Goodbye Malaysia, Hello Thailand

Hey everyone!

I have officially completed my first country and am now in Thailand! Thailand is beautiful. It’s absolutely insane that I’ve been on this trip for over two months and am almost ¼ of the way done. I don’t think I have a whole bunch to update you on since my last post, but we’ll see what I come up with while I’m writing.

Ok, so here’s what I’ve been up to the past few weeks (also, so sorry for the inconsistent posts, hopefully I’ll get better at posting regularly):
– We had a fun little fall fest party and watched Hotel Transylvania as a squad. There aren’t a lot of times when our whole squad hangs out together and it’s just us, but it’s always a fun and sweet time when we do.
– Most of our squad spent a weekend in Penang, which is a big tourist area in Malaysia. We got to walk around this market lined up on a street and get dinner and look at all of the pop up shops. It was cool because it showed a bit of their culture, which you don’t get to see a lot when you stay in the same “American-ized” areas. It reminded me of moments in Hawaii and in Israel when we got to see the genuine market alleys. We also got to go to the beach, finally, and it was amazing. I’ve missed the beach so much. A few of us went on a boat and got to ride around for a little while. That night we went to a church, and me and Bella shared testimonies/teachings. I shared my “God Who Sees” with them, because that’s the only one I currently have written, though maybe I’ll try to see if God has another topic He wants me to focus on. I’ll let you know if I do. My favorite part of that weekend was going to “The Hill”. It was this escalating trian that took us super high to where we could see the whole city and past it. There were monkeys at the top, amd they got probably within two feet of me. That is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I love monkeys so much. I think it was a gift from God, because I had been a bit down that day, and then all of a sudden there were monkeys and I was so happy.
– We danced in an Indian worship music video to a song that one of the guys we know wrote. That was crazy. We were dressed up in outfits that made us look like we were filming the next season of The Chosen, and we were in this dessert area too, so it was also giving “the Israelites wandering pt2”

Ministry looked pretty much the same as usual, though I once again went to different houses for house church. It was cool though, because we talked about the Holy Spirit and then got to pray over all the families and houses that were there. I love how much these people value prayer. School was also going good, though it was getting harder because we all knew that we were going to have to say goodbye soon. Aisyah did something that really shook me and made me think and grow my faith. One of the days in our last week, she randomly drew a cross on the table while we were doing math. She looked at me and asked “do you like this?” I told her that I did, with a smile on my face, and I asked her if she liked it. She shakes her head and says no, and says that she’s Muslim, which was her only explanation on why she didnt like the cross. I tried to ask her if she knew what the cross was and what it meant, but she had no interest and proceeded to draw the symbol for allah, saying “I like this. I love this”. It broke my heart. She didn’t want to talk about why she loved allah or even who he was, all she would say is that she was Muslim. I honesty had no idea what to do. We were told that we could only talk about Christ if our student brought Him up first, and Aisyah definitely opened that door, but had no interest in even looking at it. I was really confused on why she even brought it up. And honestly, I still am. She has seen my cross bracelet so many times, and even put it on once, but has never mentioned it. And it was kind of frustrating because it was on one of the last days, so I didn’t have time to try to slowing go deeper into it. But I gave that up to God, trusting His will and timing, and that’s quite literally all I can do. That, and continue to pray that God will lead her to Him, becuase I can’t bear the thought of that sweet little girl not getting saved.

We had to say bye to them on Thursday, and that was so hard. We spent a few hours with them at one of their villages, and ate lunch and played games with them. Eventually, and all too soon, we had to leave. At first I was sad, and a little teary eyed, but I wasn’t at the point of full on crying. I was hugging her goodbye, which she did so many times (she was pretty clingy that day, holding my hand a lot and giving me many long hugs), and I was praying “God, please save her” over and over again. At this point tears were coming down, but still not too bad. That is, until I was about to get on the bus and I hear her shout “Bye teacher Gabi! I love you!” I started sobbing. It’s crazy how much I love this little girl considering I only spent 15 days with her, adding up to maybe 48 hours. I hope I never forget her and continue praying for her my entire life. I did give her my number, and she’s been texting me, so we’ll see if God is going to do anything with that.

We left Malaysia on the 17th, and took a bus, a train, and a subway to get to where my team will be staying in Bangkok. It was a long travel day, but it was amazing because I got to see so much through the widows. It really is beautiful here. It definitely feels like a different country here, though that might just be because there isn’t as much English here as there was in Malaysia.

So yea, that’s my little update. Thanks for reading. I’m going to be starting a fundraiser to help raise the rest of my money, so look out for my Facebook post for that. Please continue to pray for me and my team as we start our ministry in a city that desperately needs Christ. Love you guys!

~Gabi