Char Koay Teow

As time goes on here in Malaysia I'm not quite sure who is helping who.  We've met some incredible believers here and I have been inspired by the strength of the christians here. I've heard a few times now that there will be a revival here within the next few years and with this kind of God fearing, God loving people it is easy to see why. We've come here to serve the people who need our help here and we've done that but at that same time I feel like they've helped us just as much. Encouraging us as we need it and letting us know were doing a good job even when it doesn't feel like it. As time and time again our humanness fails us and we don't say the right things, or we back down from an opportunity to share, It's great to hear that our God still loves us and will never stop loving us. For me as I push more and more into Him and spend more and more time with Him while I'm here the easier it is to talk to strangers and to not back down. Not to say that it's easy. I still find myself missing out on more opportunities then ones that I take. I just need to keep loving like Jesus did and when I keep seeing God's love of me I'll be able to see his love for others. So I'm still working on that but like the potter and the clay God is moulding me until I become perfect. Which I will never be, but as I respond to his love more and more I can only get closer. 


Our first day of ministry we had orientation and then we went to this Ministry called Kawan which means "friends" in malay and there was 3 groups. Johnny and Blake went and did some street evangelism with other people. Stephen was at the church service for the street people and that was with a bunch of other people. Me and Josef were praying over the night in a little upstairs room with a couple others. Then we had another day of orientation type stuff and walked around to see all the different temples and places of worship. That night we went to the Door of Hope which is a children's ministry and then we went there for 3 days in a row and hung out with kids and acted out David and Goliath and taught a bunch of english and we'll being doing that a bunch while we are here it's great. One of the days at the door of hope we cleaned these nasty public washrooms, It wasn't so bad because we listened to worship and made it a worship session, haha like on base morning worship duties except a lot nastier.  Sunday we went to Grace Sanctuary which is a small little church with almost all chinese people so it was amazing of course and we were all prayed for by the pastor there. We played floor ball monday night and it was amazing!! It was basically floor hockey and I was so happy to see hockey sticks in Malaysia! It reminded me of home in Canada. They were like plastic looking things but I was in my element. It's a great way to relate with college kids and the ministry they have going with that is awesome. We rented motorcycles that night and cruised around all night. We still had the motorbikes for the next day and cruised around the whole island looking for beaches and seeing the country it was awesome. The traffic is just ridiculous here and there is like no rules so were weaving in and out of cars watching for pedestrians and watching out for cars and other bikers then at red lights we just cruise up to the front of the line it's amazing!! oh and monday we had a treasure hunt and we decided it would be good to go to this one place for lunch and while we were there this guy came up to us and talked to us for like an hour or more and it seemed like he was prophesying over us and he said he believed in Jesus, but then he said he was hindu and believed in all gods... so it was weird, we tried to tell him that Jesus was the only God and we prayed for him and gave him lunch. Today we went to Kawan again helped out, hanging out with the homeless people for breakfast and lunch and helping clean up the place, it was fun. Wednesday we spent the day at Kawan which is a place for homeless people to come and eat and take a nap indoors, and free showers. We spent time there just chatting with people and cleaning up the place. We did night evangelism and street church there again. Thursday we had activity with Ed. Ed is a guy from Holland who has been here for 4 years now doing evangelism so we took the bus somewhere and found this awesome hike off the road and climbed up a river for an hour or so and then got to this dam in the middle of the jungle and we saw some awesome jungle animals that I've never seen before it was great! I'm used to only seeing moose and deer in the Canadian forest it was a little different here.  Then right after that we went to the Door of Hope again for kids ministry it was a long but great day. Friday helped out at Kawan again  then we hung out with some people from the "Logos Hope" which is a ship that is docked here that is part of Operation Mobilization and the ship has been for a while now and is leaving on wednesday but they do lots of good work at each country they visit brining help, hope and knowledge. We also went to Penhop and had friday night burn from 10pm-1am and it was a great 3 hours of worship. Good to be filled.  Today we went to play futsal with some locals kids and hang out with them it was great fun but I've never sweat that much in my life! At least it's good for me. And that's where I'm at so far in Malaysia. It's been fun and I'm excited to see what comes next!


Thanks for reading,


Brendan

5 dudes in Malaysia, why?

Last night as we walked up to the roof to have a worship session and pray in high places over the city, Steve our team leader pointed out something very interesting to me. Why would 5 very capable, handsome, strong men who could easily be working out fantastic successful lives, in university, working, getting girlfriends, guys who could have awesome lives living the american dream give that all up and go to the ghetto in Malaysia just to love people? (Granted we may not be here for ever, but were still sacrificing half a year of our normal lives) We do it because we are so loved. We go way out of our way, half way across the country just to love people because we are so loved. We're loved so greatly by our father in heaven and the people around us that we can't help but go out and share that love to people that may not know it. If we really realize that and love people with all we've been given were gonna make a huge impact in this world and that is what it's all about. Anyways... I'll tell you about Malaysia so far.


God is great and our travels went incredibly easy. We got on the plane, without hardly having to wait in the airport. After a long 11 hour flight we landed in Malaysia. Johnny was sitting on the plane with a man named Jeeva, and he helped us out when we got there and got us started on the buses to Penang, super nice guy. After a bus to Kuala Lumpur Central station we got on a few trains to where the bus stops to Penang are. There we were walking around like chickens with their heads cut off... or just 5 dudes who didn't know where to go. Then a lady came up to us asked us where we were going and showed us to this awesome bus and then walked away. We paid 35 RM or about $12 each to take a 6 hours bus ride to Buttersworth, Penang. It worked out so smoothly we thought we were getting scammed. Then we took a fairy across the island into the city Georgetown, Penang where the base is and just walked right to it. Praise God it went so smoothly. We just spent the rest of the evening walking around finding where we are and grabbing some grub, which is cheap and delicious. Seriously Penang is a food lovers paradise, EVERYTHING is so amazing! and so cheap!! So today we've been walking around, we hit up the mall and we'll be going out again this afternoon just to get a feel for the locals and what this place is like. Lovin' life here so far! We start our scheduled ministries tomorrow, not to say we aren't looking for opportunities even on our days off. So yaaaaaa That's Malaysia so far, it's real gnarly.


Love ya!


Brendan

The Start of A New Chapter

Well in two days I'll be leaving on outreach and I couldn't be more excited.

Today we had our last day of lectures and it was some awesome worship time and just praying for each other and loving on each other. This afternoon we packed away all our stuff and now all we have access to is the our backpacks and the clothes were taking on outreach. It was a bittersweet day. Coming up to the realization I'm gonna have to leave what has become my home, with what has become my family. That's the bitter part. The sweet part is that I'll be taking some of that family with me to some very beautiful places, and the adventure I'm about to be taken on is gonna be one with wild stories to tell. I'm gonna see a lot of things on outreach that wouldn't be possible without God on my side. I can't wait to just show some major love to people in Malaysia and Turkey. It's been confirmed time and time again today that me and my outreach team are mighty men and mighty warriors for God. Me and 4 men. Me, Blake Ryan Cooper, Josef, Johnny, and my team leader Stephen. My passport also arrived today, fresh off the printing press and looking beautiful it couldn't have arrived at a better time. Our commissioning was also tonight and we had everyone on base sending us out with prayer and good words of encouragement. After that we gathered everyone and had our very own premiere of the brand new snowboarding movie "The Art of Flight" and it was amazing. It was more like a documentary about the risks of snowboarding and what a life chasing snow is like. Seems fun, but there is so much more... The video was one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen and the cinematography was amazing.

Since Queenstown the school has made huge steps of growth. Queenstown was kind of a turning point for us. After that week we had a speaker named Mark Parker who challenged us in big ways and we gave up anything we were holding on a little too tightly and it made us free to live out God's will in our lives. Since then we have all actively pursued God more and more. Through a series of people fasting and getting revelations from God this school is more than ready to go out there and spread the love.

As I'm sitting in the library writing this and just hanging out with a few of my friends I'm realizing how much I love them all. These people in this school have built me up and encouraged me through this time and I'm so thankful for the group that was brought together in this school. This is what church is really like. A group of believers encouraging each other and teaching each other and learning from each other, but most of all loving each other. Laughter, joy, tears, injuries, healings (just tonight Jessica's knees were healed), successes and failures, we've been through a lot together and it's fantastic. Love these people. For those back home don't worry I still love you! haha just making sure you know that...

Going out on outreach please pray for us to have strength to fulfill God's will for us, strength from God. Also pray that we would know God's love for everyone we see and share that love with them and feel that love for ourselves. That kind of love would enable us to be humble servants and that is what people take most notice of. I've learned a lot so far but I can't wait until I learn even more on outreach. God is putting together a good plan for the next year for me. I can't wait to see where he takes me.

Thanks for reading!

Love ya,

Brendan