Chapter 45 - Joy in the Journey
When the rest of the team arrives in Penang from Singapore, a church nearby gives them barrack housing until Chiew Gim, a lively young businesswoman, takes them to her well-furnished mansion. We begin to have meetings as a team at her home, then go out to share the gospel, two by two. Larry and I take this opportunity to shop for sheets, towels, and kitchenware, witnessing as we go. We find tracts and later small New Testaments in English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil, so my purse is heavy as we set out!
English was++ the trade language when Malaysia was a British colony, so most speak it with a British-Malay accent. We learn that about 4 percent would call themselves Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant. Our team is like a group of friendly tourists…we engage people in discussion, turning to religious topics as able. We meet people at Penang Hill, Monkey Park, and down the coast in Batu Ferringhi where the tourist hotels are.
Some evenings we eat at food stalls by the ocean, sitting on a stone wall. We chat with families having their evening meal, watching the sunset. Many Malaysians are freethinkers…they enjoy discussing religion and take a gospel with interest.
We continue to have team meetings and meals at Chiew Gim’s elegant home. Cindy Kulwitzky is oversees buying groceries, and she laughingly comments at one team meeting, “I bet I’m the only student on an YWAM outreach who gets to go to market in a Mercedes Benz with a chauffeur!”
“We are blessed!” responds Isabel, from Bolivia.
“Four of you are staying on with the Andersons to establish the base,” Dan Eastep announces later. “Tom, Darren, Cindy, and Arlene. We should look for long term housing for you guys. And we need to be praying about a building to rent for the discipleship training school you’ll start. And finances for rent!”
Chiew Gim is standing by the kitchen door. “You four can keep living here until you rent housing for the base,” she offers.
“Wow,” Cindy exclaims. “Are you sure you want us that long?”
“Maybe we’ll find a location right away,” Darren Manzano from Hawaii offers. “God can answer quickly.”
After a farewell love feast at a restaurant and a prayer commissioning, we hug the staff and the rest of the students goodbye. Of the six adults remaining, Tom is the only one who has staffed a DTS before. But—God is with us!
Dr. Joy and Elsie who pastor the large Full Gospel Assembly Church have been eager to welcome a YWAM base in Penang. Many of our team have been attending their church. Other enthusiastic supporters include Dr. Pauline and her brother Philip and his wife Florence. Our team begin looking for large houses to rent. Due to the recession housing is cheaper, and the Honolulu base will partially subsidize us for the first year—but we need to choose wisely.
Our team of six keep meeting to discuss and pray. Often during prayer I open my eyes and observe each pair of feet. Clad in flip flops, sandals, or barefoot, each set are so individual. Long and thin, stubby and wide, some with bumps and calluses. One guy has long toenails that need cutting.
How unique we all are—each adding something that the others need. Larry leads, I contribute with heart and passion. Optimistic Tom is an excellent administrator, and Cindy an effervescent women’s discipler. Arlene is quiet and thoughtful, very organized as the base secretary. And Darren is diplomatic, loving others sacrificially.
One day we hear that Dr. Pauline and Philip have a large empty house we can rent. It is fully furnished! We drive as a team to look. Off a busy street, it’s two storied, L shaped, with huge spreading trees across the lawn. There’s a spacious room for classes and meetings, good sized bedrooms for dorms (student and staff), a furnished kitchen, and even a wood paneled, air-conditioned, furnished bedroom. I remember praying for a well-appointed, comfortable room for the speaker/teacher. This goes beyond my expectations! And the rent is so reasonable…we are all in awe.
At our next meeting the Lord assures us this is the right location for our base and school. I remember Paul Hawkins recounting in Crossroads how God provided for the new work in Denmark years ago. Our Father is doing the same with us.
After the four team members move into the house we begin praying for bunk beds, long tables for desks, chairs, and God’s timing for the school. Funds and materials begin to come in. As the dates are set for the three-month DTS, we focus on praying for students, the right teachers, and how to get the word out. We print an attractive brochure advertising the school and mail it to churches across Malaysia.
School begins in November with eleven students…nine singles and a young couple SH and Emily, with a child. Since there is a large YWAM conference in Thailand around this time, we incorporate the conference into the school schedule. All the staff and students take the train up to Bangkok, then southeast to Pattaya. The housing and grounds are rustic, the meetings anointed. And we are privileged to meet with other YWAM workers serving in southeast Asia. Kalafi Moala from Tonga leads the meetings.
Back home in Penang various leaders bring good teachings in the succeeding weeks: Danny Lehmann the base leader from Honolulu, Frank Goebel, Matt Rawlins, local pastors, and even Larry and me. The students are in their late teens to early thirties. Everyone enters into intercession, work duties, and street witnessing.
Before our three-month visa expires, we take the train to Singapore to renew it. We have continued to pray for our missing box of books and notes, that God would somehow return them. So—after leaving the train in Singapore we check with the station master. “No, there is no record of luggage left on that date,” he says, turning pages in a worn notebook. An assistant leaves to check in the storage room. He is gone a few minutes and comes back bearing a square cardboard box tied with twine.
“It’s our books, Larry! The box we left on the platform! Thank you, Lord!”
“Well, no wonder they couldn’t find it. There’s no name on this box—nothing!”
“Thank you so much, sir. We are indeed grateful.” I almost hug him.
“Glad to be of service,” Madam,” the manager says, smiling.
Our few days in Singapore give us and the boys time to shop and sightsee a little with Krison. He is attending church faithfully, he tells us, and making friends. We find a Deli France and have chocolate croissants together.
A few days later we board the train for Malaysia. I am concerned we might not get three-month visas again, but our passports are stamped with nary a question. Nick and Jared have yearlong student visas, which gives reason for us to live in Penang.
Chugging north from Singapore I have time to reflect. “Lord, you’ve been so gracious to us. I’m fulfilling my mission call, and Nick and Jared are attending the same Dalat School I did and enjoying it. Thank you so much! What other good things are in store? Will Malaysia be our permanent home? You’ve led us to believe we won’t live in Minnesota again. I would so like to know where home is.”
This longing prayer of my heart continues through the following weeks of the DTS. Around Christmas we renew our visas again, this time across the border in Hat Yai, Thailand—a city filled with bars and brothels.
We are saddened to see so many young girls being misused for money. One night after dinner we have devotions with Nick and Jared in our hotel room and pray for the city. “Lord, you see all this human trafficking, so many people abusing others. You love these people. Help them. Send your truth to them, somehow,” I pray.
“God, help these people want to do right,” Jared agrees.
“Would you want us to come here after we establish the base in Penang?” Larry asks.
We wait on the Lord, listening, worshipping.
To my surprise, I begin to get a picture, a map in my mind…of the state of Colorado. “I think the Lord wants us to pray for Colorado,” I interject.
We begin to pray for the state, especially for Colorado Springs, where Larry’s sister lives. Nick comments, “I’m seeing a pennant, like for a football team. It says, ‘Colorado’ on it.
“I see swimming trunks, and it has a tag on the pocket that says ‘summer,’ Jared adds.
Larry laughs. “This is amazing. I just saw a log house. You’ve prayed for a log home, Marti.”
We keep worshipping, waiting on the Lord. “I believe the Lord is leading us to Colorado Springs, for it to be our home base,” I conclude, surprised. “So unexpected.”
“Well, our return tickets have to be used within a year,” Larry says. “We could visit there this summer. If it still seems right, we’ll move there after we finish our two year commitment to establish this base in Penang.”
The DTS ends, with students and some staff leaving for outreach to Thailand. Larry and I begin to speak in local churches some Sundays, both in Penang and on the mainland, driving the used car we’d purchased. I love taking the ferry across to Butterworth, driving down palm lined roads to small towns and teaching gospel truths to Chinese/Indian congregations.
That summer back in the States we check out Colorado Springs, visiting Ken and Patty Freeman (from the Singles group) who are now pastoring in nearby Limon. We speak in their church, later ride west and park on a hill overlooking the Front Range. The blue mountains are majestic, stretching north and south of Colorado Springs. “I do have peace that this is where we should live after we leave Penang,” Larry comments.
“I do too,” I answer. “I wonder why. I thought we might move to Thailand. Maybe it’ll be a good home base for our kids, for us to go in and out of. Your sister and brother-in-law Dorie and Bill are here, so that’s a blessing.
We fly back to Penang and rent a house further up the hill from Dalat School, next to friends from church, Ben and Ann Tan. Ann begins giving Jared piano lessons, which Miss Wehr my former teacher later continues. After buying a small keyboard, Jared’s music fills our home. Beautiful songs with perfect timing!
Discipleship training schools continue, with the rest of the staff leading them. Larry and I pray and decide to check out other bases in Asia where our DTS can go on outreach. Ann and Ben watch Nick and Jared for us, and we visit Pacific Islanders pioneering in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We fly on to Dan and Christine Bushy in Kathmandu, Nepal, then to Calcutta where a leader named Wendy shows us the work in the area. We are overwhelmed by the poverty there…visit Mother Teresa’s compound, arriving when she is receiving visitors. I even get to shake her hand! From Calcutta we take trains to Hyderabad, then southeast to Chennai.
Landing back in Penang we are exhausted and amazed at the dedication, the sacrifice of God’s people.
Nick is now fifteen, and Jared eight years old. We have continued regular family devotions and Bible memorization through the years, and both sons love the Lord. But in Nick’s fifteenth year he begins to get cocky and rebellious. One Saturday morning things come to a head. Our family outing to Georgetown is being ruined by his sullenness..
“Nick, there are some things we do as a family,” Larry reminds him firmly. “You get to be with your friends during the week. Saturdays are time for family. We’re not going to have this afternoon ruined by your bad attitude.”
“We have to pull together, each of us.” I add.
Nick nods miserably.
“We’re out here in Malaysia as a family team. If one of our own kids is thinking he doesn’t want to obey the Lord, there’s no use in us trying to disciple other Malaysians. Christianity has to work at home first. If we’re failing you, why should we try to reach others? We should just move back to the States.”
“I’m sorry,” Nick responds quietly. “I do want to follow God. I’ll try and cooperate.”
Heavy rains are followed by a dry season. Some staff return home and another family move to be associated with the Penang base as their children attend Dalat School. As the semester is ending we all pray about who should take the reins of leadership. S.H. and Emily, the couple from the first school have proved faithful in tenacity and wisdom. We ask them, and after prayer they agree to lead the base.
At our farewell dinner we recount God’s faithfulness, laugh over memories. “Remember that Malaysian taxi driver you witnessed to so strongly you made him angry?” Tom reminds Larry. “It’s a good thing you gave him a big tip…you might have ended up in jail!”
“Yeah,” Larry laughs. “And remember when you were in the hospital with typhoid fever, Tom? You had us worried!”
“I was sick for quite awhile,” Tom admits. “I was concerned some of you would come down with it also. God has sure taken care of us, even on all those outreaches to India and Nepal.”
Farewells are sad and sweet. We trust we will return in a year or two, when Nick is in college.
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