so Kaylee and I had been discussing how we haven’t done anything nice for the guy’s, especially since they had made us Valentine’s dinner and everything. During random conversation that night we learned none of them had ever been to prom. So bada boom bada bing that was our theme. So Saturday we planned to go out and get some groceries after youth. During youth Kaylee told the youth pastor, Lincon, about the plan. Fortunately the boys were going to be going to play some sport Sunday after church, and Lincon would be bringing them home. This was perfect. He said he’d drop them off 6 o’clock sharp.

Sunday Kaylee, Alyssa, Kevin, Jamie and I went to a different church from TOP (the usual church we attend Sunday’s) and spoke of missions to the youth there. It went so well. We decided to make it kind of cheesy, first telling of our experiences, then at the end saying “That’s my story, what’s yours?” Of course that is cheesy, but cheesy always sticks. I think it went quite well.

        After church we headed home pretty much right away to get started on our meal for the boys. Samma stopped off somewhere to buy ribbon. From it she made 5 bowties and for the girls she bought smaller purple ribbon and made little bows for hair. So much fun! We made fruit salad as a starter (so good because all the fruit is so fresh here!), chicken burritos for the main and we bought some chocolate cake for desert, plus made some fried bananas as a side. It was all pretty much incredible.

        Samma made different props for some pictures we could take that were awesome, so we got some pictures done with that. It was so funny. The attachments for this week are from that night.

        

Tuesday Lennart, Kaylee, Kevin and I went to a mall to get some groceries for this weekend. While there I struck up a conversation with a couple older guys (like 60 or so older) and learned their names (which I suck at, but...). They’re from England originally, then they moved to Malaysia about 7 years ago. They don’t live in Penang but a few hours away. It’s cheaper there apparently and much nicer than Penang. They’re retired and live here because it is much cheaper. They must really like it to have stayed for this long. I love having random conversations like that.

        This next paragraph is not necessarily necessary to read. But now that you’ve started it it may have peaked your curiosity. I’ve been working on my Due South skills. Being out a little later Tuesday night and not wanting to miss the bus back from a mall there are 2 different bus stops (this is a free bus that comes around every hour or so). We went to the first place of where it is most likely to arrive. There was no one sitting there so I said to the people I was with that “we probably just missed it because there was no one there, so it would have had to have come just recently.” They agreed so we went to the bus stop it was to show up to next. Sure enough, we waited about 10minutes and it arrived. That’s right. I’m practically a pro detective now.

Wednesday’s Kawan was the usual. I helped in the kitchen... Nothing new to report. I’m awful at checkers. But I’d say that’s no surprise.

        Again, this week I was so excited for Night Ministry. This particular night we had 6 people going. Afgah said we’d have to split into two groups because 6 to 1 would be quit intimidating. Daniel and Kristi and I decided to go as one group because we had been there before, the other two hadn’t so they went with Afgah. Now we find that the language barrier is something quite difficult to deal with. There was a man sitting that we saw, so we went to try and talk with him. He claimed to not have known English and we tried introducing ourselves. It didn’t work too well so we just sat with him. After some time he got up and walked away.

        There we quite a few people out tonight and it was very busy. Lots of customers around. It felt quite uncomfortable to me too. There was a weight and the men that passed were definitely watching. I hadn’t felt that before. We talked with a few other people, but these ladies hardly know any English.

        After we were going back to the car Afgah told me that the guy Kristi, Daniel and I sat with was the person who collects all the rent for the buildings the prostitutes use. He doesn’t mind us being there and Afgah sees him around, but the pay no attention to one another. She said it was interesting, because we didn’t know that, that the first person we tried to talk with was him. I don’t know completely what to do with that...but it’s okay.

Thursday morning we had worship and intersession. Intersession today was awesome. We just prayed for strongholds over Malaysia. After we were done I felt so much lighter. I’ve been excited after intersessions, but nothing like this. I just felt so much better. It was so good to pray into. Walking in the opposite spirit seems to give you this strength that is exactly what we need to push through.

        It’s Michael’s birthday, so we went out to lunch for his birthday. So funny. There’s a place that’s the Charlie Brown Cafe and that’s where we ate. For his 21st. That amuses me some.

        Kaylee and I got into a conversation about how a lot of the time I know when God speaks to me or when I just know something. I get this a lot and just see things past people’s appearance, but I almost never say something. Kaylee told me I should step out more in faith with somethings. Then I got this feeling that if I finished the update for this week before we left for dinner tonight I was to wait until right before I go to bed to send it out.

        Tonight we had we had that dinner where 2 or 3 of us go to someone’s house that’s with YWAM for dinner and just spends time with them. I was with Keeley and Kayla and we went to this couple Jody and Joanne’s house. They have a pet tortoise. Cool, right? I thought so. Got to touch him and everything. He’s practically 7. Just a small thing. Right at the beginning I got a word from God for the couple and I was praying about whether or not I should bring it up. Closer to the end of the night some conversation related to this topic was brought up and I knew that was when I was supposed to tell them. They took it well (nothing bad) and said they’d let me know. I look forward to it.

        Anyways, I am to sleep now, because dinner is completed.