He's everywhere and it's beautiful!

I've told you about the food and how that has become the most prominent memory of my adventure in Malaysia. But I think the thing that impacted me the most was my experience with Stephanie's grandmother, or Ah ma as she calls her and I ended up calling her. Ah ma most definitely LOVES Jesus. I mean absolutely puts all Love and faith in God. She prays for everything, all the time. She randomly sings to God (later she told us that she sang a certain song to God when she was tired and then so was ok – I told her it sounded good once and she laughed and told me that it sounded bad but it didn't matter cause God didn't care.) She constantly reminded me that God would take care of me and there was no need to worry about anything (I later got the feeling that they were afraid of the police, but I didn't ask. I figured that would only freak me out a little). She is a beautiful woman who oozes Jesus love like nothing else. So of course staying with her meant we would be going to church.

Although Malaysia has a very high Muslim population and Buddhists (especially within the Chinese community there), Stephanie's family is mostly Christian. Going there I knew this, so I was really excited to go to church in Malaysia with her family. The first Sunday we were there we went to Auntie Mei Qing's church. (this is Stephanie's mom's best friend from college – she let us stay at her house for a couple of days and is pretty much a member of Stephanie's family. She and her son were absolutely wonderful!) This church was completely in English. They sang songs I knew and sang at church and BCM in Morgantown, so it was kind of like a little piece of home across the world. It was pretty amazing. I was standing beside of Ah ma and she was praying in Chinese and there were other people of all different ethnicities worshiping in their own languages. This was absolutely one of the best days, but the next Sunday was even more amazing. This time we were in BM (I'm not even going to try and spell that out) at Ah ma's house so we went to her church. Her church was completely in Mandarin! All of the songs, the sermon, everything. There was pinyin for the songs, so Stephanie and I could sing along even if we didn't know the characters. There was a band with two rocker chick guitarists, and one of the song leaders was adorable. He kind of looked like a Taiwanese artist named 牛奶(Milk – yes it is a weird name) and he was praising Jesus...so adorable. Anyway, the point is I didn't really understand most of the songs except for one line that said “I am made new” and actually Stephanie had to tell me that one. But that was the most important line because that is what the sermon was all about. Being made new in Jesus and how that involves changing our thinking and letting him take over. By the way, I understood most of the sermon! It was amazing! I don't think I can even describe how amazing I thought it was.

It was such a beautiful thing being in Malaysia and seeing God in my new environment. I truly do love the Khoo family now, I know you've probably gotten tired of hearing that, but they are kind of like a second family to me. Of course they are different than the amazing family I grew up with, but they are also so similar - loud, maybe a little crazy, but so caring.

Stephanie and I haven't found a church here, but I know God has something planned for us. I hope it's a Chinese church...that would be awesome practice!

I love you all! Always in my prayers!