This week I have been blessed to take part in the building on a branch member's home. The family just got evicted from their previous home and needed one of the basic necessities of life, somewhere to live. The process is nothing like heading to the Home Depot and buying wood, nails and what have you. The process is, going into the swampy jungle and cutting down trees with machetes. It is quite possibly the most difficult physical labor I have ever done. It takes like 5 minutes to walk 25 feet, there is mud everywhere and don't even get me started on the bugs and other creatures of the jungle. However difficult, it has been rewarding. There is nothing more worth my time than helping people and serving them any way I can. The house is coming along nicely, but keep them in your prayers!
From October 29th
So it has been a long time since I have written so I will try my best to sum up what has happened. In the last two weeks we have seen 5 additional baptisms here in Sandakan. They were all people that I helped teach and all people that I love so much. They are really great and have changed their lives for the better. But, more recently, I just got back from my visa run to Singapore. It was so great to get out and "stretch the legs" for a bit. We left on Tuesday and flew to Kuala Lumpur from Sandakan. But, unfortunately our plane had been delayed for 1 hour in Sandakan so we missed our connecting flight to Singapore. And what makes it even worse is that because we were flying the low cost carrier Air Asia, we were responsible for paying for a new ticket to Singapore, regardless of whose fault it was. So, as we were waiting in line to buy the new tickets I was talking to a Chinese couple from Singapore who was in the same situation as we were. I told them that we were Christian volunteers and that we had to get to Singapore for our visa run. He was very sympathetic to our situation and wished us luck. As he finished buying his new tickets he left and we were up to the counter. We found out that it would cost an additional 340 RM to make the next flight out. We didn't have enough money on us so we headed to the ATM to get money. As I was about to put my card in, the man and his wife come up and he takes out his wallet and says he wants to pay for the tickets. He gave us way more than was needed to pay for the ticket, so after we accepted his charity and paid for the tickets we went to go give the extra money back. We ended up talking for about 1.5 hours and had a great time making the best out of a bad situation. We got into Singapore 3 hours late but made some great friends.
Singapore was a fabulous time. I had subway 2 times, McDonalds 2, Burger King 1, and DOUGHNUTS, all of these things we do not have in Sandakan. It was quite the culinary experience that was extremely refreshing from the everyday curry that I have come to accept. I also found an international grocery store that had an entire Japanese isle! I bought a lot! Unfortunately Singapore ended far too quickly and we were back on the plane to Kuala Lumpur, and from there to Kota Kinabalu for a two day zone conference. This time we flew Malaysia Air both legs and had fabulous service. Once in Kota Kinabalu I had McDonalds again, so good, you guys take it for granted, I know I did! We got in late at around 11 and had to be up at 4 to get ready for the next day's activities.
The zone planned out at amazing activity that started at 5 in the morning. We hiked mount Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in southeast Asia. It was about a 2 hour bus ride to base camp where we hiked the ridiculously vertical climb. The funny thing is before we left we met this group of Japanese hikers. They were all part of a hikers club for retirement age grandmas and grandpas. All of them were 70-85 years old and were solid climbers! We left before them on our trip but on our way back down we met them coming up and one of the grandmas said, "kekkou yukkuri ikimashitane" which means you went at a pretty slow pace didn't you guys. Let me tell you it was not an easy hike, we were all dying and gasping for breath. It was the most cardio work I’ve done since before the mission! We climbed 3000 feet in a 4km trail. There were no flat spots, it was continuous up up up. There were these ridiculous wooden stairs that sometimes were like 3 feet high! Anyway, the view was amazing, even though we didn't get to go to the very top because we didn't have the right permits, we did get pretty far up. The clouds were swirling all around us as we hiked, sometimes entirely enveloping you. And then in the flash of an eye the clouds would momentarily clear and you would see the most breathtaking views! So, when the Japanese group said we went slow my reply was, "we took a lot of breaks... to take in the scenery." A very memorable experience and definitely something I would do again. Although my legs are dead right now, absolutely shot, I almost can't even walk, certainly not like a normal person.
After Kota Kinabalu it was back to Sandakan! Last time we were in Kota Kinabalu my companion and I forgot our passports so we had to take the 7 hour ghetto road, break your butt, make you sick, fear for your life bus ride. Instead we got to take one of those small propeller planes back to Sandakan with a significant difference in time, taking only 50 minutes. Now everything is back to normal and its back to work!
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