For the Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Such as These

Our time in Malaysia was full of blessings! We met so many kids and made the most of the opportunity to love them well. God revealed more of Himself to me, my squad, and the people we met along the way.

My team’s main ministry was teaching  English, math, and science at a refugee school of mainly Muslim children. To preface, in Malaysia, it is illegal to share the Gospel with Muslims, so this was something we had to be careful about. The school operated above the church we were partnered with. The kids do not have access to public school because they are not citizens, so this school is really the only option they have. We were able to give the teacher a break by jumping in with our own ideas and creating our own lesson plans. It was challenging to teach kids who don’t speak my language, but when concepts did click for them it was very gratifying. Overall, our goal was to love the kids like Christ does, not to make sure they understood every single lesson. In the beginning, our team was feeling defeated because we were struggling to make the kids understand. But during our team Bible study going through Ephesians, God reminded us “to walk worthy of the calling with which [we] were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,” Ephesians‬ ‭4:1-2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬. He reminded us that we are called to love first, and that is all we really need to focus on. We are here to love these kids well, not make sure they can do long division or understand commas. Once we stepped into that freedom, it was much easier to laugh and smile with them instead of worry about their next test scores. It was especially sweet to love these kids well because they have been through more than I can imagine as refugees from Myanmar. A few of the children shared their stories with our team, and it was pretty heart-breaking. Things no one should have to face, let alone children. Being in a position to love them well and return a bit of their childhood to them was an honor and a privilege we didn’t take for granted.

I got to know one little girl very well. For the sake of this blog, let’s call her Joy. She is a brilliant 13-year-old who is so dedicated to learning English, and just learning in general. She already speaks English so well and has such an open and willing mind to learn as much as she can. Her questions reminded me of my own, and I loved speaking English with her because I could see her confidence building with every conversation. She ended up asking me about prayer and what I believe after sharing with me how she prays. I was legally able to be honest with her because she expressly asked me. I made the most of the opportunity to share with her the Gospel, how Jesus has changed my life and is the only reason that I’ll be okay. I’m grateful that she listened and has the opportunity to think about it. I’m praying that God will keep that conversation on her mind and show her how real He is.

Before leaving, my team and I gave story books to all our students. Joy’s reading level is far beyond most of the kids, so I decided to order for her “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” by C. S. Lewis in English. She was so excited to open it! It was such a sweet moment! I’m hopeful that God will use the book’s parallels to the Bible to reach her and reveal Himself to her. Please be praying for her and her family! She did share more with me about her life at home, things I cannot publish, but please cover her and her family in a blanket of prayer!

Being invited into this ministry was incredible. I never thought my opportunities to teach kids would go beyond a week-long VBS program at my church in Delco, but God brought me halfway around the world to a small town in Malaysia and gave me the privilege of working with kids who need a lot of love. I’m so grateful to Him for opening my eyes to these children and their experience of the world, and to be His hands and feet in new ways by intentionally loving them well. He is so good! Praise God!