For those who don’t know me and are just checking out this blog, I’m Melissa Gee and I’m so excited to be going to Malaysia! I’m also very tired because of the business of the weekend. There were so many graduations for my fellow seniors as well as their graduation parties. So I’m going on very little sleep now. I’m sitting on the plane right now typing this even though I was supposed to write this yesterday. But I was last minute packing so I didn’t have a chance to type this before I got too tired. And now there are people sleeping, watching movies, and babies crying around me. But I still feel very blessed to be here.

 

I feel very anxious for this trip because I know teaching is not my strongest point and that I can be quite awkward. Even so I know God has prepared me with the gifts I need in order to be successful on this mission trip. God has taught me that I can’t possibly know all the information on the subject of pluralism (world religions) and that I can’t plan on being the best teacher there ever was, but I do intend on co-teaching a workshop with Rebecca Lee that is full of information that hopefully will be beneficial to the campers. Since this isn’t my first time actually going to Malaysia (my mother’s family lives there) I feel at ease knowing that I will be familiar place. Also the fact that my mother is coming with me on this trip is helpful. One thing that I’m nervous about is the actual camp. Wondering if the campers are actually going to listen to my lesson or if they’re just going to give me blank stares at everything I teach them.

 

I’m praying that they will be receptive to the message that we are teaching them. I am praying that the Holy Spirit moves in the people and that I am just a messenger and be able to give them the resources that they need to continue growing in their relationship with Christ. I hope that you all can pray for me and the group for our safety and just being able to build a relationship with these people and hopefully grow together. Also that Rebecca and I can use all the knowledge and wisdom that God has given us and that we have been studying for the past months] to teach the campers. I sincerely appreciate the people that are reading this and that are supporting us on this trip! Thank you!

 

- Melissa

 

This week has been joyous and tiring due to jetlag and a slight culture shock and honestly, at this point I’m having a really hard time understanding the kids here in Malaysia. Today was the first day for camp, and it was quite exciting getting to know all the youth here and just learning their standing point of how they see life and their views affected by their culture. It opened my eyes to see that there’s so much more to be done out there in the world. In America, we tend to be so selfish and take advantage of freedom of religion. Coming here, I realized how strict the barriers are when it comes to evangelizing, it makes me sad to know there is a fear to evangelize. I really pray God convicts them to evangelize, and have the courage to trust God even when it may be hard.  One thing I’m very worried about is being able to speak to the kids and allowing them to understand what I’m trying to portray, especially because they have a hard time answering some of the questions we brought up. Although they have a hard time understanding my viewpoints due to my lack of sleep and somewhat lack of comprehension, I still feel like they don’t exactly understand what the gospel is or honestly have a huge apathy towards God. Yes, they know all the church answers, but I don’t think they understand what it is like to actually worship a God because they truly want to and have joy from it.

 

However, its been great getting to know all these kids. They are all very intelligent and loving kids, but I just pray that by the end of camp, they truly understand what it means to be a Christian and what the gospel really is. I hope and pray that they’ll understand how important it is to acquire a relationship with our Almighty God. Thank you for putting your time into reading this and supporting us, if you could just pray for me to be a good small group and workshop leader that I will have confidence teaching the kids in my group and that God gives me wisdom and knowledge to speak. Also, pray for me that I’ll be able to stay awake and alert during camp. Once again, thank you so much for supporting us and reading our blogs! (=

 

- Avina

 

Gospel Things: Our prayer leaving and entering this trip was that the Gospel of Jesus Christ might be taught and proclaimed with clarity and confidence. I wish you were here with us to partner in doing this. We've seen God move in some profound, but discreet ways. We constantly preach the gospel to ourselves...that we might remember why we're here and esp. in the middle of the hard parts of this trip we remember the Cross, we remember what we get to do in light of it. We remember that we represent you guys in proclaiming the gospel here while you do it there. We are constantly preaching the Gospel to the students and leaders here...but it's hard at times. We're trying to gauge the soil on which these gospel seeds fall on but we still trust that God is all wise and powerful. You should extremely proud of our CBC guys...not only have they spent countless hours prepping beforehand but any time they get here they study and prep before the next session. They talk it through with each other and they encourage each other. I'm more than honored to have this team with me ministering next to me.

 

It's crazy humid here...like 3 showers a day. Rice every meal and we just use spoons. More stories coming.

 

Prayer: the work is slowly taking its toll on us. I think the combination of physical exhausting (cbc kids, you don't understand the rigor of camp till you go on this on), emotional drainage (counseling, trying to teach and equip, being active and in good spirits), and just the different foods...we're all hurting a bit. Pray for rebecca and aly right now esp. i think they're just physically exhausted so reb. is taking half day off. A lot of us are just trying to get through the day. It's fun and great ministry but it's still hard. Pray for these students here though....they've been trained not to really learn for themselves and don't like to ask questions. Pray that their faith instead of using just a mental exercise. Pray for me, i have 3 more sermons left and they run a good hour plus. Just pray for the team that they might get some joy in the middle of this trip. Pray for our team that they might draw deeper and experience Jesus deeper.

 

Can't wait to see you guys...but we got work to do here. Until then...we'll be faithful here, you be faithful there.

 

- Justin