As I’m sitting here typing away trying to sort through all the emotions and experiences from my latest trip to Malaysia, never have I experienced God move so strategically in individual’s lives than on this past trip…He even started before I thought the actual “trip” began.
On the flight over, normally I’d zone out in my iPod, a good book, or a movie but this time I sat in the middle right next to a talkative and shockingly open guy about his life. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll call him Eugene. I found out that Eugene is originally from England, is 22 years old, has been living in Thailand for the past year of his life, was in the Philippines to get his divers license, and is currently attempting to get back to Thailand and become a diving instructor. Since he was SO open in sharing all this with me, I guess he felt the right to know about me and so he began to ask me questions: What brought you to Manila? Why are you going to Malaysia? How long have you been in Manila/stay in Malaysia? The normal friendly talk, but after these generic questions he began to ask why I do what I do? – Why am I a missionary? – After explaining my story of what God has done in my life to get me to this point in life, he then began asking about thoughts on religion and spirituality, knowing God, the way to heaven, and ultimately how someone would accept the love of Jesus for themselves? This was not the type of conversation I was expecting to have on a flight to Malaysia, yet I was able to share with him how to make Jesus part of his life and that it’s a free gift of love that God gave to us. He seemed very responsive to what I shared with him about God. We then parted ways at immigration and the Malaysian experience began.
Driving to the guesthouse that we were staying at, I heard the call to prayer as well as seeing eloquent looking mosques one right after another. Throughout the majority of the trip, it was an adjustment for me learning about the culture, different ethnicities and their religions represented in the nation, as well as the structure of the Christian churches/organizations within the nation. It was not only an eye-opening experience but it was also a good challenging experience for me personally. As a group, we met with leaders who genuinely care about the youth and their spirituality and we interviewed them to gain insight on the youth from their perspective. Separate from these leaders, we also conducted focus groups with the youth themselves to hear from them what were the things youth their age face, deal with, and simply their ideas about life. A few focus groups stuck out to me because of the discussions that occurred afterwards.
Two instances, I had youth come up to me after the focus group to share with me more about common issues they face in life…but what made these talks stand out to me more than the group discussion we held were the depth and sincerity of these students faith. Some didn’t know if they were doing enough or how they could do more, and what they should do when faced with opposition spiritually. There are some restrictions that other religions have here, and to hear these students desire to do more or simply to share in light of that blew my mind away. I didn’t know what to say specifically when they asked if they were doing enough…but God was again faithful to provide an answer. I encouraged these youth that the fight all of us are fighting isn’t a physical fight, and while some may use words or actions we’re not always asked to retaliate the same way. Even though it’s not a physical fight – it is a spiritual fight - we are not defenseless, we can fight through prayer. God is the only authority over the world, and He can either change circumstances or sustain us through it. I was then able to pray with these youth and to stand alongside of them in prayer, fighting with them for these needs they face.
Beyond the research with interviews and focus groups, others in the team were also given the opportunity to talk with our cab driver, who has become a transportation contact while in country. Similar to my experience on the plane, this cab driver was questioning about his faith, spirituality, and genuine encounters with God. Not only were they able to answer his questions and share with him the Good News, before we all left Malaysia we were able to give him a book for him to read and discover for himself who God is.
After such an experience, hearing and seeing those who have a strong/deep faith I was left with this question that was first posed to me 5 years ago by a good friend of mine: “What more can you do?” So now I’ll ask you as well, “What more can you do?”
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