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Recently I went to visit our church in Malaysia and to scout out the land in this beautiful mission field.  It was a long journey by plane of 20 hours with several delays on the way.  But when I landed there, I felt like I was in paradise.  Malaysia was like seeing the garden of Eden as if it was preserved on Earth today.  Or maybe it was how the Israelites saw the Promised land after coming out of captivity.  Malaysia is a land full of wealth and abundance.  Ithas had one of the best economic records in Asia, with a gross domestic product rising at 6.5%. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, and commerce. Malaysia’s geography also prevents it from suffer from many of the natural disaster of South East Asia such as Hurricanes, earthquakes and Tsunamis.  She truly is like a diamond in the ruff, a paradise on earth, a land flowing with milk and honey.   

Let me also note that Malaysia is tremendously diverse in it’s culture and ethnicity.  It is like a modern day Rome in the sense that people from so many different cultures and creeds migrate to and from there.  It is a great place to reach many people from so many different backgrounds with the gospel.

  According to the 2010 census, the population of Malaysia is a little over 28 million people. But due to the rise in it’s economy and labor intensive industries, that population is growing with many workers from  all through out Asia, the middle East, Europe, Australia, etc. 

But there is one thing Malaysia is still lacking and in desperate need of. ..that is the gospel.  The majority of the people are Muslim making up 61.3% of the population and Islam is the state religion.  19.8% are Buddhist, 9.2% Christian, 6.3% Hindu, and the remainder believing in Taoism, Confucianism, or another religion.   The Malaysian constitution does allow freedom of religion, but it is illegal to proselytize Muslims.

During my trip, I went to visit my brothers and sisters in Christ there. Less than a year ago, IH, VL, Eileen Ting went there to plant a church in their native country.  They also have another coworking family through Darwin Tendero and his family who came from the Philippines.  It was not an easy decision to make as they had to sacrifice many things in order to do gospel work.  But God has been blessing them with young people who are eager to study the Bible.  They generously open their home and serve those who come, with God’s word.  They meet to worship in their apartment every week and people can see their genuine love for each other and for God’s mission.  But they are in need of more coworkers as the burden of their labor lays heavily on the shoulders of the few. 

So traveling there I had hoped to be a blessing and serve them as much as I could.  But I reality they served me so much more than I could do for them.  IH took several days off from work despite having very few vacation days through out the year.  He went around trying to show me the beauty of his country and understand the need of his people.  He also would not stop feeding me with the native food until I surely gained several pounds during my trip.

We also tried to use this time by deeply studying God’s word through morning daily bread.  I also gave a Sunday message on 1 Peter 2 and about making Malaysia a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  We went to visit University of Malaysia   since our church is a campus ministry.  The school was founded in 1949 and is the oldest university in the land. It is ranked in the top 200 colleges in the world according to QS University rankings.  U of M is a ripe harvest field waiting for the picking.

Almost everyday IH and I went to visit the campus in order to make friends with students and invite them to Bible study.  Honestly I was quite nervous to witness in such a place knowing that this was not a Christian country or have any history of Christianity like the U.S. But shepherd IH was quite bold in his fishing people for God’s kingdom.  The Lord answered our prayers and blessed us with several students who were willing to meet again and study the Bible more deeply.  At the end of the video, I included their names as well as the names of others who are attending the ministry there.  Please pray for them to meet Jesus very personally through deep Bible study and our church there.

For anyone reading/watching this and may be interested in being a missionary there, I encourage you to look into Malaysia My Second Home program.  You can visit http://www.mm2h.gov.my/ to find out more about it.  This program is run by the Malaysian government and promotes foreigners to migrate there.  Malaysia is quite open and friendly to foreigners and the cost of living is quite cheap.  The cost of a meal there is equivalent to 1-2 U.S. dollars.  Also the primary language is English which makes it quite easy to adjust as well.  For any Koreans reading/watching this, I also want to inform you that there is a vibrant Korean community there.  Many from South Korea go to Malaysia to work or retire and are among the wealthiest people in the country.  I hope after reading/watching all this, the Lord may plant a desire in your heart to become a missionary to Malaysia.  Our church there desperately needs coworkers who can do his gospel work.  In time, may God bless Malaysia to become a Christian country as well as a Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation.     

Reported by Dr. John Lee