Becky B. and Jonathan

William

I have never seen so many kids taking notes especially at such young ages than at this church!

Melody and Buddy

Lilly picked Buddy, Melody and I up tonight. She is the wife of the head elder of their church. Her family is very active on the church and does a lot to keep it going. They are such wonderful people. We drove up the road, and watched the green lush mountainous country while Buddy went over his health talk. Before we came to our site, we stopped at a little shop for supper. I still have a hard time believing this, but every night this little place closes just so Melody and Buddy can have their supper with out any disruptions. I have one word for the meal: "Sadop". It means "good" and Melody repeated it all night long. I asked them if there was another word for "good" so we could have a little variety in our vocabulary, but I already forgot it! Served in a red bowl was some rice noodles with some carrots, mushrooms, bok choi, and veggie meat. Then the lady took our bowls and poured some soup base over top. She said "Tonight, we eat soup." It was pleasing to the eye and more importantly pleasing to my stomach. So simple… but Ooooh so good! We took a picture with the kitchen staff and then crept back up the mountain. Melody kept asking me to pray for her during the sermon, because it was going to be a big appeal night and she has a persistent deep cough that could erupt at any time. Buddy presented the topic on Tobacco and it went very well. The translator informed Melody this week that Buddy is their new pastor! I sat on the front row with 12 other kids and listened to Melody's sermon. Melody was telling me that every night the kids have to take turns as to who gets to sit beside her. It is quite a coveted spot! I got the privilege of sitting next to Baby, Wrexy, and Elanie. Baby's real name is Estretchalyn because she was born on a stretcher. But we like to keep it simple. Surprisingly, Melody only coughed 3 short coughs, and the appeal went very smoothly! I was excited to know that one of the ladies on my row checked the box for baptism. At this church they have air conditioning (quite nice if you ask me). One of their church improvements is to have the speaker wear a suit. The first few nights, Melody was swimming in it, but then they found a much more fitted one. Before we drove home, I took a bunch of pictures of Melody and the girls. As we pulled up to the hotel, I knew that we were the last ones back, because Becky Brousson and Jonathan Farquhar were already there, and normally they are much later than the rest.

-Ceri

Water Village

As we drove to the water village we tasted a quite yummy water lilly pod. I asked our driver what motivates these people build their homes over the water. He told me that it is because its free, they don't have to deal with waste (since it just goes into the water) and they are fisherman so it is easy access to the water. The government is making homes for the people who live here. Because of the sanitary reasons, they do not want them living over the water. Just a little ways from the water I was shocked to see subdivisions. I certainly did not expect to see that in Malaysia!

Jenny and Jourdain

Jenny, Jourdain and I climbed in a little SUV and slowly climbed up the mountain. As soon as we reached the top, we started to drive down the curvy road into the valley. That was when we had to say goodbye to the beautiful sunset. We drove through the village and then up a steep hill which I soon realized was the driveway. As we popped over the hill, the church was right in front of us. As we unloaded everything, our driver took out her little basket of food and set it up in their little building that doubles as the Sabbath School room and fellowship hall. She called us over to eat, and because I was the guest, I was chosen to pray. We ate short grain brown rice (yummy), stir fry with lots of tofu (a staple here), corn on the cob (not as good as in Wisconsin , but still good) and a dish with green beans, tofu, some other green vegetable in a peanut sauce (the first peanut sauce I have ever liked). While we were waiting for the meeting to start we all laughed about their past bug experiences at their church. Then we saw a huge beetle on the floor struggling to get back onto its feet. We watched it for awhile until this girl got up to walk to the back of the church. Unaware of the bug's whereabouts she stepped right on top of it. The sound of it was hideous… Bzzzzzz….. Step…step… step… CRUNCH! Despite Jenny's feeling of unpreparedness she presented the topic of hypertension (or high blood pressure) to her audience well. It was perfect because her translator was very familiar with the subject. Watching Jourdain was rather amusing. He is much taller than the people here, His head kept hitting the curtain hanging from the ceiling. Thankfully it was not the fan! The sermon he preached is one of my favorites from the series. The title is "Why So Many Denominations". I believe it cleared up many questions that the audience had. Every person shook both Jenny and Jourdain's hands on their way out and said "Salamat Malam" which means "good night". Before we left a few of the locals stayed back and we chatted for a bit. One of them told Jenny, "If you stay here 2 more weeks you will be darker than I am". He promptly put his arm up to hers to compare skin tone. It was very obvious that she did not need to stay two more weeks, because she was already darker than he. We all laughed looked, and after looking at a few more bugs, we hopped in the car for the ride back to our hotel. Like most rides back, we all discussed our favorite part of the sermon and told a few stories how God has proven it true in our lives.

-Ceri