This was our first pioneering country and quite truthfully I was really looking forward to it! I loved the thought of landing in a strange country with no plans, no contacts, no clue about anything really and to be in a position where we had to rely on God and seek His will for our time there. Being somewhere where it wasn’t a simple matter of arriving at a ministry point where GCEX had already set up relationships but forming new ones…and boy did He not disappoint!
We flew to the Island of Borneo to a city called Kota Kinabalu where we booked into a backpackers late one night. I really love backpackers and youth hostels as it gives you the opportunity to meet and chat with people from all over the world. Many people in the team had the opportunity to share the Gospel with some of these travellers.
We also visited a tropical island called Sapi Island which was crazy beautiful. We rented snorkelling gear and it was cool to swim amongst all the tropical fish. We also took a walk around the island and were chilling on a secluded beach when we heard something running at us from the forest behind us. It was a huge komodo dragon and I will admit that I nearly screamed like a little girl;-)
Looking back I am still in awe of how God moved and blessed us so abundantly. We were very clearly led to get involved with a Catholic Church across the street from where we stayed. Initially there was a bit of hesitation from quite a few people (myself included) as getting involved with a Catholic Church was definitely something that I had not expected or bargained for…
The first night we were there we simply wanted to book a room in which we as a team could worship and pray together. Afterwards Thuli and I were led by the sound of electric guitars and drums to a youth band practice and it instantly felt like I was back home with my youth group and just being in the company of young people seemed to energise me.
Afterwards we joined a worship service in the main hall and I kept thinking to myself, “Is this really a Catholic Church?” The way they worshipped was so passionate, Spirit filled and focused on Jesus which seemed to go against everything I had been told of the Catholic Church. And so began a huge lesson for me on stereotyping and I was reminded that on the final judgement day Jesus is not going to ask whether you were Protestant or Catholic or Methodist or Baptist or Charismatic but rather did we know Him, love Him and have a relationship with Him? (Matthew 7:21-23) And I was reminded that striving for unity in the body of Christ is so vital (John 17:20-23) and I feel many positive steps were taken during our time there.
I really enjoyed the opportunities we had for ministry there. We got involved with the young adults group, the Chinese church and one of the youth groups. We shared testimonies, did drama’s, preached and worshipped together. It was also really encouraging when people would share how one of our testimonies really touched their hearts or how what some of us went through previously is exactly what they are facing currently.
(Some of the young adults we fellowshipped with)
(Some of them treated me like Justin Bieber which I really enjoyed;-)
But wow looking back I still can’t believe how much we were blessed and spoilt by our new friends. Nearly every night was action packed where we would be blessed with meals and different activities and most nights we would get back after 12 ;-) And we would often be surprised when one of them would stop by during the day and bless us with a meal randomly and we would have awesome times just chilling and laughing together. We were also stunned when gift offerings were taken up on more than one occasion which assisted us greatly in our next country to buy some very expensive train tickets. It blew my mind that God was providing for our team before we even realised there was a need.
The one Saturday we were taken for coconut jelly and then taken to a beautiful 5 star resort to watch the sunset. Afterwards we shared something like a 9 course meal at a local restaurant place (including crab, prawns and sea snails). The one day was a public holiday so some of our friends picked us up early and treated us to so many croissants that we struggled finishing it (anybody who has done Global will know that that is A LOT of croissants;-) Immediately afterwards we were taken to a trendy restaurant and blessed with lunch (I had an octopus and ginger pizza which was amazing!) One of the girls couldn’t finish her meat dish either so I was so thankful that it was supernaturally ordained that I would be sitting next to her to help her solve this dilemma ;-) We also played speed uno and mafia which was hilarious. That night we were then taken to a Chinese restaurant where we were once again faced with consuming huge quantities of food (including stingray which was awesome). We were then taken to a local beach where we chilled and played ninja Malaysian style :-)
But I think two highlights for me was the one Sunday night we met for worship in one of the upper rooms and it was such an intimate time with God where everything else just faded away and it was all about Him! We realised later that there was something like 10 distinctly different cultures (let alone all our different backgrounds) but this didn’t matter as all our hearts joined together in worshipping this amazing God that is a consuming fire.
But everything seemed to come together our final night in Kota Kinabalu. We were invited to have supper at someone's house and afterwards we spent some time just chatting about our time there and how God brought it all together. It was just amazing that the more we thanked them for blessing us that they would respond firstly that we must thank God because it was from Him, and secondly that we had blessed them even more just by being there and that our sudden appearance was so evidently orchestrated by God and we had encouraged them to continue the good fight. I think Lume explained it best when she compared our time there to a local type of delicious bread spread called kaia (which we still crave because its sooooooo good:-), where she said that bread by itself is ok and kaia by itself is ok but when the two come together it becomes VERY YUMMY:-) And that is exactly how I feel the Church should operate that when we meet together under Christ’s love that each part brings something to the table which can be used to benefit and bless the other parts and when this happens it becomes a VERY YUMMY experience for all involved.
But alas we had to say our goodbyes (amidst some tears) and fly back to Kuala Lumpur. Some of us spent the day exploring KL and seeing things like the twin towers and the KL tower. We left Malaysia thankful for what God had done there but aware that China would be a totally different experience.
(HAHA!!!)
LLL
J