in malaysia-2008

The main reason i went was to help get the 1858 Great Controversy book translated into Chinese. A Malaysian lady of Chinese descent invited me to come so we could work together in translating the book. We had many emails before arriving, and she kindly asked a church member to let me stay at their place which they graciously agreed to.

Malaysia is my 3rd favorite country in the world, after America and Japan, as it is quite safe, full of good food, mostly cheap, nice climate, and best of all (in Sabah anyway) there are many on-fire Seventh-day Adventists.

After arriving at the small Senai airport that serves Johor Bahru, i called my pastor friend who quickly came to pick me up. I spent the first 5 days of my stay with him, traveling 8 hours by car to Kuala Lumpur. We took the back roads to avoid the tolls, which was nice, as we could see the countryside. The talks in the car were very deep at times, among the most interesting i’ve ever had with any pastor anywhere.

In KL we went to a Indian SDA church. In Malaysia, the churches are mostly diferentiated into Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil speaking churches. There are only a few thousand members in pensinsular Malaysia, and the churches are either shop-lot 99-year lease type of deal. There are a very few old church buildings still standing, mute testimonials to the freedom the British gave these people before they took power back to oppress everyone who doesn’t believe in their God – which they remind everyone of 5 times a day with noisy demonstrations from the mosques.

The Indian church i went to used drums in the church service, which i stayed for the first time, but then left during the remaining performances. On Sabbath afternoon i had a talk with the pastor there, who assured me that he was training for his master’s degree, and was quite informed on this matter, finally denying that the drums were “drums” at all, but some other name. Yes, this stuff will get more and more into the churches as we near the end of time, as it has been prophesied. Still, we must raise our voices against it.

My pastor friend gave a series on prophecy there, but it was with an emphasis on practical Christian living – looking to Jesus. On Saturday nite, a few others helped me sell some books the pastor had brought. It was interesting to me, to see that around 1/2 of the 100 or so people present were more comfortable reading English than Tamil. One or two people even asked for Malay material. The church doesn’t have much Tamil material in Malaysia, so my pastor friend feels the urgency of printing something. Near the end of my stay in Malaysia, he printed 1,000 of the Tamil 1858 Great Controversy books – just like the ones i had printed in India. At the Indian campmeeting which he arranged, and around 220 people attended, we sold 57 of the books, along with other English and Tamil material.

I moved into the Chinese person’s house, where they gave me a large room in their large, 2story townhouse. Days usually went by with the Chinese translator either coming to this house, or me going to her mother’s house, and from around 9am – 3pm we would translate/proofread the book into Chinese.

The translator introduced me over the telephone to someone who owns an animation company, so i went up to KL one day (28ringgit) to meet him. We talked around 20 minutes, and he talked like how it would be better to draw some pics for the book first, rather than start first with a full-fledged animated movie. He told me later that a 90-minute movie would cost 1million usd to make -ouch!

The family treated me very well at first, and didn’t watch any TV, but slowly both things changed. Especially peoples’ attitudes changed after i found out that the restaurant on the first floor of the church shop-lot was allowed to be open on Sabbath and told a couple of the ladies in the church that this was wrong. They agreed, and brought it up in the church board meeting (again), and told me that the Mission told them it was OK. I emailed the Mission president, and got back a childish answer asking me if i kept my money in a bank or not, and besides, the Mission cannot tell the church what to do!

The translator agreed strongly that the church needs to correct many problems, and we had many deep, friendly talks. She became alarmed at what has been done to the Spirit of Prophecy, and even at the bad manuscripts used in the Chinese Union Version of the Bible. Her desire to get the pure, straight truth clearly to Chinese-reading people grew day by day, greatly encouraging me. We held studies in the newly-translated portions of the 1858gc on Friday nites in Chinese, and usually around 20 members would attend.

I only went to the Chinese church twice, then told them i could not return until they decide to follow God, and put away the abomination within their midst. After that, on Sabbath i would go to the Johor Bahru English church, where i was welcomed, and could hold 1858gc studies after both English service and Malay service. We had many good studies, and a core group of around 10 people were quite eager each week to study together.

So what is strange? Well, 6 weeks into my stay (1/2), after the host family had mostly stopped talking to me and turned back to their TV (especially during the olympics), one day the translator came to the door, i thot to continue translation. Instead, she told me that she would continue the translation by herself, and she would contact me again in about 2 weeks. That same day the host family asked me to move – move out before evening! I called up my pastor friend who had previously invited me several times to stay in the church’s guest house, and he lovingly scolded me for not taking him up on his offer sooner 🙂

The remaining time was spent with two young men, doing internet until i went half crazy – ha! I did make some great discoveries, including free 3D software that may be used to make a movie some day 🙂 I was able to have worship with the others almost every nite, and learned that they wanted a deeper knowldege of the Scriptures, but didn’t know how to get it. I was allowed (requested) by the pastor to give the sermon one Sabbath, which i gladly did – and for the Malay and Tamil groups too. I talked about how we must make a sacrifice if we wish to enter heaven.

One young member that i had met the year before came to a little study the pastor held one Thursday evening after i invited him by email. He seemed cordial enough, but the next week in a email he showed his disdain for the SDA faith and the members, and then ended by saying he had left the faith one year earlier, and he planned to join the Mormon church. But praise God, there was a baptism while i was there around 33 people were baptised. All people from the Borneo part of Malaysia or else Chinese-descent or Indian-descent — Malay-descent people are not allowed to become Christian by law. One of the men became good friends 🙂

A few times i walked to the city center, as the church is only 25 minutes away. It seemed odd to look across the water at the mid-rise row of apt buildings, and realize that was an entirely different country (Singapore). You can get to the church from the airport by taking the bus to Larkin bus terminal, then any bus for Sultanah Aminah hospital, then a 10 minute walk up the hill, past the clinic, then right, or else a bus to city centre then a 25 minute walk.