A lasting impression.

Let me explain a bit of a story from a day where we went out to "evangelise" in the streets. Jared and I were paired up, but we decided it was a better idea to meet up with a pair of the girls and visit the hospital. We originally intended to go to the hospital and make balloon animals for the children that were there but got there about thirty minutes late and the children's ward had closed, despite the fact that we tried to convince the security guard that they were open. We were a little bummed but shrugged it off to begin plotting our next move. We looked down the hall and there were a few families sitting with children outside of the ward. It worked itself out after all!

We left the security "officer" and made our way to the area of the families all waiting on benches. They were all accepting and the children seemed to really like Jared's magic tricks with card and coins. When I tried to make balloon animals, the balloon always popped and the children always cried. I made a crucial decision to switch from playing with children to talking to the parents of the children. I made the right decision and seemed to have much more success. My opinion is based on the logic that none of the adults cried when I talked to them and I didn't feel the need to alter my voice to talk to them. John was also at the hospital. John and myself began talking to an Indian man who had stomach cancer. He told us about a group of westerners who had prayed for him a week earlier and asked if I would do the same. I gladly prayed for him and he gave John his contact information so we could contact him later.

Fast forward a few weeks. We had another evanglism time over the course of the weekend. This particular occasion we were to stay out and let God lead us where He willed. Jared and I kind of walked around with stupid looks on our faces and just let people talk to us. We stayed at the top of Penang hill for $10 and it was an even more awesome sight at night. Then yesterday, we mostly walked and walked and walked.

The real story actually doesn't even involve us. It is about John and his team. Peter and John both speak fluent Tamil and they decided to go to a Tamil church on the mainland. Joy was on their team and speaks no Tamil, but with two fluent speakers he was in good shape. They met up with a pastor that Peter knows and he took them shopping after a nice dinner that he provided for them. He received a call at some point over the course of the night about a man that wanted someone to pray over him and Peter, John, and Joy decided they would ride along. They got to the house and walked in and immediately John recognized the man that wanted prayer. It was the same man that we prayed for at the hospital! The man's response was so welcoming. He actually said in a very excited voice, "PASTOR! I am so glad you are here! Where is your American friend?...I cannot believe that you are here, now I know that God truly loves me!" This guy told John that he and his family were going to begin going to church immediately and he thanked them so much. It is amazing that all that was needed was for someone to just show up. John, Peter, and Joy didn't know that there was going to be anything significant happen, they just felt that God wanted them there so they showed up. God used them "showing up" to speak into a Hindu man's life, a decision they made that will not only effect his, but also his family's life. Pray for this man as today he was supposed to have an operation. Thank you for allowing me to tell you incredible stories like this one!

Biblical Worldview, Champions, and Apes.

This week we have been examining a Biblical worldview. It has been pretty interesting to see different viewpoints and the like. It has been more exciting to discuss with my dad the future plans that might take place in my life. Those conversations usually leave me a lot more confused since I want to do so many different things. I never know exactly how my future will look because of this. Hopefully it will just work itself out.

We did take the Myers-Briggs typology test to determine the, at the risk of sounding a bit eHarmony, "compatibility" of our teams going to our different locations. I ended up on a team where every single member save one of the leaders is an extrovert. I am an ENFP type, and there are many interesting things that are described by this category. It is funny that my interests and described personality line up almost perfectly. It is mainly a lot about my interest in social causes and the "retreat of evil in the world." I was pretty pleased with my results.

There was a description of the results made by a man named David Keirsey who came up with a "temperament sorter." There are four different categories of temperaments: Guardians, Idealists, Artisans, and Rationals. I happen to fall under the ctegory of an idealist. The sorter actually goes a bit further and seperates each category into four parts which I will save time and space by just including the idealists. The four categories of idealists are: Counselors, Healers, Teachers, and Champions. Could you guess which one I ended up with? If your guess was "Champion," then your right on target. Jared and I actually ended up with the exact same personality type and we have not been at all reserved about letting people know that we are the champions of the group.

We did find out that, in KL, there is a monkey on the loose. It apparently is a rhesus monkey that has decided to make its home in a tree at Jared's neighbor's house and has escaped out of someone's ownership. He has a chain on his neck and frequently runs around on Jared's roof and tries to get into the windows. We found this story incredibly amusing.

Other than that, tomorrow morning we leave for an overnight trip somewhere on the island to do some evangelism, and next weekend I will be briefly leaving Malaysia to go to Thailand for a visa renewal since I will just barely miss the deadline. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Some pictures and talk of a skit

As promised: Pictures. From top to bottom: View from the rooftop (mosque and smoke on the mountain), that centipede was about 8 inches long and about as big aroun as a tire iron, the clocktower of the customs bulding at about 6:45 AM, the jetty right before nightfall (3 block walk from where we stayed, and finally looking down an arched sidewalk in the city.

So I am not really a sucker for anything performing arts, no offense if this is something you are into, it just isn't my bag. This was a factor as I was looking for a DTS to actually apply for. I don't mind acting in plays and I love to see musicals, but I just think the whole interpretive dance or pop-song skit is just a bit hokie if you ask me. As we approached about the third day of our midterm outreach, what do I find out? The abhorring news of our team's performing art activity we will be doing for three different groups of young to middle age Nepali men, set to the song "Everything" by Lifehouse, which, keep in mind, is in a language most of them cannot even understand. If you think I was thrilled at hearing this news you are so sadly and terribly mistaken. For some reason, my teammates decided it was most appropriate for the only white guy on our team to play Satan, so I used the excuse, "I'm just trying to get into character," anytime I felt it necessary to be a jerk due to my immature unhappiness.

When it all breaks down, over the course of the weekend we performed our "skit" at three different services, a service on Good Friday followed by two Easter services. Over the course of my weekend of pouting because of the "embarrassment" I was going to have to entertain, I began to soften up to the idea. My whole mood change after the second time we "performed" and noticed that in a room full of Nepali men, and one Myanmarese guy that we found out about later, there were people crying. The normal pastor preached after we were finished and we left a bit early to go eat some dinner before the next service that was 45 minutes away. We went through the same routine and sat through a Nepali man preach, in Nepali of course, and figured out things to do. I sat quietly in the back of the room and read a book in English, since this IS my first language and enjoyed myself. At the end we were all excited about the 4 men that decided to accept Christ at this service and watched in anticipation as they declared before all of their brothers their new found faith and acceptqance of Christ. We listened as Ramayah explained what was going on and she suddenly said, "Oh yeah, 17 men accepted Christ at the last service." Over the course of the weekend a total of 27 Nepali men accepted Christ, also along with the stealthy Myanmarese guy that snuck into the Nepali service. We were so thankful and so proud that night and still are.

My lesson was this: Despite my frustration with the way that we presented ourselves at these services in front of these men, God worked through as and the speaker and 28 people are now a part of his kingdom! Thanks for reading!

A few pictures...more to come!

Some lovely Chickens

...and those are tentacles sticking out of my mouth (disgusting I know).
Nepali outreach, a rather large ugly concrete man, from the top of Penang hill overlooking one half of the island, and a monkey on top of Penang hill (which I apparently got too close to considering he hissed at me and almost "attacked" me).

"I feel so violated"...

I don't have much time, but I would like to tell you the story of why those words came out of Jared's mouth. If you know anything about Asian culture, in many countries it is perfectly acceptable for two men to pubicly display affection for each other if they are friends. It is quite normal to see men holding hands or sitting in each other's laps and such. This is not a tradition that is very common in Malaysia; however, on our Thursday night outreach with the Nepali migrant workers, it is becoming a more common sight. Last night, as a matter of fact a was sitting next to two friends of mine as they held hands talking and laughing in their language. I looked across the room and Jared was sitting on the bed next to the Nepali missionary Devendra. Devendra was rubbing his knee with one hand and playing with Jared's leg hair with the other. This is not something that I have gone without experiencing since I have sat next to Devendra before and he knows us better than the migrant workers do, thus he shows a friendly affection for us. It doesn't really make me uncomfortable because I recognize the difference in culture but I don't think that Jared had ever experienced this or even seen it on one of our outreaches before. I assured him that he had better prepare himself for the actual country because it would be much more prominent in Nepal rather than hanging out with a few people from the country. All in all, it was a very quiet ride home for Jared, though I enjoyed poking at the wound that was created.

Today is our last day in Georgetown. It has been fun but I will be glad to get back to our normal living arrangements. According to my speculation, on Sunday I will be online much more and updating the blog a lot more frequently over the course of the next month, before time to leave for Nepal. Tomorrow I have the obligatory duty of moving all of our stuff back and making sure nothing gets left behind so I probably will not be doing much online tomorrow except for talking to my parents, since I haven't in a few days. Thanks for reading and in a couple of days I will have you better posted!

Tony Danza is truly Nepali

For the past couple of weeks, we have attended a Nepali church service on the mainland of Penang. This service has been interesting to say the least. All of the attendees are men due to the fact that the women in Nepal don't come here to make the money for their families back home, which is pretty legitimate if you ask me. Many Nepalis have come to know Christ through this ministry and it is constantly growing. All of the men are so accepting of us and love to have a time of fellowship after the service to ask questions about where we are from. I wrote down in my journal last night that it is a really incredible thing when you realize you are in a room full of people who are the epitome of a cultural antithesis and you cannot understand a single word being said, but you can feel the presence of God. These men worship with their own drums that get passed around when arms get tired and they worship without boundaries. If I came home and tried to do similar dance motions with my arms I would have a pretty steady string of insults hurled at me most likely regarding a preference of mine, but it is beautiful when these men dance and sing with a reckless abandon to God.

The title of this has a little to do with "the boss." Last night, we not only attended the aforementioned service, but added a completely separate service to our list of things to do on Sunday afternoons. A service that begins an hour and a half after the first is finished. As Jared was sharing his testimony, via a translator of course, there was a very disruptive Nepali man who felt it necessary to correct the translator and "help her out." The translator, Kai Lee's face seemed to blush red with embarrassment, she is after all trying her best as a Chinese lady who heads up the ministry that is in 100% Nepali. I began to feel bad for her and glanced at the man and realized that he was a dead-on carbon copy of Mr. Danza himself. Kai Lee's potential embarrassment was tossed out the window as I was enthralled with this man's appearance. I began to question myself.

"How did I miss this guy in the introductions?"

"Was Tony Danza a fraud?"

"Is Tony Danza really Nepali?"

The second two questions are a bit ad libbed, but this occurrence did spur several quiet impressions of Tony Danza from my floor spot in the back of the room. We do, after all, find ways of entertaining ourselves during 45 minutes of a foreign tongue. It ended up being a brilliant night capped off with some tandoori chicken, which I am totally convinced that God himself invented in India somewhere.

Other than the Nepali service we have spent a lot of time as a team worshiping. As a matter of fact, in a 24 hour period, 8 hours were spent in a room worshiping in two separate 4 hour sessions. In all honesty it became somewhat of a burden after a while. I am glad we had the experience, but if you ever find yourself with a songbook that people are considering flipping back to the first page to continue, let me say good luck.

A quick update

I have time for a quick update because coincidentally, I realized that we are about 3 blocks away from an internet cafe that is only $1 an hour. Any time I have free time I should be able to come down here and update. The excitement is a little dulled by the realization of the fact that in my head I tried to make it seem like it was going to be a tough two weeks. Far from it, as a matter of fact. We went to the movies yesterday and sat at the mall, due to our "day off," and today had three hours of worship. It sounds like a long time, but it went by pretty fast and nobody seemed to object, despite several repeated songs.

I have officially sworn off roti bom. It was a difficult thing to commit to, but I got here and lost weight then slowly began to put weight back on. I blame the reascension on the roti bom, thus I have to swear it off. I have made a commitment, and I am about 3 quarters of the way through day 1. We'll see how it goes since the best roti bom I have had is now directly across the street from my living arrangement.

A quick list of things that I have eaten since I have been here, categorized by animal. Fish: fillets, whole, and stomachs; cow: normal meat, stomach; whole squid; chicken: intestines, liver (i eat this back home though), skin, butt, and feet; pig: fat, intestines, and normal meat; and the best for last: stingwray.

I will let you know more about how God has been working as it happens, if possible.

Georgetown bound

This will be my last post for two weeks. Tomorrow we head to downtown Georgetown where we will be staying on the busiest street in the city. I don't even know what we are going to be doing in the city, but it is a short version of our longer term outreach to give us a taste of what it will be like to endure each other almost all day everyday. I think it will be good preparation for our trip. We have been waking up and meeting to pray or worship at 6:30 every weekday morning. I think this is a great idea because it really shows our flexibility and how willing we are to be uncomfortable for Christ. I didn't feel that way at first, and even most days I still hate it, but I know that it is for an end goal so much greater than my wants and needs. I'll just continue to grit my teeth, put on the Darfur benefit album of John Lennon cover songs, and head to the meeting every morning until time to leave.

Yesterday we had our first sobfest, and two months in at that! It was worthy of a churh camp, holy high! I am surprised it didn't happen sooner, but we had a time of coming forward to co-students we have had differences or maybe misunderstandings with. The only person I felt I really needed to apologize to was the only other American here. She is a really great girl, but our personalities clash and there have been a few tense moments in the past. In its own funny way, I look at the fact that the only person here I feel tense around is the only other American. Maybe God is trying to tell me something, after all I have been told that I am more Chinese than any previously met westerner by a couple of people. We did have a time of washing each other's feet after we apologized and reconciled with each other. Puspa went around the circle and washed every person's feet in the circle and then kissed them (something I couldn't have done by force). It was honestly the most prime example of the servant heart of Christ that I have seen in anyone here.

Our cat will have been gotten rid of by tomorrow. Something I am completely okay with. It is a nice little kitten, but need I remind you that everyone here that wants to adopt this kitten is going their seperate ways in June. I don't think anybody is interested in taking her home (it is a girl we realized).

I have been drinking coffee like water these past few days. I have occasionally gotten to a Starbucks around here and ordered my usual cafe americano with no room for cream, but it is incredible to have quality coffee at my disposal. I have cleaned my new french press more times than I can count on both hands and I have only had it for about 48 hours. And for some strange reason, I have felt compelled to share coffee with a handful of interested students around me. I know this has to be the Holy Spirit, because I assure you that it is not my own.

This week has been really good overall. I took a lot out of the lectures on the basic timeline of the Bible. I thought I wasn't going to at first, but I was proved wrong. Now that I move into preparation for these next two weeks, I am counting myself happy to have reviewed the key events in the Word. I have two weeks of outreach here in Penang and then 4 more weeks of lectures. Time is flying at an uncomfortable rate. In six weeks I will be heading to Nepal! I am so excited. For the time being, pray for the next couple of weeks for me. Pray that I can effectively communicate the gospel in any opportunity presented, as well as for everyone else here with me. Well, I think that is about all I have for now. I am sure that I will run across an internet cafe from time to time. Hopefully I will have enough time to get online and write a quick post. If not, then I'll write to you again in about two weeks! Thanks for reading.

Cats, Coffee and Prophets

We have adopted a mascot here in Malaysia. On the walk home last night from the night market, Niklos and Hailey picked up a stray cat. This cat has a tail, which believe it or not is rare for cats here. Most of the cats around here look like their tails have been cut off at some point. A couple of our roommates don't like the cat, but my Dutch friends in charge of the house like him so he stays! The girls named him Shadow, which if you ask me is quite a cliche name for a black animal, but no one liked my suggestion of Frank. He looks like a Frank.

I finally got my package from my aunts and uncles today. It was much needed, with the coffee and all. I have given away a couple of the Slim Jims in the package and so far Peter and Adrian love them, which prompts me to watch them closely. I have already had some coffee and I am soon to have another cup. It is so good to be off of the dissolving rock "coffee" that is Nescafe. Getting the package, however, wasn't the easiest thing I have done since I have been here. Peter, a Malaysian-Indian co-DTS student, accompanied me, which was really beneficial in the long run. We had to take cab to the jetty to catch the ferry to the mainland, which is where the customs post office is. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there. At the post office, I had to open my package in front of the customs agent, let him rummage through, and then wait in another line for the people to decide if they wanted to tax me for "importing." Of course, since Peter was with me, some other languages were being spoken and I got out of that line tax-free. After that, I had to wait in another line to sign for the package, where they needed my initials and my passport number. I reached in my pocket and realized my passport was on my shelf back at the house. I froze. Instantly my mind began racing, "Deportation...detention...etc." Then Peter wrote his ID number on the slip and they thanked us and sent us on our way. Needless to say, I was relieved. All in all, it was about a 4.5 hour trip, but the taste of good coffee makes it worth every second.

The past couple of days, we have stayed on the Bible overview from a historical standpoint. It has been great. I really enjoy learning about hitorical perspective of biblical times. We are a considerable way through the OT, that's "Old Testament" for you new christians, spending just a little time on the prophets. It has been a pretty enjoyable week so far, but nothing soul shaking has happened yet. If it does, I promise you'll be the first informed. Thanks for reading!

Finally listening to portable tunes again.

Today was a beautiful day. I got a new iPod, most likely refurbished actually. Unfortunately, I lost all of the 3700 songs that was on my original iPod, but I can get them back when I get home so I'm not sweating it.

I have been dreading this week for some reason coming into lectures with the title "Bible overview." I guess I just told myself that I know what the Bible is about and I didn't need a summary, but of course my speculations were incorrect, as always, and it is actually the Bible in a historical context and a study of the era. I really enjoyed class today as we moved through the first three books, Genesis through Leviticus in case you didn't know. We have five days of lectures in one week and the first day of this week is already gone with time spent on only 3 books. If you do the math, that is 63 books in 4 days, so we'll see how it goes.

Time is moving so fast that it is blowing my mind. I can't believe that I have been in Malaysia for 2 months. I feel like yesterday I was homesick, but I can't actually tell you the last time I felt homesick. My friendships are constantly growing here and we are all becoming so much closer. It is getting worse and worse to think about when I come home. I'll be so excited to see my family and friends again, but at the same time, I'm leaving a whole other set of family and friends all over again. I'm looking so forward to June and dreading it at the same time.

There is something that I would also like for you to pray for. Kai Lee, one of the YWAM staff, heads up the ministry with the Nepali migrant workers here. A while back Kai Lee had cancer and went through chemotherapy and radiation and the treatment was successful. She has just found out that her cancer has come back and it is impossible to remove so she will have to go through treatment a second time. I don't even need to tell you how devastating this disease is, and of course I am assuming you are somewhat intelligient, giving some of you the benefit of the doubt of course. Personally, it has taken two family members away from me. Pray for Kai Lee, and also pray for the people we all know with this disease. That is about all I have for right now. Thanks for reading.