Hey Family!
I have so much to catch you up on and I’m excited to update you all on what God has been doing!
Before we left for Malaysiaaa, we had a domestic ministry in Macon, Mississippi, followed by a week of debriefing back at base camp! While in Mississippi, we stayed in a house run by a sweet Mennonite lady named Rachel. She was the sweetest lady ever and came by almost every night with cookies! Then we had our host, Keith, who runs the Native American ministries for Adventures in Missions, showed us around the town where we would be serving. I personally did some labor work at one of the two churches, helping paint their new sanctuary. We also spent a day at the local Choctaw Native American reservation, where we played with the local kids and adults. I got the pleasure of playing with the sweet kids in the park and joining in a game of football. 🙂 Before we left, we attended the Choctaw church, where we sang hymns and enjoyed a nice potluck lunch together. When we returned to Georgia, we debriefed on the domestic ministry to reflect and rest on all that we learned and did while there. Leaving Macon, Mississippi, was bittersweet, but it was a great learning experience that provided valuable perspective on our future ministry work.
After spending my last day in the States packing and cleaning (and eating Sour Patch Kids 😋), we embarked on my first ever trip out of the country! This included a thirteen-and-a-half-hour plane ride with a three-hour layover, followed by a seven-and-a-half-hour flight, and then a six-hour bus drive that finally brought our squad to Malaysia. We haven’t even been here for a week, and I already have so much to tell you!
Our host’s name is Pastor Thomas, or PT for short (see the 1st picture below). He is such a caring and loving man of God who runs the church we are serving at. This church is also our home for the next few weeks. Due to limited space, our whole squad stays in the main sanctuary (see the 2nd picture below). Praise God it has AC! Pastor Thomas and his church community have been incredibly kind, providing us with all our meals—like chicken with rice and curry—and helping us get around town to cafes and stores, where we can access WiFi.
Church services are every Friday night, and we got to attend our first one. I loved it! The setup is mostly like our church services back in America, but they have an hour of worship with dancers and tambourines. We discovered that they don’t plan an end time, which wasn’t an issue until it hit midnight (they started at 8 PM) and people were still in the room where I sleep (lol). We’ve spent a lot of this first week adjusting to how things are run here!
If you don’t already know, Malaysia is probably 90% Muslim, so Christianity is not common here. It’s also considered a 10/40 window country, meaning it is one of the most unreached places. I’m really excited to see what God does while we are here! We start ministry work on Monday, October 14th, where we will be teaching refugee kids English from Monday through Wednesday, 9 am to 12 pm. This is only the beginning, and I’m excited to keep updating you. Please pray for the Muslim people in Malaysia and that God would present opportunities to spread His gospel since, technically, we are not allowed to convert Muslims legally.
Thanks for the travel prayers and for reading!
~Jaylynn K
Mr. PT!
Katar Airport!
Our sanctuary!
