Mini Vacation and Campus!

Piggybacking off of Tiana’s idea, I’ve made a new list of accomplishments:

Ben: Ben had tea with a stranger at the train station.
Kyle: Ate a whole sack of oatmeal
Brendan: Learned the secret of walking on water at the resort
Doug: Went for a very refreshing run. He just didn’t realize it would be a spectator sport!
Tim: Got juggled in a barrel on the feet of a Chinese acrobat
Tiana: Encouraged the girls to take Psalm 119:62 literally in the boy’s room at midnight. (Yes, the boy’s retaliated appropriately)
Lydia: Helped pick out flowers for Keng Yin that apparently is a symbol of death.
Cynthia: Got stung multiple times by a huge jungle insect.

The training program officially ended last Wednesday. Since then we have had a good rest punctuated by intense periods of work. After the training program we were given 3 days of vacation at a different resort nearby. The resort was very nice. It was high up in the hills and surrounded by tropical rainforest. All 8 of us fit into one apartment rental. Before we arrived Keng Yin took us grocery shopping. We survived for 3 days on instant noodles, eggs, and crackers! The resort was a little bit like Disney world. It had a whole French village and a Japanese Tea Garden. A shuttle service took us from place to place in this giant complex. The resort was beautiful! Each morning we woke up to a cacophony of monkeys hooting and howling. Although our time there was very restful we also got a lot of logistics and administrative work done. The first night we returned to Petaling Jaya we hit the ground running! We were up until 3 am one night preparing for a meeting that we presented to our friends about the training program.

The house we are staying at is getting quite crowded! Brian joins us later this week and another Malaysian roommate has joined us. With so many housemates, Keng Yin has graciously offered to let Cynthia, Lydia, and Tiana stay with her. They will be staying in an apartment below Keng Yin’s that she hopes to eventually rent to new students once we leave. Keng Yin lives a few blocks away from the house where the guys are staying.

Yesterday we went to the campus for the first time! All of us were a bit nervous about what it would look like for such out-of-place looking Americans to meet new Malaysian students. Trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, we split up into pairs or threes and went to various cafeterias on campus. It turns out our fears were unfounded. The students here are so friendly and welcoming! We were able to meet many different people and invite them to the various activities we have planned for the first week. Today we were also on campus meeting new students. The Malaysian students with the ministry have been partnering with us fully and have been showing us around and initiating new relationships as well. We get to and from campus using taxis or our friends drive us.

There might not be many pictures for awhile! It’s a little too conspicuous to bring my camera to campus.

Prayer Requests:
1.) Please pray that many students would get plugged in through the American Food Night on Thursday night.
2.) Please pray that we would meet many freshmen (called Freshies here J )
3.) Please pray that we would meet more males who can be equipped for leadership
4.) Praise God for the continued support of our friends and supporters here!
5.) Please pray for continued ease getting onto campus through the gate though we are not students
6.) Please pray that each of us would have great wisdom in our speech. That we would only speak when prompted and that our mouth would close when prompted.