Outreach, what a crazy and exciting time in which I was able to grow with God in the practical application of what I have learned throughout the lecture phase. In my previous post I told you about Living Waters Village in Indonesia, that is an orphanage and the vessel they are using to bring the gospel message to the remote parts of Indonesia. There we did a lot of work that helps a ministry that is growing so vastly to keep running by doing manual labor work. Then due to us only being able to get a 30 day visa in Indonesia we finished with our last three and a half weeks in Kuching, Malaysia.
In Malaysia we got involved with a youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church, Mervyn. In the beginning we had limited ministry opportunities due to the bad experience they had previously had with a YWAM team. Once we got past the first week though we seemed to get more and more opportunities each and every day as God just really worked through all of us. We were involved mainly with the youth group and it was our greatest chance we had to minister.
With the youth we did several things as each Friday night they had a youth night that ran for about two hours. At this Friday youth gathering they would have a game to start out with to break the ice as several new kids seemed to come each week. We then had worship for about 30 to 45 minutes and after that we would give a message for about 30 minutes. They then finished with prayer and asking those who need prayer to come to the middle and we would pray over them. The issues of their lives were very similar to the ones that I went through in high school. Malaysia is probably the most westernized Asian country so the only thing that is different is that they also mix that in with the Chinese culture their parents come from. The youth there are very in tuned with God and it is amazing to see how they are seeking God with a desperate hunger. Through that hunger you can see how God is really moving in Asia right now and the reason I really feel a calling to go back there as God gave me a heart for them.
We also were able to go to a youth retreat during the school holidays and we got a few more chances to minister to the core group of youth that put on a outreach retreat for about 150 youth that have not yet committed their lives to Christ. During this retreat we stayed in the same rooms as the youth and got a chance to not only just preach to them, but also for them to ask us questions and just to relate to them. Relating is a huge thing in Asia as everything is relationship based and if you are sharing the gospel message or any other message you have to first build a relationship or else your message will hold little to no weight in their lives. We had talks at a primary school, church, Sunday schools, and several other spur of the moment ministry opportunities where we were able to share the gospel and have kids commit their lives to Christ. The rest of the time we spent just hanging out with the different youth over their school holidays going out to eat, going to movies, going to see animals, and just hanging out.
Just to give a little feedback on what we did on outreach I would like to tell you some of the highlights. We saw somewhere around 400 plus salvations over the period of 10 weeks along with several people commit to walking in obedience and actually step out by faith. One of the most remarkable things was huge number of people change their attitude by just seeing us and how we worked or went about our relationships with others. Beyond all these things we poured out a lot of God’s love into several people and gave them encouragement to keep going. The true results of our outreach may never be seen by us, but we will always remember the people and the experiences and we will trust in God to be with each and every one of them for the rest of their lives.
See you all soon as I will be coming home in a matter of a few days.
