OUTREACH

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MALAYSIA

2 Month Missions Work

During my Lecture Phase in Australia, I had 1 day to choose where I would be going for the last two months of the discipleship training school. My options were Detroit, Japan, Philippines, Australia, Europe, or Malaysia. After a long and quite stressful day of prayer, I finally (obviously) chose Malaysia. Of the 50 people on my school, 9 others had chosen Malaysia as well making us a team of 10! Although it was sad saying goodby to the other 40 people of the school as they journeyed off to the other countries for 2 months, this expereince was the most impactful experience of my life. While the lecture phase in Australia was a lot of soaking in information, outreach in Malaysia really showed to how to apply that information:

How to put God first in everything you do. even if its just walking to get the daily kopi Peng (iced coffee).

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How to love one another, even after being with the same 10 people for 2 months straight.

How to be bold. Malaysia was a primarily muslim country, and although not closed, we were at risk of legal issues because of our beliefs

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During our 2 months there, we did a variety of things. Some days were consumed by farming at local vanilla, mushroom, chili pepper, or whatever other farms they needed help on. I learned a lot about how to grow mushrooms incase you're interested. Other times we would spend a weekend or week in a village interacting with the people and helping out at their churches. Many of us, including myself, actually had the opportunity to preach on a Sunday. The sermons were ones we wrote during our lecture phase. 

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One of my favorite parts of Malaysia was the people. We stayed in a college hostel and befriended many young college students that lived on our floor. We taught one friend Leo how to use a camera and some girls showed us how to cook local Malay food! I will forever be grateful for the owners of the restaurant below us who always welcomed us with a BIG wave and BIG smile. They brought us back into their kitchen and showed us how they cooked the food, taught me how to make iced coffee, and helped us learn a little bit of the local language. By the end of our time there were tears streaming for every single person as we had to part ways with all of our new friends. Our flight left at 2 in the morning but that didn't stop them from seeing us out. 

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This time taught me what truly matters in life. The relationships we have and experiencing life together. I was able to see life with little, and life with a lot. I found that life with little, although technically speaking was "inconvenient", it had much more joy. Why was that? As I began searching for the answer it became clear that the little "inconveniences" of life--having to walk to get water, hand cook and cut every meal-- were the times where I was able to engage most with the people around me. This led to a year long journey of learning to appreciate the in-between moments. It ultimately became the theme of my 2019 year and the biggest lesson God taught me. Life isn't about how many places you can travel, how many things you can acquire, the mountain top moments. Its about the people you are with and the relationships you have with them. I go more in depth on this is my year recap video 2019 the Inbetween .

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I am extremely grateful for my time in Malaysia and it continues to impact the way I look at life daily.