Sabah Warriors Rugby

From Patrick

April Newsletter

The Sabah Warriors, a Band of Brothers - March 2013 [Photo from Patrick]

Since my last newsletter in January, I have found a way to keep myself extremely busy. I find that I get bored very easily and for me to be content, I must have at least a million different things to do, places to go, and people to see. At this point in the year I have provided myself with a schedule that keeps me active and enjoying life more than ever before. 

A huge chunk of my free time is spent doing what I love most, playing sports. One of the first things I started looking for when I got here was some sort of sports team that I could join. After a quick google search I found a rugby team to join and started attending practices. I had no idea what I was getting myself in to, or just how important this team would prove to be for my YAGM year. After having practice almost every weekday and games on the weekends, I have spent a solid amount of time with my team. As the only Orang Putih (White Guy) on the team, I felt a bit awkward at first because I stuck out so much. As I began to learn more about my teammates and get to know them on a more personal level, I found out (to my surprise) that most of the team was actually Muslim. 

This was a bit shocking for me because I have never really had Muslim friends before or even had an in depth conversation with any Muslim person. After a “rugby on the beach” day, I began talking with one of my rugby brothers about our different faiths. After comparing many of our beliefs and values, we realized just how similar our faiths actually are. In Malaysian society,  (from what I've seen) Christians and Muslims are generally kept in separate communities and (in my experience) it is less common for people of different faiths to be associated together. That is when I saw just how important our rugby club is. 

If the call to prayer occurs during our practice, we all stop for a few minutes. . . As all the Muslim players take a knee for a quick prayer, I find myself praying alongside them as well. Also, before our games we gather in a circle to pray together. I had no clue that joining this team would lead to the inter-religious dialogue that it has, however, I am so grateful that I have had the chance to get to know my Muslim brothers.

The Notecard

From Jessie
21 April

Blurred Card, Clear Horizons - April 2013 [Photo from Jessie]

A year ago I was handed a note card. After a weekend of Discernment, Interviews, and Deep Conversation, I was asked to write down one of two countries I was feeling called to and why.  I was asked to write my feelings and hopes for the future and how I was feeling called to this place.  A 3x5 note card had never seemed so important to me before. 

This weekend, as the new YAGM volunteers gathered in that same place, experienced similar things, and began to think about their own notecards I sat in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia with a close friend and colleague talking about these very notecards.  How important they were, how we walked around with them as if we had the golden ticket in our pockets, but also how much of a stress they were as they held so much potential that was literally right in the palm our hands.  

And as I reflect on my notecard, I realize that I had no idea how beautiful this all could be. I had no idea that as scary and wonderful and exciting as that notecard was, it's absolutely nothing compared to this place, to these people, to this food, and to this life experience. I had no idea how comfortable I could be in this place. That it wouldn't be a long visit while working to improve some place, but rather a new way of living life, finding home, and working to improve myself.  

So today I decided to write a new note card.  However, as I sat down with my pen and 3x5, ready to make my checklist of hopes and dreams I came to a wall.  I can no longer try and put these places, feelings, and people into words. I'm so much further and deeper then anything that note card I wrote a year ago could even fathom, but I'm not ready to start a new one.  This place has become my home, these people have become my family, and I have realized that that "golden ticket" that I held one year ago has blurred into the edge of my current life as everything else around me sharpens into focus. 

To the future YAGMs, congratulations!  You have the world ahead of you (literally), and I guarantee that in the coming months that you will learn and experience things that each of your note cards could not even imagine.  You're in the ride of a lifetime, so hold on tight my friends :)  

Stuff

From Becky
18 March

Vital 'Stuff'? A Truckload of Luggage - Aug 2011

Sunday at church during the sermon, the pastor said something that made my ears perk up. Something that made me contemplate the nature of the modernized, consumer-driven world we live in. “Our house and our cars are looking nicer, but the condition of the human heart…is not looking so nice.”

Maybe I took such note of the statement because one of the fundamental components of the YAGM program is living simply. We are provided with a basic monthly stipend each month to pay for rent, food, transportation needs, and communication needs. If I do the math, I get around $11 a day. My total income a month when converted to U.S. dollars is less than I would make in a day and a half of work in the United States. My wallet is certainly lighter.

My possessions are also far less than they were seven months ago before I arrived in Sabah. Last year in August, with my clothes and belongings strewn out across my parent’s living room floor, I lamented over the fact that two suitcases couldn’t possibly be big enough to take all the stuff I needed for a year of living halfway across the world. I fretted over what stuff I needed to take. What clothes I needed. How many hygiene products I should take so I had a few extra months worth of supplies and wouldn’t have to use my “limited” stipend to pay for these things.

I had also just spent a good amount of time packing all my stuff  into boxes from my apartment. Deciding what stuff I just couldn’t part with. And all that stuff now sits in my parent’s guest bedroom. Never touched once this year. Yet saved, because for some reason I couldn’t live without it.

In many regards I am not a possession oriented person. My car is reaching the 10 year mark, and I could care less about the dents in the side or the fact that it doesn’t have the latest and greatest gadgets. On birthdays and holidays, I would much prefer to spend time with friends and family than receive gifts. And I am saver. A saver to the point of being downright stingy. Some of these personality traits have made simple living, while, quite simple for me. While it really has not been a struggle this year to live simply, there was still stuff I wished I would have. Like my first week at my new home when I discovered I would be spending the year hand-washing my clothes and taking bucket baths. I wished for stuff like a washing machine and functioning shower head in the upstairs bathroom.

As you read all this, please don’t feel sorry for me. Sorry that I am living out of two suitcases. Sorry that I don’t have some things that we consider “modern conveniences.” Living without all my stuff has actually been quite liberating and wonderful. The two suitcases that once seemed so small, are now quite enormous. Clothes I thought I would really, really need, have been packed back away in the suitcase because I rarely wear them. Some of the stuff that just had to go in my suitcase, doesn’t seem all that important. Two suitcases of belongings now feels like A LOT. My thoughts now turn to thinking, “Wow, I brought way too much stuff with me!”

I also laugh at the stuff I initially missed. The things I secretly wished I had. A washing machine. Who needs it? Sure I notice that my clothes are a bit stretched out and my socks not so white anymore, but I have clean clothes and have been doing perfectly fine without. All that stuff carefully boxed away at my parent’s home, that I thought were non-replaceable treasures that must be kept in storage, have been given little thought throughout the year. Quite frankly, I’m not even sure what is in those boxes anymore. The stuff has not been missed. Maybe when I return to the United States, I should just get rid of it? If I can live for seven months without, do I really, really “need” it?

Yes, by many standards, particularly U.S. standards, my stipend is modest, but I am well provided for. I always have a roof over my head. And I never go to bed hungry. And because I am a saver, I seem to always have enough to treat myself now and then. The small stipend can actually go a long ways. And at the end of the day, I am left to contemplate the fact that with rent money included, the stipend I receive is still more than the minimum wage in Sabah. How simply than am I really living?

The year has been reaffirming that the quality of my life is not based on the quantity or quality of the things I possess. When I think about my experience in Sabah, it is never about what stuff I am living with or without for a year. It is about what I have gained. Relationships with new friends. Irreplaceable experiences. And likewise, when I think of my home in the United States, it is not about what things I left behind or what stuff await me when I return. It is once again about the relationships, the people.

I know that upon returning to the United States, I will be bombarded with advertisements and billboards and simply a culture that loves stuff. I know that it is easy to be sucked back into the mindset that stuff can bring happiness and peace and well-being and whole lot of other things that the media wants us to believe stuff provides.

I am grounded, though, in the fact that my treasures are elsewhere. Treasures of daily interactions and relationships with the people around me. The treasure of a young girl coming up to say hi after church to tell me how excited she is for the Girls Brigade meeting in the afternoon. Treasures in conversation and laughs around the lunch table at Cheshire Home. A beautiful treasure in making plans with my landlady’s grandchildren to finally, after months of talking about it, make cookies from a box mix they had received as a gift from someone.  And the ultimate treasure in knowing I am a child of God, loved and forgiven, and provided with the treasure of a promise of eternal life. This year I have been storing lots of treasures in my heart….

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. . . Matthew 6:19-21.

What treasures, both earthly and heavenly, are you storing? What does this reveal about your heart?

Blessings from Malaysia,

Becky : )

Just Go WIth It

From Rebecca
24 March

Choir Practice with the Youth? Just Go With It - March 2013

This is probably my leading mantra while I've been in Sabah.  It's even drawn a couple of jokes from some people since they know it's how I'll react to most situations.  But what can I say?  If there's nothing you really can do and you don't know how things are going to go, why not decide to go with the flow and approach situations with the most open mind set possible?  

An example of this would be my crazy weekend.  Saturdays for me are a non-stop sprint of English lessons, choir rehearsals, and any other work that's on my plate.  So by the time I get to youth group on Saturday nights, I'm extremely tired.  That week, the youth decided to have a sleepover at the Theodora house.  Since all I wanted to do after youth was fall into bed, I wasn't up to hosting youth late into the night at the house.  But one of the leaders would be there as well.  So I told myself, just go with it.  Turns out that night was actually really great and I ended up being able to talk with the other youth leader about his plans for seminary and he shared how he was feeling about heading off on the path to becoming a pastor. 

I get up the next morning for Sunday worship and we have English afterwards.  This is one of my less formal classes since it's based on having discussion.  The youth come to class with questions about English phrases and what to say in different situations.  In turn, I can ask them about how to say things in Malay.  It's actually a great way to work together and learn purely based on everyone's interests.  It's a discussion where everyone can have input and learn exactly what they want to know.  It's also a way for me to find out more about what youth here are interested in and what's on their minds.  Despite the fact that I was feeling a bit tired between church and English, I catch another bit of energy out of being able to spend time with the youth. 

After English, some of us go to a kampung outside of Tenom for weekly church service with the people there.  Again, I start to feel tired as the afternoon goes on and wonder if I'll be able to keep awake during church.  But once we get to church, it's good to catch up with the people and see how they're doing.  I'm a bit excited to find that some of the words that we talked about in class earlier turn up in church and I'm a bit more alert. 

After church, the youth want to go and play futsal and invite me to come along.  I'm really feeling tired, but they have invited me and I don't want to turn down the invitation.  "Just go with it," I tell myself. "Don't think about being tired.  This is futsal!  You've missed futsal so much."  Once we start playing, I forget about being tired and everyone gets totally wrapped up in the game.  Afterwards we sit down together, cooling off and talking about the game.  We're not quite ready to go our separate ways and we go back to the church together to practice some music we'll be singing on Friday.  I find it hard to believe that it's already evening and despite the fact that I thought I would be exhausted, I've been carried through another day.

"Just go with it."  It's become my mantra when I'm starting to feel a bit negative or weary about a particular situation.  It's become my mantra because things tend to turn out far better than expected and I am able to deepen my relationships with those around me in a ways that would not have been possible if I had just stopped at no.  So it's not a "just go with it" that said in some sort of exasperated tone that says I'm fed up.  It's a reminder to myself to stay open and see what God will do in the day.  And I find that God gives so much for me to not only get through the day, but to thrive and find gifts in situations.

The Absence of Lent

From Kelly29 March

Sunset in Sabah - March 2013 [Photo from Kelly]

Tonight the sky was on fire.   I sat in my door, watching the sunset while lightening flashed to my left.   And for some reason, the clouds, the ominous sky, and the complete stillness felt perfect for this Good Friday - the culmination of another Lenten season.  Except this year, there was no Lent, no Palm Sunday, no focus on Jesus’ suffering and death for us.  Ash Wednesday happened during Chinese New Year; it was nothing here.  I had to teach the staff I work with about the process of Lent in a devotion I led.  

And so here I sit.  

We fasted this morning, which meant I woke up for breakfast at 6:20 and didn’t eat or drink until 12.  While the kids made a big deal out of it, my only sacrifice was getting up early.  We had a special prayer gathering in the morning, where Pastor talked about the cross, sin and suffering.  And I guess we only said "Alleluia" in one of the songs we sang. 

The most Lenten thing I have done is a prayer cross, at my dad’s suggestion.  Despite the normalcy of my spiritual routine, Lent has been intense.  It has been full of deepening relationships, new friendships, and new things to worry about.  And I love the vulnerability and trust from my family here, but sometimes it’s a lot.  It’s fitting though, that I spent Lent being exposed to the brokenness of a place I once thought was smiles, hugs and rainbows.  These past forty days I’ve been seeing the brokenness, the constantly fighting children, the pain from their pasts seeping into everyday day life.  And I’ve been learning to bring the pain and brokenness to Jesus, leaving my worries and burdens on post it notes on the cross on my wall.

I spent my Good Friday at Boy's Brigade camp with the kids, learning what it means to be Ready to Serve.  And as I washed three boy’s feet, three of our student leader’s feet, the call to Friday prayer sounded from the city mosque next door.  At the time when two thousand years ago, Jesus was dying on the cross, I was listening to what I think was the sermon of the Friday service broadcasted from the mosque.  It was perfect.  I am here in Sabah, watching the kids learn military style marching with the church youth group, listening to the call to prayer on a Good Friday where we clap, sing, giggle and play.  There was no stripped altar, dark sanctuary or questionable spring weather.  There was no silence, no dramatic readings of the passion.  Instead there were kids washing each other’s feet to learn about service, marching in step around the parking lot, and competing in games to determine who has the best squad, all in this tropical green paradise under the hot, bright sun. 

Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about the absence of what I consider to be Lent.  I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that this year, there isn’t the intense community focus on the fact that God humbled himself to save us; that He died and rose again.  And I never imagined that I would be missing Lent, and the intentionality and reflection that it brings.   As I finally take the time to sit and think, perhaps the past month and a half of accompanying my friends and family here in their struggles has made the hope, healing and perfection of the resurrection more wonderful than I ever thought.

A Week in a Wheelchair

From Becky
2 February

Walking the Outdoor Hallways at the Cheshire Home - Nov 2012

The famous saying is, “You’ll never understand a person until you’ve 'walked' a mile in their shoes.” But what if the individual can’t 'walk'? How do we understand his or her life?

I decided in order to accompany the individuals I work with on a regular basis, I really needed to understand their daily life better. And to do this, I had the idea to spend a week using a wheelchair.

As an occupational therapist by profession, I have worked with individuals on a near weekly basis who use a wheelchair. And I remember some of my college assignments requiring me to use assistive devices for a certain period of time. It obviously, though, wasn’t long enough because before embarking on a week of using a wheelchair, I couldn’t quite conjure up any specific memories or emotions from these assignments.

This past week I used a wheelchair throughout my workday. It wasn’t feasible to have this experience extend beyond working hours as my bedroom and bathroom are on the second floor of the home I stay at. Saying this, though, I realize it may be a cop-out. After all, individuals who have a disability don’t have a choice of what time of day they use a wheelchair. On this same note, I have also had the idea for this project for months. However, it kept getting delayed. “Not this week, I have to do….” “This wouldn’t be a good week because…” Individuals in a wheelchair don’t have this luxury to pick and choose.

Within just the first few hours of using the wheelchair, I couldn’t help but notice how once large spaces suddenly seemed smaller. Seemingly wide spaces were now narrow. Bathrooms I once would have called accessible, seemed anything but. Everything in my environment was “different,” yet in reality it hadn’t physically changed at all. Only my form of my mobility had drastically changed my perception of my environment. A once seemingly friendly environment, seemed much less friendly.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

From Jessie
11 February

Gaya Street in KK all dressed up for Chinese New Year!  - Feb 2013 [Photo from Jessie]

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!! (Happy New Year!) 

Yes, today I write you a blog post with a title in Chinese!...except this is just the pronunciations of Chinese...and my translation is a rough translation...but hey, it's a start, right?  

Chinese New Year began on February 10th and spans until February 25th this year.  Most of the celebrating happens from the night of February 9th until the night of the 12th, and then one more big celebration on the last day (Feb. 25th) as well.  

Throughout my time here in Tawau I have been spending A LOT of time with the Chinese population.  Yes, these are Malaysians, but their ethnicity/heritage is Chinese!  So, because of the fact that I hang out with a lot of Chinese here, especially at church, this celebration is by far the biggest of the year!  Bigger then Christmas, bigger then January 1st New Year, bigger then Moon Cake Festival...let's just say it's REALLY REALLY BIG!  

So what exactly does one do for Chinese New Year you might ask?  EAT!  and eat and eat, and go visiting friends, and eat, and light of firecrackers, and eat, and more firecrackers, and oh yeah did I mention eat?  Chinese New Year is a time for families to come together, and also for friends to come together.  It is a time built in to stop and enjoy each other's company and generally celebrate a successful year and wish everyone a happy and prosperous year to come.  Married adults will give "ang pau" (pronounced "ung..POW") to children, unmarried individuals, and elderly people. Ang pau is a little red envelope filled with money!  There is no set amount that it needs to be, but it is just a caring gift from those who are seen to be in the most stable position in society (married adults). 

For me, Chinese New Year has come at a perfect time to celebrate the relationships I have formed here and also all I have learned and continue to learn each day. I have reached and passed the midway point of my YAGM year, and while there have been ups and downs throughout this experience I am reminded as I sit down for meals and visit friends throughout town how much love I have shared with these people and how many great memories I have made over the past 6 months.