Life in Malaysia!

Hii... much love to all. i have had many people ask me when i was going to blog on here...and to be honest i sorta forgot about this thing! so here we go...

Malaysia is great! It is such an awsome place, the people are amazing..so friendly. Malaysia is made up of mainly three people groups, the malays, the chinese, and the indians...so it is a very culture rich place to live. The food is awsome..one of my favourite parts about malaysia so far:) They have everything!! One of my favourite meals is Banana Leaf!! Malaysia is quite hot and tropical, and i am still trying to get use to the heat. It feels wierd having this kind of weather in the September! I'm so use to having fall this time of year. I can only imagine how christmas is going to feel. My school is great and so are the people. In my class there are 9 of us and lots of nations are represented...2 canadians, 2 Americans, 3 chinese from malaysia, and 2 from England . There are other schools going on here at the same time and in those classes, there are people from all of the places i mentioned, plus Indonesia, China, India, and Germany! So yeah, our base is full of people from everywhere and it adds a lot of flavour...dinner time is especially fun when we all gather! I started classes last monday. WE are doing the Kairos course for this week, which is all about God, cultures and world missions. It has been really interesting, but tough because they have taking a semester long course and squished it into one week!

As far as adventure and fun, i have done some pretty cool things since being here. I have had a tour of downtown Georgetown(Penang) and got to see lots of hindu and buddhist temples, and muslim mosks. The streets in the downtown are intense! So many sights and smells. It is crowded because there are many people here, and they drive super fast...not to mention on the left side of the road(still trying to get use to that). They don't really stop at all the stop signs here either which can be scary. They also don't have to wear their seat belt! But it is a really rewarding experience to be amongst all these people, esperiencing there daily lives. The streets are colourful! You will walk down a street and it will be mainly indian, full of sari and punjabi shops, spices shops and indian food(curry is sooo good), hena stalls, bangle(bracelet) stalls, cows....it is just sooo colourful. then you will come into a chinese neighbourhood and the street will be lit with chinese lanterns and it is soo beautiful...again awsome food...it doesn't matter which people group your experiencing here, the food is to die for!

I also got to go to this secluded beach that we had to take a fisherman boat to get to. It was phneominal!! Lush tropical jungles surround the beach..growing on mountianous landscapes! Emrald green water(not everywhere in penang tho), starfish, lots of fish..not all nice! One girl got stung by a jelly fish, but it is acually rare to get stung because they only come at high tide and therefore, people know not to swim then...not us tho, but we now know! It was an awsome day at the beach tho...which ended with a spontaneous time of worship.

They also welcomed us with a 'welcome to malaysia' feast! We all dressed up in traditional malay, chinese or indian dress and had an evening full of great food and entertainment, as well as lots of information given about malaysia and its people. It was I think my favourite time so far, along with the beach day.

On base, there are a bunch of houses that everyone lives in and also there desinated houses for meals, classrooms, prayer times, and so on. I live in a house called Thailand with 2 of my leaders, Andrew and Gretel(from Australia, married), Jayme, another leader, and then 2 other students, both girls. So yeah, a house full of girls and one boy! Good times! All of the houses hanve names of different countries in asia. The community we live in is really nice...it acually backs up into the jungle! But this doesn't mean i live in a small village! I live is a big city, just on the outskirts.

So as you can see, I am absolutely loving it here. I have made some really awsome friends here, that are going to be be lifelong friends! They are soo amazing...and we all share a similar heart to see God move through these nations and to see people blessed! I know God really planned for all of us to be together at this time. We all fit together so perfectly and our personalities match and just flow together! Everyone brings there own unique flavour and cultural background with them, which is the coolest thing in the world. I have also met some other really amazing musicians here and worship is reall good. This one guy, Chor Ee, who is from Penang and is a student leader here, leads worship most of the time for DTS and he is really good! I know we are going to get a long really great!

OK this is long and who kows if anyone even made it this far. I love you and miss you..it's true...even though i am havig this grand adventure, i still mis my home town and family and friends. I miss fall leaves changing colour and i am going to miss snow for christmas! So remember that i am thinking of you often!..until my next post..

love always, andy

Morgan Freeman= ahhhh the man knows how to speak a line!!

add in emotional background movie music now.

now add in Morgan Freeman's deep, emotional meaningful voice...

"I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitment only a free man can feel. A free man at the start of a journey, who's conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it acroos the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams... I hope.

Morgan Freeman (Shawshank Redemption)


amazing movie! this line at the end gave me chills. he is such a great actor flippin love this movie. i cried, i laughed, a was angry, i was perplexed, i felt so many emotions during this movie. one of my new favourites. I can't believe i hadn't seen it before! this line speaks to me....it really moved me. i just felt a connection with this line and my heart right now, as i prepare to leave on sunday. anyhoo, this whole post is random....

but that is me.

faking strength

these past few days have been hard. i'm drained, and if i seem strong on the outside, i'm faking it. i'm feeling really tested. crap keeps happening, and i don't know how much more i can take. faith wise, i feel like i'm taking one step forward, and then two steps back. things that once seemed so easy to understand, are now so trivial. relationship that were on the mend, suddenly crash again. maybe i should pray about it...i just feel so distant from God today. i'm terrible at this whole walk of faith thing....as soon as the going gets tough, i'm lost and angry at him. my sister's sick again, the car broke down, and trip complications are all getting the best of me. i find myself just crying. i don't want this again...things were looking up for a while; i had a healthy perspective. it's all fading...

words are powerful. the things you do and say can really affect people deeply; so are the things you don't do and don't say. each days reveals to me how complex life really is, and it seems the older i get, the less i know. i lack wisdom... i don't seek it diligently like some....maybe i should. i want to be someone who reveals an honest heart. so this is it. this is me being honest. i don't feel worthy of much right now. i'm second guessing myself on everything. should i go to malaysia? maybe all of these trails are here for a reason...maybe God is showing me i'm not suppost to go. or maybe i'm using that as an excuse, because i'm scared out of my mind to go. my self confidence is low. i don't like admitting that......because confidence is beautiful. i wish i were more confident for this reason, and radiated beauty. i don't feel very beautiful right now. some people tell me i am, but i honestly don't feel like any boy would look at me and see someone beautiful. i'm still trying so hard to focus on the inside, in a world where people focus on the outside. it's hard.

seeing many of my friends in awsome relationships, some getting married; all of it makes me want the same. one of the desires of my heart is to get married and raise a family. while many people dream of geting the job of their dreams, becoming famous, or getting rich, i dream of a family. sharing life with one special person..a best friend, through good and bad, laughter and arguements. someone to grow old with. the experience of raising a child; silly things like taking them to soccer practice, or making them soup when they're sick, and staying up all night with them. to me it is so beautiful. maybe it all sounds silly...maybe it's not, i really don't know. all i know is, these are things i feel.

knowing everyone goes throught these times helps, but at the same time, no one seems to share about this stuff....i wish they did. we shouldn't be so afraid to show our vunerability. life would be more rich if we did. no one needs to hear this more then myself. writing this blog has been good for me. now i'm going to be vulnerable and push publish post. 'therefore, it is in your best intrest to fine a way to be very tender'.

tears on my pillow

Tears on my pillow.. Malaysia might not happen:( yeah..i found out today that i need a visa after all and i'm not sure if i can get one in time. when i phoned the Malaysian Consulate earlier, they told me that because i was only staying in Penang for three months, and then leaving to go to another country(our outreach), i wouldn't need a visa. Visas are only required for stays longer then 3 months, but Because my ticket is round trip, it shows that I'm gone for six months...so the airline will think i'm in Malayisa for 6 instead of three and will ask for a student visa. The thing with applying for a student visa is that they need a letter from your school as proof that your acually here as a student...this is a problem because my school is a christian school and Malaysia is a Muslim country. They might not let me in if they know that I'm coming to go to a missions school. And even if I explained to them that I'm leaving three months in, they need proof(a ticket) which we don't have yet because we don't even know where we are going. It is sooo late and I have spent the whole night on the phone crying with my aunt. The only other option I have is to book a round trip flight from Penang to Sinapore or Thailand for a date three months in, and show the airline that as proof that i'm leaving the country after 3 months. This is expensive, for something that I'm not even going to use. And I cannot be certain that i can refund the ticket later:( Ooooo my head hurts...it's all so much to take in. It is really hard for me, seeing as i worked my butt off this past year at two jobs(12 hour days) saving up for this...just to be let down in the end. My mom says that if it doesn't work out and I cannot get a visa or the ticket thing doesn't work out, i should still go and do the first part(three months training) then come home. I will do this, seeing as my ticket is non refundable and that would be a major waste of hard earned cash. It just really sucks, because the whole point of the training is to go on the outreach part after! It would be hard to develope relationships with these people and grow close to them, and then have to leave them. it is really late... i should go to bed.