Week 3 and 4 update! Enjoy. Written by Alyssa Burroughs
UPDATE WEEK 3 (9/22 – 9/29/2012)
This week is our last week in Queenstown. Time flew by! Our heart this week is keeping God the center. We don’t want to lose motivation or focus, even in these last days.
Saturday was our skate park, movie night with Freedom and SFC. No one showed up outside of these ministries. All of us ended up skateboarding, ice skating, chatted a bit and didn’t even watch a movie. I think it was God’s blessing so we could fellowship with our brothers and sister in Christ.
Sunday was so, so great! The 9 of us led the St. Andrews entire church service. Mandi preached and did an amazing job! The Holy Spirit was leading her every word. Her message and authority blew everyone away. Jeromy gave the children’s message to set the stage for Mandi. Andy, Janie, Sophie, Thor and I led worship and got the congregation moving a bit more than normal Pastor Ian was so thankful we took over for the week. It opened hearts to the idea of mixing generations by compensating certain routines and traditions in the service. Tracy and her husband Dave showed up. They were so excited to attend church after being absent so long. I pray they find a church to connect with quickly. Today Loren came for his 3 day pastoral visit! Yay L-dog!
Monday we treasure hunted in town. Daniela, from Freedom came along. Overall we had a pretty chill time. Janie ended up giving Kylie a jacket and talking for a bit. She said she needed one, so praise God because he totally set that up. The friendships we’ve built with some of the store workers have grown so much. That night was Freedom again with the youth.
Tuesday was riding at The Remarkables. Not many conversations happened with liftees or other riders, but the most amazing part of the day was witnessing Sophie. She was TEARING it up on her board. No fear whatsoever. It’s amazing to think how she broke her arm so badly just two months before, (at the same mountain), and now she’s back out there as if the injury never happened. So stinking cool!
The rest of the week was quick. On Wednesday we met with Freedom for their mid-week service. The 9 of us got to share our testimonies with everyone and then we split in to small groups and prayed to close the night. I’m going to miss them all so much. We went night riding one last time at Snow Park on Friday and had a great close for ministry on the streets.
For our last day in Queenstown, Jeromy and Janie handed out free ice cream and popsicles. They were able to talk about the gospel to multiple people and spread God’s love to nearly 60 people. Tore had a great chat with one of the workers near the waterfront and shared the gospel with him. Mandi was led to pray for a random worker in one of the outdoor stores. Sophie, Tack, and Andy busked worship songs for a while and had a few people stop and watch. Jeff and I set up a “prayer booth” by the water. Basically we held a sign that said “Sick? Injured? Feeling good? All are welcome for prayer.” A few people came to us and asked for prayer. It was so sweet. God opened so many doors for us this day...and every day for that matter. We were able to end our time in Queenstown well.
UPDATE WEEK 4 (9/30 – 10/08/2012)
Well, we’re finally in Malaysia…and it’s APARENT. This morning I woke up to the roosters crowing. The 9 of us went from blending in to standing out ethnically, the humidity is over 60% and no one can stop sweating! Driving a scooter is THE mode of transportation for Penang. People buzz around on them constantly. Today we saw a man driving with a tank of propane in between his legs, and another guy with his little kid on his lap. The Malaysians are fearless when it comes to two wheels.
Our base is in the heart of Georgetown (an island off the main land of Malaysia). The ocean is a 2 minute walk away; although, the beaches are pretty polluted. Food is incredibly cheap. Just to paint a picture, we are allowed $7.00 USD/day/person for our food budget. In New Zealand that was quite a stretch at times. One US dollar equals 3 ringgit (Malaysia’s currency), which means we are allowed 21 ringgit/day/person for food. Most meals from street vendors cost between 3-5 ringgit and drinks are between 1-3 depending on how fancy you want to get. So basically, we are in heaven with the prices here and how strong the US dollar is. I purchased a roll of Mentos today for .33 cents. Awe yeah!
After everyone was awake, we went on a walk around town. The traffic is frightening, especially when you are trying to cross the street. Drivers do not like yielding to pedestrians one bit. You have to go for it at times and run in order to get to the other side. The streets are dirty. The buildings are crumbling apart. Sidewalks are cracked and jagged. Stray cats and dogs walk around scavenging for food. Foreign smells (usually bad) are everywhere. The skies are polluted and overcast…yet this place is beautiful because God’s children are everywhere I look at the people and think how our Father is just waiting to captivate hearts and bring his kids home.
Outreach prep was Tuesday. Peter and Kevin (our main contacts) explained quite a bit about the Malaysian culture – what to wear, how to greet people, how Christianity is viewed and understood by Muslims, courtesies, offenses, etc.
The heat was sweltering today. A few of us got sick and pale from lack of water. Instead of going on a 2-hour walking tour around Georgetown, the team skipped out to rest and rehydrate.
That night, we had the option to either stay at base and continue resting or go to Penhop. The Penang House of Prayer had a “worship with the word” session tonight. The worship band sang through scripture and played many other worship songs during this time. Revelation 19:5-7 & 11-13 was the chosen scripture. It was a great time to fill up on God’s word and be in his presence.
Outreach is in full force! Wednesday morning we served at Kawan. Kawan is a Christian organization that serves the homeless Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. It started 5 years ago and is booming today. Kawan opens at 10:00am and serves breakfast (coffee and buttered bread) until 11:30ish. During this time a bible study is held. There is also a room upstairs with mats for the men and women to rest. Showers are available as well with soap and places to wash clothing. After breakfast is lunch and then cleanup.
The majority of homeless people coming in are men. It is hard being a female because you are not allowed to sit at a table with the opposite sex and talk casually. That can be looked at as scandalous. This makes evangelism difficult. Tore had the opportunity to talk with a table of men. He said it was hard because there was not much to be said. Many of these men have no place to live, no job, no family and lots of broken hurts. Pray that God continues to soften hearts.
Tonight we went back to Kawan for Wednesday night evangelism. There were about 25 of us (the YWAM group, the World Race group and the Kawan staff). All of us broke into smaller groups between 4 and 7 people. I went with the car that drove to the “red light” district of Georgetown. They Kawan staff only brought two of us because their relationships with the prostitutes are close and bringing in many outsiders can turn them off. The hour and a half was spent talking to many women. We walked down an alley way where nearly a dozen women were sitting, waiting for men to come. They guys drove on scooters through the small alleyway. It was so busy and chaotic. This is one of those times where I just way to God, “ok, Lord, I need your words and heart right now.” A few of us were able to pray with the women and talk a bit about Jesus and how he loves them so much.
The other evangelism groups spread out down the whole of Chulia street (one of the busier places in Georgetown). Sophie had a great conversation with a man Tey for most of the night and Tore shared about Jesus to a Chinese man Vri and prayed for him as well! There were many stories like these from the other Kawan and World Race people. God was definitely stirring the pot tonight.
From Thursday to Monday, the team left for a 5 day trip to the main land. We met with Auntie Janet, her husband Joshua and her friends Joshua, Candy and Isaac. Each day was packed. Some nights we would get home from ministry around 2am then leave the same morning by 8am. There was no time to rest.
Thursday night we went to an orphanage, acted out stories from the bible, sang songs, played games and loved on the children there. Friday we worked with special needs children and helped in their classrooms. We also sang them songs and acted out biblical stories. That afternoon we drove nearly 5 hours into the jungle. Jeff preached, and Andy shared his testimony. We gave food to the people there, prayed for them, danced, sang and just had fun together. They are people who have been rejected by society, so they fled to the jungle to escape this discrimination. A lot of unforgiveness is in their hearts.
On Saturday we went on a tour to the tin mines with Auntie Janet and all of her friends. There were 4 cars full of people. After that we drove into a different jungle where more of the “native” people live. The majority of them are young. Thirteen-year-old girls are usually all married and have 1-2 kids already. They don’t really know how to fend for themselves and practically fought us while we tried to hand out food and clothes to them. We attempted to get them to participate in singing songs and learn some type of obedience for food and clothing, but they were so impatient and the language barrier made it even harder. It was difficult to see such desperation. We found one of the members in town after leaving the jungle. He was bitten badly on his foot by something in the jungle and we got to pray for him. He asked if we could drive him back into the jungle to be with his people. One of Auntie Janet’s friends is a pastor and she was able to share the gospel with him a bit. He and his wife wanted to get baptized. So after driving them back into the jungle, Jeromy and Joshua and the pastor all helped baptize he and his wife. Such a memorable experience!
Sunday was church. Andy, Thor, Janie and Sophie did a few worship songs for the church to experience “western church” worship. I shared my testimony with the church and after we all ate lunch together. That afternoon we went to an old folks home. We sang them songs, prayed for those that wanted it and danced. Haha! Our team really likes dancing. That night we drove back to the island for the Chinese church. Holy smokes! What en experience. The church had an incredible anointing of the Holy Spirit. Everyone was speaking in tongues and had radical faith. We worshipped for hours and ended up leaving after midnight. There was definitely a lot to think about spiritually after that night. I don’t think most of us went to sleep until 3am. Monday morning was our last day of ministry on the main land. We went to the HIV/AIDS house to hangout with the residents and eat lunch. They enjoyed playing games and we learned a few new ones. This organization has been going for years and is slowly progressing. They are able to house 20 residents, which is HUGE! So praise God for that and all the help they are giving to those with HIV.
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Prayer points: Adjustment to the heat. Awareness to our surroundings and a constant hedge of protection (the melting pot of religions is a constant battlefield for spiritual warfare). Safety on the streets, energy as we serve in the heat at Kawan, that God would give us his heart for the lost. Sickness (Sophie has been sick since Queenstown, Jeff and Tack are feeling bad, and we got super sunburned on Tuesday).
