Deer Park and Elephant Park

Sorry it has been a while since we posted.  On 17 September we visited a deer park and an elephant park with some of our new friends.  A group of people from Luther House Chapel (Zach's church) took us out to see the deer park and the elephant park.  The deer park was actually a small zoo-like area.  The deer were in two different areas.  One was fenced off quite a ways away from where people were.  The other was an area where some of the deer had been selected to be petted/fed by visitors.  The food that was available to purchase to feed the deer was a sliced potato, much like a french fry (but not deep fried). Next to the deer cage was also a cage for an ostrich, who also enjoyed these potato pieces, but was not as adept at missing fingers as the deer were.  There were also many other creatures on exhibit at the deer park.  There were guinea pigs, snakes, chickens, cats (interestingly looked like house cats...), peacocks, mouse deer (called a chevrotain), hedgehogs, and many different types of tropical birds.  I am sure I missed some of the animals, but the point is that there were many varieties of animals that were wonderful to see.

The elephant park was another interesting experience.  This place actually is an elephant refuge.  When there is an elephant that is separated from its parents when forest clearing happens, or when there is an elephant that is causing disturbances in an area, or when there is an elephant that is injured in a life threatening way, they are brought to this park to live.  We were able to take a guided tour to meet three elephants.  All three were very young elephants, around 8 or 9 years old.  One had been mauled by a tiger and had lost its tail in the fight and had over 30 puncture marks in its back.  Another elephant lost its foot to a trap.  The last elephant that we met had broken its leg and it had healed badly.  These elephants had been trained to be friendly to strangers, even allowing food to be put onto their tongues.  The park also had younger elephants in some holding areas that could be fed by visitors.  The food that was available to feed the elephants were peanuts and small bananas.  Also available for visitors was the opportunity to ride on an elephant and to actually swim in the river with the elephants.  We were not able to do these activities, but it was definitely worth the trip anyway.  We posted some pictures to our picture hosting website here. Our other pictures are also on that website and another link is found on the right sidebar under "Photos Here."

We are loving our time here so far and we are hopeful for what the future holds for us here in Malaysia. I hope this finds you all well.  God Bless!

-Zach

Nepalese Ministry

Malaysia has become a place where workers from other countries come to work because they can earn more here than in their native countries.  A large portion of these migrant workers come from Nepal.  They are under contract to work for three years before going back home (possibly to come back again for more work depending on their circumstances).  Many of these people work at restaurants here in Malaysia.  Those that do usually have room and board paid for (live upstairs at the restaurant or somewhere close and eat at the restaurant) so they can send almost all of their earnings back to their families in Nepal.  Nepal is not an English speaking country (the British never conquered Nepal. In fact, the Nepalese defeated the British soundly and made a treaty with them afterwards).  Because they do not speak English, they have a hard time here in Malaysia where most people can speak English (plus Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Tamil, and many other languages).  However, because these workers do not make a lot of money, they usually would not pay to take courses in English.  Here is the opening that the Church found to minister to the Nepalese.

Luther House Chapel (the church at which I am an intern) is joined with a few other churches to engage in ministry through helping the Nepalese migrant workers here in Malaysia.  This program began in the early 2000s by offering free classes in English, computers, and guitar for the Nepalese migrant workers.  After about a year, they began having a worship service after the classes that were open to the Nepalese to attend.  This ministry has grown over the years and now has two different sites where classes and worship are offered.

The Nepalese religion is primarily Hinduism.  The culture is such that it is difficult for people to convert to Christianity in Nepal because of the social and family related conflict that emerges.  Therefore, it is difficult for people to go to Nepal to preach the Gospel and be heard.  The ministry here is important because it reaches out to the Nepalese that are here needing education.  It also allows for the proclamation of the Gospel without the social constraints found in Nepal and an opportunity for these new Christians to go back to Nepal to spread the good news of Jesus Christ as a native of Nepal.

Please keep this ministry in prayer.  Thanks!

-Zach

Religion in Malaysia

A question has been posed about religion, Christianity and Lutheranism in Malaysia.  As far as religions are concerned, Islam is the official religion of the state, however there is freedom of religion in Malaysia.  The Constitution includes the practicing of Islam in the definition of “Malay”, but those who are Malaysian-Chinese, Malaysian-Indian, or otherwise practice a variety of religions.

Islam     61%
Buddhism            19%
Christianity         9%
Hinduism             6%
Confucianism, Taoism, traditional Chinese religions          1%                          (2010, Wikipedia)

For an interesting read, check out the religion section of “Malaysia” on Wikipedia, or “Religion in Malaysia”.

Christianity is predominantly Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist.  On West/Peninsular Malaysia, there is one protestant seminary that serves most of the protestant denominations.   A beautiful outcome of this is the relationships built among people of different denominations.  (Eric and Wendolyn Trozzo, also with ELCA Global Mission, are serving at a seminary in Sabah – West Malaysia, on the island of Borneo.)

There are two Lutheran churches in Malaysia: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia (ELCM) was founded through outreach by Swedish missionaries to the Indian migrant workers who were brought in by the British to serve in the rubber fields.  The Lutheran Church of Malaysia (LCM, until recently the LCMS – Lutheran Church of Malaysia and Singapore) was founded via missionary activity from the ELCA to the Chinese tin miners.  As a result of this history, the ELCM remains predominantly Indian ethnically, while LCM predominantly Chinese.  Zach and I are working with the LCM, though my supervisor was formerly in the ELCM, and his father was their bishop for many years.  The Lutheran churches vary in degrees of formal/informal liturgy, and whether they have services in Mandarin or Cantonese, English, or both.  Worship at the National Lutheran Conference included songs with each verse in a different of three languages: Mandarin, Bahasa, and English.

More to come on the differences/similarities we notice between churches here and back home.  And as far as how we are being welcomed and received – very warmly!  We have been shown tremendous honor and welcomed by those we have met here.  Also, the ordination of women was not a huge struggle faced here, as far as I have been informed.  As soon as people realize that both Zach and I are interns and both are attending seminary to become ordained, we are both received well as far as I have perceived.  We remain exceedingly blessed by this opportunity to serve.

Many thanks to those who have been posing questions for us – thanks for your interest, and keep the questions coming!  God's peace to you and yours, Emily

Gathered Together

The Lutheran Church in Malaysia's 2nd National Lutheran Conference was kicked off by bishop Phillip Lok sounding three gongs, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

Gathered together at a resort near the east coast and Kuantan, over 1,000 pastors and lay persons worshiped together, shared meals, learned and were challenged together.  Connections were made with the greater church body and it was truly a great sight.  Zach and I were blessed to meet so many different pastors and parishioners from around Malaysia, as well as get to know Bishop Lok and his family better.  Once again we were shown tremendous hospitality and honored as guests.  We continue to be amazed, as back home interns can tend to feel on the bottom of the totem pole from our understanding - but here we are continually blown away by our hosts, their love and grace.

In a lovely gesture of ecumenism, the speaker at this year's conference was Rev. Dr. Gordon Wong, a member of the Methodist Church in Singapore who is a professor at Singapore's Trinity Theological College.  Dr. Gordon shared challenging and encouraging messages, including from Matthew chapter 26.  Here Jesus' distress, even to the point of death, in the Garden of Gethsemane reminds us that we will not always be happy or excited about what God calls us to do.  Through prayer our will is joined with God's will and we are given the strength to follow through with our calling and to continue to put one foot in front of the other.  We also looked at the sleeping disciples - Peter who was so recently willing to die for Christ, but struggles now to stay awake and pray.  Die, yes, but lose some sleep?  How is it that those things which cost us little can seem so difficult?  We make big sacrifices for our children, but stopping "to teach a child how to pray", Gordon points out, Why, this is just too much.  We are reminded that Jesus is not looking for disciples to die with swords, but for disciples who will do the Father's will.

LCM NLC 2.0

Pastor Thomas (Z's supervisor) & Rev. Dr. Gordon Wong

The Girls :-)  Me, Judy, Petrina, May

Z w/ Pr. Augustin (my supervisor) & Rev. Wolfgang (from Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria)

Rain

For the past two nights, we have had some pretty impressive rain storms.  The night before last, it was raining so hard that the sound of the rain hitting the roof was enough to wake us from our slumber.  It was so loud, in fact, that Emily was having fun talking to herself because she could not hear her own voice.  It has rained almost every day since we have arrived.  What is important to note is that this is not the rainy season.  As one who really enjoys thunderstorms and rain, I am excited about this new environment of thunder and rain.  It helps me to keep in perspective how small I am in comparison to the world.

We are living in a tropical area with a wide variety of plant life.  There are many different kinds of palms here ("palms" are what we in the states would call "palm trees").  One of the chief exports of Malaysia is palm oil. When we were flying in, we flew over many palm tree farms and were impressed with the size of the farms and the sheer number of trees.  This rainy climate provides a great place for plants to grow.

Also, this climate allows for other creatures to thrive.  One in particular are mosquitoes.  We have been fighting against them since we arrived.  There are some wonderful devices that you plug into a wall socket and place a pad into that release a smell that mosquitoes do not like.  These have been great.  Also, we are having some new mosquito netting put up today (we in the States would call them screens for the windows) and we are excited to have that addition to the bungalow.

We are doing well and we will write more soon!

Peace,

Zach

Black Bean Burgers?

This morning = absolutely lovely.  Pulled tea and roti for breakfast: RM$4.80 (USD$1.60).  I do believe breakfast is cheaper to eat out than to eat in.  Plus the short walk is really nice before the sun turns to scorching.

Contrasts can truly be beautiful.  For instance, the contrast between breakfast this morning and dinner last night: the furthest thing possible from the same level of enjoyment.  We had attempted to make black bean burgers.  However, a combination of exhaustion, lacking familiarity with local ingredients, not having made them at home ever, and zero patience to let the turtle-esque member of the food family (i.e. beans) simmer for a quarter-century led to our "black bean burgers" having to come to terms with a new name: "garlicky green globs".  The only black bits were the charred chunks as we struggled to master our two-burner stove.  Our tired selves were quite relieved to find a food processor in our unfamiliar cupboards; but alas - the garlic-and-onion puree did our green globs no favors.

Food is a primary focus in Malaysian culture.  While we have been here for a week now, yesterday was our first attempt with the stove as we've been graced with amazing hospitality and meal invites during these first days.  In fact, our first full day in Kuala Lumpur consisted of a walking tour to the close shops and markets, lunch and shopping, and then a dinner outing.  We ate four times with our neighbor Brian on the first tour, three times with Adeline, Alpha and Seth (from Bangsar LC) during the mid-day, and only once with Brian, Pr. Thomas and Suzie for dinner.  Though to be fair, the last was a ten-course Chinese meal - and we were sent home with a bag of cookies.

Hungry, anyone?  Come visit us!  (We promise to eat out...)

Much love,

Emily

Air Travel Adventure

Our trip from the United States to Kuala Lumpur went as follows:

Leaving: 15 August 2012

Arriving: 17 August 2012

Bemidji, MN to Minneapolis, MN

     5:25am-6:25am     Flight time: ~1 hr     Layover: ~2.5 hrs

Minneapolis, MN to Chicago, IL

     9:00am-10:21am     Flight time: ~1 hr     Layover: ~3.5 hrs

Chicago, IL to Tokyo, Japan

     12:53pm-2:00pm     Flight time: ~12 hrs     Layover: ~2 hrs

Tokyo, Japan to Singapore

     4:00pm-11:55pm     Flight time: ~7hrs     Layover: ~13 hrs

Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

     12:50pm-1:45pm     Flight time: ~1hr     Arrival (Thanks be to God!)

We were under the understanding that the flight from Chicago to Tokyo was a 20 hour flight.  When we boarded the plane and were told that it was only a 12 hour flight, we were overjoyed.  One of the highlights of our plane voyage was arriving at the Singapore airport.  We had a long layover so that we would not be arriving in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in the middle of the night for our supervisors to come pick us up (first impressions are important! ^_^).  We had tried to book a room in one of the three transit hotels, but there was not room when we tried before our flight.  When we arrived and found our way to the hotel in the terminal we would be taking off from in the morning, we were delighted to find that there was a room available that had a communal shower/bathrooms for around $80 US for eight hours.  We gladly settled down for some sleep in a real bed.  After trying to sleep on an airplane, this was a blissful moment.

Upon waking up in the morning, we found out that the Singapore airport is amazing.  The night before, I was too tired to try and soak anything in, so I missed much of the beauty of the airport upon arrival.  However, we had time to explore this treasure trove of an airport (that sounds strange, but it is the truth).  Among the many different gardens interspersed throughout the airport (yes, I said MANY), we went to a garden called the "Sunflower Garden."  This was the first place we went to after checking out of our room.  We were not sure if this was a lounge, coffee shop, or, in fact, a garden.  When we arrived, we were amazed that there was an outdoor, rooftop, sunflower garden.  Here is a photo:

As we explored further, the Singapore airport is one of the most technologically advanced, eco-friendly, options for "free" services airport that I have ever been to.  There were 4 or 5 main gardens spread around 3 terminals (one a pond with coy fish and palms, one a cacti garden, and others).  There were also other small garden areas with trees and flowers interspersed throughout.  There were many free internet areas with computers provided.  There was an E-post card station which was essentially a web-cam that would take your picture in the airport and send it to someone's email address.  There were also multiple free foot massaging machines along the walk to the specific terminal gates.  Also, there was a free movie theater area which had a large screen and was constantly playing movies.  Plus, there was an area where you could play Xbox (it was provided), PC, and (I think) PS3.  This is not even mentioning the shops, food options, and other architectural beauty to be found.  It was a paradise at the tail end of our journey.  If you are ever in this neck of the woods, check out the Singapore Airport.  The US has so much to learn from Singapore in this regard.

Our flight from Singapore to KL was uneventful, just a little late.  We arrived and met our supervisors, Thomas and Augustin, and our new friend Brian.  That about sums up the trip to KL.

God Bless,

Zach