June 24-25: Malaysia

So we arrived safe and sound... only a short flight from Phuket to KL. On the plane we met Elmie, a Melay who was very helpful in trying to make Holly as comfortable on the flight as possible. He also became a new friend. He told us to skip taking a cab and instead take the train with him and then he would drive us to our hotel. Sweet. We're hanging out Sunday evening with him in Chinatown.

Oh, so step back: Before we left Holly and Chara still didn't feel well... especially Holly. So we gathered right before we left for the airport and I prayed that somehow the sickness would leave us and stay here in Thailand, so as to not take it with us to Malaysia. I do not know how prayer works, but surely Holly and Chara are feeling a thousand times better after a day in Malaysia. Wonderful!

So, after riding the train and Elmie getting us to our hotel, we met Sivin Kit and Kia Meng. Very cool people. Both Chinese Malaysian. The history of Malaysia is interesting. Because of British colonialism, it is a very diverse place. Probably more diverse than the US. Grabbed some dinner and had wonderful conversation. A great time to debrief about our trip in Thailand so far.

Malaysia is very different–very different–from Thailand. It sometimes feels like the city of the future!

Slept in Saturday and then Kia Meng took us around town. Saw the (dare I call them) Twin Towers...


...they used to be the tallest buildings in the world, now the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere. We also did a short trip around downtown. Then we headed to the Emergent Malaysia get-together. Really cool.



It was amazing to meet people in such a different place embracing some of the same hard questions about God, life, church, spirituality (and all its implications) as we are in our small circles back home. So cool to be a small part of it. We discussed the baton that the older generation passes on to the next generation and why the younger generation doesn't want to embrace it and is it the church's or the family's responsibility. I say the older generation is often times trying to make an evolving baton into a static one. There is no pure baton... only a contextualized one. History, if nothing else, shows that clearly. But the eyes of modernity say that we (whoever we are) have the pure baton and must pass it off to the next generation so they will carry the same pure baton. Rubbish!

Anyway, that was cool to be a part of. More pics here.