-The Invisible Realities-: From Malaysia!

Well, my travels with the Bright Lights crew have led me from Alaska to Singapore and now to Malaysia. Such good times! It's good to be back in Asia... I wondered if I ever would come back and what a JOY to be here. I'll post a few pictures of the happenings lately, but first a thought from this evening.

Last time I was in this city it was in September, during the month of Ramadan. The religious fervor is high in an Islamic country during Ramadan; the call to prayer was louder then and more frequent, and Islamic festivals and bizarres were all over the place. The things I saw and heard fascinated me.
Four years later, they still do!
Tonight I sat in my friends' hotel room and heard the call to prayer outside. (In fact, you can click here to see a video I took of the prayer call early on a September morning in 2008 from the same hotel here in Melaka.) I went to the window and looked across the street to the apartment building opposite our hotel. Many lights were on; many windows open, and through the open windows I could see people praying or leaning out on the window sill to pray as the wailing cry in Arabic echoed over the city. One women, standing in front of her window, wore a long, draping white hijab, covering her head and body. She repeatedly knelt, bowed to the floor, stood, knelt, bowed to the floor, and stood again . The call ended and one by one people retreated back into their apartments, quietly turning away from their windows, continuing conversations and activities which had been paused during their devotions. The woman in the long white hijab stood and removed it, revealing somewhat modern clothing underneath.
Life resumed.

I stood at my window looking out at theirs and praying for them...
...And thinking.
The dedication and devotion of Muslims could put many Christians to shame! They probably pray, fast, and give more than the average "Christian." But the thing that fuels their prayers, their almsgiving, their fasting is a deep rooted fear. It is not love. It is DEVOTION, yes, but that devotion is driven by the knowledge that if they reach the end of their lives and their good deeds have not outweighed their bad, they will not enter heaven.
Can you imagine? The fear? The pressure?

I remember hearing a Christian missionary once retelling an incident he had with a Muslim man as they studied the Muslim holy books, Injil (or what we Christians call the four Gospels) together. They read together Jesus' words which are so familiar to us:

"Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Upon reading this, the Muslim man broke down into tears. The thought that Jesus Christ is a God who offers REST and not striving, a RELEASE from loads and not more rules and demands to pile on one's back, overwhelmed him with relief; joy; astonishment!

We should serve Him because we love Him and He has saved us....
We should give to those who need it because we love Him and He has saved us...
We should obey His commands because we love Him and He has saved us...
We should walk in purity and holiness because we love Him and He has saved us...

Not because we're afraid of damnation if we mess up too often!

I hope you can rejoice in the fact that Jesus has paid for your sins with His own life, He has blotted our your transgressions with His own blood, and he offers us a life free of striving and "trying to be good enough." Because He is God and He knows none of us ever will be good enough.
Have you understood and accepted that?
Really?

And pray for the precious Muslims of Malaysia and those all over the world who are still carrying the heavy burden of paying for their own ticket to paradise. Pray that they will come to Jesus for rest.

Picta' time!

Fitting all our suitcases in the bus from Singapore to Malaysia. It's about a 5 hr. drive to Melaka from Singapore.

So, we've realized that apparently restaurants don't see the need to wash their dishes with SOAP here. I mean, why do that when you can just rinse them off in a tub or 5 gallon bucket and they look just as clean!? (We shot this picture as evidence but it turned out a little blurry.) This is the Indian restaurant we've been frequenting. We just eat and don't think too hard.