Hey again!! Another week gone... :) Malaysia has been amazing!! I think this week has been one of my favorites. The weather has been ridiculously hot and humid…it’s sick. Lol! I think this has been some of the most intense humidity I’ve ever experienced in my life. Tonight (Sunday), we went to eat by the sea and I could literally feel the water around me. Gross. ;) It is nice, though, to actually have an opportunity to be warm instead of constantly cold. My outreach team has found it amusing that I’m always cold and they now automatically offer me their jackets and sweatshirts because they know I would always want them. But I can happily say that I don’t have that problem here. Ha!

So back to the week…we got to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday and traveled the four hours by bus to Penang. We got to the YWAM base and carried our luggage up the lovely seven flights of stairs :S. We spent that evening just relaxing and getting settled in. Wednesday was our free day/orientation. Penang is an extremely interesting city—there are numerous people groups located in the area. The main ones are Indian, Chinese and Malay which makes for some AMAZING food!! On Wednesday, a YWAM staff member took us to his favorite Indian restaurant. It was one of the most incredible meals I’ve ever had!! Our plate was a banana leaf and we got a portion of rice with a couple of different sauces, sweet potato, okra and a portion of meat. I had mutton and it was so tasty. The best part was that we ate it all with our hands-so amusing!! :) Besides an incredible food selection, there’s also quite a spread of religions. On the tour of the city we got we visited a mosque, a Hindu temple and a Chinese temple. Malaysia is about 52% Muslim with only 8% Christian. All of the different religions definitely create a stronghold over this area.

Thursday was our first day of ministry. We started out with some street evangelism around the base—we mostly went to the temples. Then in the afternoon, we got to play floorball (basically floor hockey). It’s pretty new to Malaysia still, but the church we worked with this week, Gateway City Church, is starting a sports ministry that emphasizes floorball. In the evening, we went to a park and evangelized to people who were exercising or hanging out there. Friday was more floorball and then a prayer meeting at the church. Saturday we got up and did some more evangelism at the park, played futsal (indoor soccer) and even more floorball! Lol! Needless to say, we have all been exhausted this whole week. :D On Saturday evening, we were able to do a skit and share a couple testimonies and a word with the kids we were playing sports with so that was a lot of fun.

Today was our last day of ministry and I went with part of our team to a Methodist church here in the city. We went to the 9:00a service because we were supposed to be back at the base at noon, but then we discovered that we didn’t have to be back, so we stayed for the contemporary service at 11:00…which turned out to be basically the same service. Ha! We had a little bit of free time after lunch and then left for the Gateway service at 4:00. We got to spend some time there at the church and went out to eat afterward with some of the members of the church and the people we had worked with. I can’t believe I’m leaving tomorrow!! I’ve really loved our ministry and time here and wish I could stay longer…I really enjoy the atmosphere and the busyness of Penang. One of my favorite parts (and it could be just because I’ve missed it for so long) is that even at 10:00 at night, there are still things going on and people out and about. In Australia and Africa, everything has shut down by 5:00. It’s sad! Haha. I also love the diversity of the city—how there are so many different types of people, activities, foods, etc. It’s incredible. If you ever get a chance to come to southeast Asia, make sure you stop in Penang—it’s amazing! :D

Tomorrow my team is headed up north to Perlis where we’ll be for about 5 days. I think it’s more of a rural area so we’ll have to see what type of ministry we’ll be doing. It’s also a mostly Muslim area so I’m excited to see what types of things God has planned for us there. Continue to pray for strength and energy for me and the rest of my team as well as soft hearts to be able to hear God and His plans clearly. I miss you all and think of you…

Love and prayers,
Rachel