July 7, 2013 – Good Week, Then… – Week 3 in Kuching

So, ya, we woke up this morning and guess what? Our bikes were stolen. Straight up gone. They cut the lock and took them over the 6 foot wall. So other than getting our bikes stolen this morning we had a decent week.

I have been reading Jesus the Christ as well as Isaiah and I have to say they go well together.

One of our potential investigators has become a real investigator, her name is Simi (pro. sea-me). We’ve taught her a couple times.

We have several more contacts that were trying to get appointments with.

On Saturday we went to the other Matang Elder’s baptism at the river in the jungle, it was pretty cool.

 
One of the other Matang Elders is Elder Trotter. Apparently he was from the old Little Spokane River Ward before he moved to South Dakota about the same time we moved. He is going home at the end of the month. It’s funny we knew all the same people, but never met each other.

For David, last night we ate at a members home who made us laksa. It's this noodle soup stuff really good. It was the Kutching variety, no fish heads, like the west Malaysia version. Lots of shrimp though. We also eat a lot of curry chicken with rice and various other versions of nasi goreng ayam (literally, rice fried chicken). My bed is a rock, it's ok though, it suits my violent way of sleeping.

It was the closing of Hari Gawai this week. It's the closing of a 2 month long Iban holiday thing, they dress up traditionally and dance and chop up the Hari Gawai tree with swords at the end, a tree full of gifts. The way they dance is called the ngajat. You should be able to look it up on YouTube, it’s actually really cool. There are many forms of it, some are solo, some are group, some are even reenactments of combat and such with swords and shields like the picture of the one I sent you.

For Dad: people here advertise their religions on their doors and houses. Malay/Muslim people put giant Christmas lights on their houses. Buddhist/Chinese put Chinese/Buddhist stuff on their houses. Catholics put a crucifix above or on their doors, it usually has Christ on it. they also put these catholic stickers on their doors. Other Christians just put a reed or wooden cross on the door. Hindus put Hindu stuff on their houses.

Basically right now we ride our bikes down a street looking for houses with any form of Christian symbolism on it.

It's a bit depressing since so many in our area are Malay, It's tough not being able to contact 90% of the houses in our area.

I also think that once we can proselyte to Muslims it'll be great for the church. From what I've seen they are very devout to their religion and would be rock solid in the church, same as the Chinese. The Chinese can be very prideful and difficult to work with but once they are in they are usually the strongest of members here.

Sorry for the short email, lot on my mind.

Pictures below.

Elder Halpin

 

This is the reason we don’t ride on the sidewalks. You’re very likely to kill yourself swerving into the sewer and if you don't do that, you'll likely fall into a pit or break through one of the notoriously weak grates.

 

Chinese Buddhist Temple.

It really is tiny, like the size of a big temple's gate. 

This is one of many awesome beetles we found at the baptism at the river. They are about the size of hummingbirds and fly like such. They live in holes in the horizontal support beams of the shelter.