Paint the Wall (Week 2)
We moved locations the second week in Malaysia. I don’t want to give locations because I want to share some information about the persecution of people who believe in Yeshua. I’m trying to be more sensitive with my blog, hence the words “Adonai” and “Yeshua.”
Our goal was to paint a future reading center for kids and teens. The office is not ready, but in the process of opening soon. It would be an after-school program for all the surrounding schools nearby. I’ve seen in these countries that a lot of these kids flock to internet cafes after school and play games for hours. Much like kids back home I imagine.
We had a local pastor help us to obtain supplies and to transport us from place to place. This was a great man of God. Again, he went out of his way the whole time to take care of our needs. He also took us out to eat for some traditional food. He was also a busy man, but we never felt like a burden to him.
After we painted the facility with a base coat, we were given the opportunity to do a mural on part of the wall. [By the way, when working with water based paint, you want to make sure you apply it very thick, especially if just doing one coat.] We decided to do a world map. The process of figuring out how best to do this with a multicultural team was interesting. One of the things I’ve learned living in this community is that working with people from all over the world can be quite challenging at times. We finally found a solution, albeit slightly offending one of our team members. We hugged and made up later 
.
By the grace of God it came out much better than we expected. During this time we bonded much more as a team.
PJ and myself were quite happy with the results.
The Truth About Malaysia
Malaysia is a muslim country. They give the appearance of freedom of religion in order to attract tourism and western business, but the reality is that people are in bondage.
For example, if you are of Malay ethnicity and born in Malaysia, by law you are a Muslim forever. If the government finds out you have become a believer in Yeshua, they could possibly send you to a “brainwashing” facility where they try to make you denounce your faith. We’ve heard first hand stories of abuse and mistreatment at these facilities. Many Malay believers in Yeshua that we met struggled with hiding their faith from their families and loved ones. Some were actually on the run hiding from the government. We met one couple who were trying to get out of the country so their soon to be born son would not be a Malay citizen.
However, there are people here sacrificing and trying to make a difference. I met one American couple who came here AFTER 9/11. They realized the need to reach the Muslim world. Do you realize the need? Did you know that everybody needs Yeshua?
Christianity is tolerated in Malaysia, just not for Malay citizens. There are many nationalities in Malaysia however that do have religious freedom such as people from India and the Chinese. However, they are forbidden to convert Malays. Many churches live in are paralyzed by fear of being closed down by the government. It was sad to see and made me angry. Many of the churches we visited were sleepy and compromised the full truth.
The indigenous/ aboriginal people of Malaysia are also forced to convert to Islam. For example, if they want electricity or water, they have to become Muslim. The government is so shrewd that a Christian house across the street in one of these villages will not be provided with electricity even though their Muslim neighbor has it.
Don’t believe what you hear on the news or false advertising about these countries. Search for blogs of people who actually live there for an eyewitness account for the truth.
Want to see more pictures? Go Here: www.flickr.com/photos/mccleery27/
