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Malaysia UBF

From Aug 9- 23, Benji and I visited Malaysia to spend time with my 95 year old mother-in-law. This time I decided to spend time sightseeing and touring the country in order to better understand this land of my husband’s birth. So far, we had only spent time in Johor Bahru -- Dr. Ben’s hometown – which is very much like the Toledo of Malaysia – a city people pass through on their way to some where important.

This time, various friend and relatives were more than happy to take us around to tour government buildings and landmarks so that we could learn about this country. Historically, Malaysia has been conquered by the Portuguese, Dutch and British.  So their past is a very colorful and unique mix of both Western and Eastern cultural influences.  This is especially evident in their unique cuisine which blends the flavor and spices of surrounding countries like Pakistan, India, China and Europe. 

Though Malaysia declares Muslim as its national religion, there are active and growing Christian ministries among Catholics, Charismatics and Evangelicals. The Christian population is strong among the Chinese and non-Malay citizens, but evangelization of Muslims (who are the native Malay people) is a punishable crime.  So Christians are cautious. However, though the national religion is Muslim the government operates based on British governing principles. For this reason, Malaysia seems like it could be a key nation for outreach to neighboring Muslim countries if the nationals are evangelized.

The native language is Malay but English is often used and spoken. The cost of living is fair and the language is easy to learn because they do not conjugate their verbs. As a peninsular nation, Malaysia is a good central location for reaching surrounding countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines.

On Sun, Aug 19, IH, VL, Kok Meng, Benji, Dr Ben and I had worship service in their apartment.  We studied Exodus 19:1-6 emphasizing that the grace of God delivered the Israelite nation from their slavery and established them as the people whom God chose to extend this grace to the world.  When we allow the grace of God to drive our lives of faith, God can work in and through us to accomplish his good purpose. IH is a good leader for the ministry. VL is thoughtful and gentle. Kok Meng is IH’s friend who became a Christian from reading the Bible IH gave him. Eileen was attending the summer conference in Jakharta UBF, so we were not able to meet with her until Tue. They visit the campus regularly and study one to one with several students.

On Mon evening, IH and VL took us to a lecture by Dr. Steven Tong. He is a famous Indonesian Chinese evangelist with the spirit of a soldier of Christ who has raised over 1,000 pastors throughout Asia. He is 72 years old, been preaching for 55 years, and is known as the Billy Graham of Asia. He did a Q and A before a congregation of several hundred people in an auditorium in downtown Kuala Lumpur.  His exposition of the Bible was inspiring and well grounded in the gospel. I was very thankful that IH, VL and Kok Meng are being spiritually fled through this pastor’s teaching. He reminded Dr. Ben and I of Dr. Lee’s soldier spirit and fiery passion toward the word of God and his calling of world mission.

By  Christy Toh

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