It has been three weeks since I arrived in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and I have loved every moment of it. So far away from home, yet it feels like I am home. Everywhere we go we are received with so much love. People who do not know us have opened up their homes and have invited us to celebrate with them celebrations commom to thier culture. Since our time here we have had the opertunity to experience the end of Ramadan celebration, Hari Raya Adilfitri which is a Muslim tradition, and the Mooncake celebration which is a Chinese celebration. And today September 16, we celebrate Malaysia Day and of course keeping in mind my own countries independence day... Viva Mexico!
I think it is really neat how diverse this country is. Everywhere you look there are people from different backgrounds. Malaysians, Chinese, Indonesians, Philipinos, Indians, Koreans and many different Orang Asli. In my workspace/home alone there are about six different ethnicities and way too many languages being spoken such as Bahasa Malaysia, Korean, Chinese, English, some French and now with me Spanish. Pretty cool thing though is that we all teach eachother the language we know. I'm being taught Bahasa Malaysia, the official language of Malaysia, and who knows maybe later I'll try to learn some Korean or Chinese. And it has been fun trying to teach Spanish to my house mates. Indeed a lot of diversity.
The thing that I especially love about being part of this mixture of cultures is that we are able to set aside all our differences and treat eachother like the brothers and sisters that we are in Christ. It's been amazing living with a group of God loving people from different backgrounds who are on fire with God's love. We often find ourselves caught up singing worship songs after dinner, at the office, and even in the car on our way to the market... looooove it!! God knew the plans he had for me. At times I was nervous and felt anxious just of the thought of leaving everything I always knew to be part of my life to come here, practically to the other side of the world. It's a scary thing, but somehow I knew that He was holding my hand all this time, and still is. Here starts a new beginning.
Lol "celebrate with them celebrations"...indeed I had to tease you about that! Great way to start the morning, truely thank you for your blog!!Its always amazing to hear how Gods working...especially from the other side of the globe. Much blessings my dear!
ReplyDeleteYour blog reminded me of this as I read it, " Too often we just do what makes sense to us and ask God to bless it. In the Beatitudes, God tells us what God blesses-among them the peacemakers and those who show mercy- so we should not ask God's blessing on a declaration that we will have no mercy on evildoers. We know all to well that we have a God who shows mercy on evildoers. For if he didn't, we'd all be in big trouble. And for that, this evildoer is very glad. Rather than do what makes sense to us and ask for God's blessing. We'd do better to surround ourselves with those people whom God promises to bless, and then we need not ask God's blessing."...For it is through them we receive God's blessing. I thank God for you my Love!
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