Malaysia

Hi! Our time in Sungai Petani, Malaysia wrapped up… a while ago. Time went by extremely fast there, possibly due to the busyness nature of our days. Despite the full schedule, time there felt deeply intentional, and I truly appreciated sharing these experiences with our entire squad. Here’s an overview of our time in SP and some of what I learned along the way.

Teaching Ministry:

Our main focus had been teaching English—similar to what we did in Bangkok. However, in SP, it carried more weight because the students (around 60) were refugee children from Myanmar who weren’t allowed to attend public schools in Malaysia. This meant the school we were at was their only source of formal education.

It was a serious responsibility, and at times, it was tough—there were language barriers, short attention spans, and kids who weren’t always interested in sitting still. Thankfully, we had support from another squad, which helped make the environment more manageable and allowed for more one-on-one interaction. It was also really encouraging to watch teammates like Lillie and Mandy naturally step into teaching roles and do awesome.

I mainly worked with two young girls, ages 5 and 7, who I stayed with from day one. They were sweet, super energetic, and… easily distracted. They reminded me of how my best friend Nicole and I were as kids—super giggly, mischievous, and always using our cuteness to get away with things. Teaching them required a lot of patience and creativity. There were days when it felt like nothing was clicking, but over time, I started to see small improvements, which was so encouraging. It reminded me that progress doesn’t always look dramatic, but it still matters.

Beyond teaching, we also made it a point to love the kids well, especially since we didn’t always know what their home lives were like. Some of the boys were extremely rough at times—quick to hit and punch each other, and sometimes even get physical with the girls. It was important for us to remember where that behavior might be coming from and to find a balance between loving them and correcting them. Michael and Brice did an amazing job modeling that in our classroom.

When teams like ours weren’t there, there is only one teacher, Jessica, who bounces between the three classrooms. Jessica is incredible! While we were there, she didn’t teach; but oversaw all of us, coordinated rides, brought us food, and basically took care of us like a big sister. There was a stretch where several of us got sick, and she quickly got us soup and medicine. We grew very close by the end, and I miss her so much. Building close relationships abroad can be bittersweet, but I’m hopeful to see her again—we’ve stayed in touch.

In the final weeks before we left, she admitted she wasn’t looking forward to returning to teaching alone. It’s hard to find teachers since the position isn’t paid, and most people only come temporarily. Just a week before we left, a woman named Lydia visited the church from a nearby city and agreed to stay and teach for two months, it all worked out so beautifully.

Jess and a drawing I did for her on her bday.

The girls– giving Nicole and I circa 2008 lol.

Boys’ Brigade

On Fridays, the Boys’ Brigade (BB) occurred where we lived at the Education Center. Here they do Christian teachings and activities. There were a lot of people and students who attend, and it got chaotic at times. I mostly floated around and went where I was needed. I didn’t teach at the Boys’ Brigade, but my squadmates did. I’ve watched the little kids because I noticed they needed some help, and I spent lots of time outside with the elders. They loved to talk and feed me 🙂 I would go outside for tea or coffee and always end up staying a lot longer than I anticipated. I got to learn a lot about them, how they used to also attend BB when they were younger, and how much it has advanced since then. We also would talk a lot about food, and I would get to share my passion about sustainable, healthy food, and they also shared their thoughts and taught me about their traditional food. 

Pekaka Workshop & Cafe

BB is also where we met Jason! A very social, kind, and loving boy with Down Syndrome. Amanda got to know him better and found out that his mother had just founded a cafe that employs adults with intellectual disabilities. From this interaction, we got to start working with his mom and their start-up cafe two days a week. What started as a small partnership grew into a dedicated group effort to help the cafe flourish. The space holds so much promise; it was truly exciting to be part of its growth and be able watch their progresses on Facebook. 

Amanda took the lead on organizing things—she’s amazing at identifying people’s strengths and assigning them roles that fit their unique gifts. She handled much of the logistical and financial planning and teamed up with Sarah to develop a business plan. Sarah, with her background in business and skills as a pastry chef, brought structure, fresh ideas, and a creative vision for the cafe’s future, including the menu, supplies, and more.

Alex was also there most of the time and spent a good deal of time with the adults with intellectual disabilities. She has such a heart for them and is so natural at spending time and communicating with them, it was so pure and amazing to watch! She also has a background in graphic design and designed a poster template for them to help spread the business around town. 

And there’s me! When Amanda first visited the cafe, she came to me and exclaimed how there were so many open walls and great opportunities for a mural, so that is what I spent a lot of my time doing towards the end of our time in Malaysia. I was very excited for the opportunity, and it was a cool experience, but a little more complicated than I expected. It was different from any other art project I’ve done because 1–it is much bigger, but mainly 2– it was not for me or under my control. For this mural, I had to surrender a lot of myself, my artistic style/ what I would normally do. Finding a balance between my opinions, what could be accomplished in our limited time frame, and the staff at the cafe was a journey to navigate. It was stressful at times, but the girls and even the people at the bakery were super supportive and kind.

Areonah also so graciously helped me paint and it was such a sweet time we got to spend together, in addition with the other girls; we chatted and listened to music while we worked. I could not have gotten it completed without her! From this experience, a good verse to sum up what I learned is Ephesians 4:2 — “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” I had to hold my opinions in humility, respond in gentleness, be patient with their ideas, and most importantly, lead with love in every decision. 

  Albert teaching me how to make a latte.

Night Church

Every Friday night, we attended our host, Pastor Thomas’ (PT), church, Bethel Assembly Church, in the same space as the refugee school. In Malaysia, there are three main races of people: Malay, Indian, and Chinese. Pastor Thomas and most of the people at the church were Indian and speak mainly Tamil. Most of the service was in Tamil, but sometimes it was in English, or there was a translator. It was cool to see how their culture poured out into their church service. This is a little bit of how it looked: 

It started at 8 pm and went from anywhere between 11,12, or even 1 am. It was a smaller space, but it was packed with people and was a tight-knit community. We got to borrow traditional Indian clothes/ dresses for the girls. The service started with a lively and loud worship for about an hour. Some of the girls would tambourine dance. Jess taught us girls a routine that we got to perform on our last service, which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would.

The pastor(s) would speak, read, or incorporate people/children in sermons. At the end, sometimes there was food or cake if it was somebody’s birthday. It was common for us and other people to hang around for a bit. There were also so many children and babies, which I thought was super interesting– how active they were considering the hours, but it was fun play with them. Baby Jason was a crowd favorite.

Something PT shared with us is that hosting us has kindled relations with nearby, or not-so-nearby, churches. It was cool to see them intertwine, and we got to split up sometimes and attend and run different ones. For example, one church required spicy food eaters, so I attended that one. Sarah played guitar, Coby set up the sound stuff, Michael gave a sermon, and Alex, John, and I gave testimonies and/or encouraging messages. Another time, Michael, Alex, Sarah, and I attended one where they said we would give testimonies. We ended up running the whole service, which was a fun surprise. Sarah got on the guitar, and we sang a few songs, Michael gave the message, we all gave a testimony, and I gave an encouraging message at the end.

Debrief

After each country, we have a debrief where we all gather and debrief lol. A time to reflect on what we did well, what we can grow in, and prepare for our next location. We held this one in Kuala Lumpur, which I absolutely loved. It was such a beautiful balance of nature and city.

Our leaders made it fun by turning team reveals into a scavenger hunt. We were paired up, given riddles that led us to key locations, and ultimately ended up at the second-largest building in the world (Merdeka 118)! We all met up and walked to a lunch spot. There, we used personality cards the leaders made to match ourselves into our new teams. It was such a thoughtful and creative reveal. In addition, we also learned about each other’s roles here. 

My new role is called Beauty for Ashes. The vision of Beauty for Ashes is: 

• “To find freedom, women need to first share the truth of their stories… The truly courageous person will venture into the dark realm of pain to unlock the doors that secrets have slammed shut. We need a generation of courageous women to step forward and show their nation how to tell their stories.” 

This was actually my best friend Alex’s previous role. We had both met one of the founders, Betty, back in January and took a class on how to host a retreat/event. Knowing we’d likely be split in the next country, we soaked up every moment of our final days in SP and Kuala Lumpur together. This role transition gave us more time to prepare and spend time together 🙂 

Merdeka 118.

At the Moment

My team, Michael (team leader), Jessie (previous squad leader), Abby (soon to be SQL), Amanda (logistics), Mandy (treasurer), Aaron (social media), Lillie, and I are now in Angeles, Philippines working with a ministry called, Wipe Every Tear. They focus on providing opportunities and “outs” for women sex trafficked, working at the Red-Light District. They are also closely related to Church So Blessed (CSB), where we get to do many other opportunities such as prison ministry (boys only), rehab programs, hospital outreaches, tribe outreaches, working with children with special needs, and more. *Um spoiler alert: we’re actually all done here in the Philippines. Opportunities were abundant here, hopefully I’ll come around to write another blog soon eek, but for now thank you for reading this far! <3 I am currently still fundraising and if you’d like to help support you can click the link here!