Fine Tuning Malaysia Ministry

The Malaysia ministry has been running smoothly. So let’s discuss operation Malaysia Ministry. 

With the kids I am teaching at the school, I decided to take a major step back. We were trying to teach them things like long division and the water cycle, but my kids don’t speak any English whatsoever. I could not say “take out your pencil and paper from your backpack” and the kids get what I am saying. So now I have flashcards for words like “take out” “pencil” and “backpack” and that is what we are reviewing. The kids seem to actually be learning now, and were able to perform the basic school tasks when I quizzed them. Imagine being a kid refugee and a bunch of foreigners come in and try to teach you about random school topics, that attempt doesn’t work because you don’t know any English, so then they just throw coloring materials at you. Of course there were blank stares. Blank stares were literally the best case scenario. What else were lil bros and lil female bros supposed to do? Now that I am on their level, they are starting to answer questions and learn. One kid seems to have a great short term memory. Another drew a tree one time and asked what it was called. The kids don’t know what they don’t know. So instead of trying to teach precipitation to kids that don’t understand “rain comes down from clouds”, I made my job setting them up better so that another missionary can work with them. This is the only schooling they are going to get because their Government will not provide it, so I need to transfer at least something, even if it has to be the basic tasks. 

Last time I blogged I talked about a hike in the rain on a mountain where a potential opportunity appeared. Well the opportunity manifested, so we wound up getting invited into a public school to teach English for a day. The job was really more like just talking to them and getting their confidence in English up. I had a group of about 30 high school boys to talk to, and I thought the scenario went really well. They loved my hype, my pushups, and my dance moves. We were told World Race teams were invited back. Our host has been hosting World Race teams for over a decade and that was their first entrance into a public school. Obviously, it’s illegal to share the Gospel in that building, but being able to serve there is still a major deal. 

We also had contact with a different missionary organization that my teammate had worked with in the past. Although not with this specific contact, we just stumbled upon them in Thailand and the Lord started moving. We’ve done multiple events with them now, one service and one discussion about Easter with foreign college students. The contact did say they were interested in getting more help from World Racers in the future, and maybe help with the school, so that’s more future opportunities for missionaries that God set up. 

I went to a pool with some people from different teams and an evangelization opportunity happened with our driver. He actually talked about how he admired the Christians that come through and give schooling to the refugees, and that is exactly what we are doing. He is someone who believes in gods from many cultures, and is investigating different religions. One girl that was with me recommended to him the movie “The Case for Christ” and I suggested he read the Gospels and pray specifically to Jesus. He has Christian friends and a Bible already, so that set up is a good start. All three people that were in the car contributed to the conversation, and I think the talk went well. I will pray that God does something with that seed. My teammates have had other car evangelization opportunities, such as helping a person with a special needs child, but that was the one so far in the car where I talked the most. 

The church is now doing services everyday from Easter to Pentecost, and members of the team have an assigned day. Mine is Wednesday, so no more house visits on that day. We also are going to the same house a lot, which is fine, but I feel less compelled to preach at a house that I’ve already preached at. So I might be done with preaching, which is a shame. I’ve still got the kids’ stories, which is going as well as it can. They have been more behaved, other than a couple of kids. Honestly, making lessons for behaved kids vs  not behaved kids is different in itself. 

I preached a lot, but the only time I felt after prayer I was supposed to preach that didn’t wind up happening. I just kinda filled in the gaps for everyone else when no one else jumped at the opportunity. There are times when the group comes to a consensus about what God is saying, but most of the time I’m not part of that, which is unfortunate. 

I also fasted for over 50 hours this week. That was interesting. My stomach was in significantly less pain than the tuna shenanigans, but I did get a decent headache because of the ordeal. It was a thing that I can say that I did now though, just like completing this blog!