The lady at the tourist information desk at KL Sentral station is very helpful in pointing me to an area where there are many cheap lodgings. It is just one stop north on the LRT, so i think i should be able to walk it, but she is adamant that it is not walkable. In looking at the map, i agree that it is not feasible, as Kuala Lumpur is crisscrossed by so many expressways, that it is difficult to walk for far. So i catch the train, and quickly find a 10myr/nite (almost 3usd) dormitory. Our tiny cubicle room, without a window, hold 4 people, but only one other guy and i occupy it until around midnite. Seems that there is some Hindu festival where people poke themselves with sharp objects etc., and get into some ecstasy, and the main procession winds up in some cave. That attracts many of the tourists here now, but of course i’m revolted by it. It is nice being in KL again, and i remember this “China-town” area from when i stayed a couple of nites in 1996 on my way back from Cambodia. KL is getting quite rich, and this “cheap” area may go the way of some skyscraper some day soon. I hope not.
At nite, the streets near my dormitory are blocked to traffic, and there are lots of people walking around, looking at sunglasses, watches, and lots of fruit – yummmm! The fruit in Malaysia is very good, and inexpensive, so i buy a 1myr bag of cut pineapple. With some crackers and raisins, it makes for a delicious breakfast. Perhaps i eat too much of it, as my arms start itching in the afternoon, and continues for a day or more.
I have the address for the Peninsular Malaysia SDA Headquarters, so i get on bus #20 and get off where the ticket collector tells me to. I show the address to a man, and he points me down one road. Walking along it a little ways, i stop and ask another man who looks like he works in that area. He points me back the way i came. Another man points a different way. Finally i just decide to follow the first man’s advice, and walk around 2km to a big office complex, looking very similar to the picture on the Mission’s website. After walking around and around, and finding a road number that is tantilizingly close to the Mission’s, i finally give in and make a telephone call. No answer. Now i’m up a creek without a paddle. After asking probably over 10 people, i finally find someone who seems quite sure it is back the way i came. So i trudge the same road back. In a tiny shop complex i see road number 2, but not 114/2 like i’m wanting. So i go back down the hill, and turn in at an older, medium-sized complex. There it is! But not as i remembered it in the picture. No doubt they took the picture to make it look as nice as possible 🙂
The Mission President’s wife treats me very nicely, and after introducing this book to one worker, and finally convincing him that it really isn’t some “condensed” version of the Great Controversy, he purchased one, and then the Mission President’s wife took me out to eat at a vegetarian restaurant. There are lots of vegetarian restaurants in Malaysia, thanks to the Buddhists and Hindus, so it is easy to get a good, cheap meal. Sure wish the Christians were doing that too…
I’ve been shouldering my backpack, and a plastic bag filled with 40 English 1858 Great Controversy books brought from the Philippines. One strap on my old backpack broke this morning, so i’m like a one-armed paper-hanger. I walk about 1km in the hot sun to a shopping mall, and am pointed in the direction of a shop where the Muslim young lady quickly sews it up nicely for me, while i’m able to give a little witness for Jesus to her and her friend talking with her in the shop.
Afternoon finds me headed to the English PetraJaya church. First i head back to KL Sentral, and ask the tourist information person for directions. This is a different lady from yesterday, and this lady seems older, higher ranking, and quite clueless about how to help me. For some reason she wants me to contact a tourist agency, but she finally calls the pastor herself, as she doesn’t know how to find the address on the map she has. Usually i find things in Malaysia run nicely, and the people helpful, but this was an exception. Finally i do make it to the closest train station (Taman Jaya), and the pastor kindly comes and picks me up. He has a previous appointment, so he lets me out in a shopping complex, where i look for an internet cafe to no success. I people-watch, read the 1858gc, and ponder while the rain clouds build up, and intermittently let go their cargo.
I walk back to the church about 2km, and am pleasantly surprised to see around 30 members gathered for a Wednesday evening prayer meeting. I’m saddened that the main study is of a book written by a Sunday-church pastor “What are we thinking?!”, but very happy when over, as we have a good prayer circle, and then several people come up to me and wish to purchase books – gladly!
Someone told me it costs 59myr (ringgit, but many people say “dollars”) for a bus to Singapore, taking around 6 hours from KL. The train is 34, and takes around 8 hours, so of course that’s what i go for. This is my first time ever to Singapore, and i’m quite interested to see how it differs from Malaysia.
First impressions from the train station aren’t very good. But i’m quickly reminded that in America too, no one rides the trains, so the areas around them are run-down. This proves to be the correct attitude here too, as i don’t meet anyone who takes the train to Malaysia. Within Singapore there are many buses, cars, and subway/light trains, making it very easy to get around, except, strangely enough, not too friendly for pedestrians. I quickly exchange some cash, then internet a while, then call one of my only 2 contacts in this whole country. He can probably help tomorrow, so i head out towards India-town, where i hear the backpacker type places are.
Showing my rube-ness by ogling the tall buildings, ride the bus that gets crushingly uncomfortable. Picked the wrong day to go to India-town, as there is some festival (Thaipusum?) where they poke themselves with sharp things and dance around. The road is lined with thousands of people watching the parade of young men doing their “penance” Some of the “gods” they place in their headresses look just like drawings of Satan himself, and not as an angel of light either!! I wander around India-town for quite a while, looking for a cheap place, and getting different information from everybody. This is stereotypical, but is my personal experience here and in KL — Indians are the most confident about directions they tell you, and the most wrong – Malays are a bit confident, and sometimes right, sometimes wrong – Chinese are usually the least confident, and usually the most right. Only Chinese people would tell me “I don’t know”. Anyway, i go into little hotels telling them i’m looking for a dormitory, and finally one tells me that they have one, and a young man leads me around 500m to a nice, new one. For 18sgd/nite (12usd), you too can stay in a small room with 7 others. There is an air-con, and the showers have soap, there is a lounge with TV and one free internet-enabled computer, so it’s quite nice actually.
On Friday i meet both of my internet friends, and we have lunch together at a vegetarian/organic restaurant. 27usd. Wow! So this is Singapore. Everything is definitely first-world quality, with the attending price – ha! Before coming, i had fears that along with their high education, most Singaporean SDAs would not be interested in Ellen White. This tendency i’ve met everywhere i’ve travelled. So it is a very pleasant surprise to find that both of these men really believe the Spirit of Prophecy, and are actively trying to promote it 🙂 One man especially takes me under his wing, and i ride with him all afternoon as he delivers things for the company he works for. We have quite a deep conversation. In the evening, the other man invites me to a home where he is studying every Friday with 2 others (church members? former?). I’m not sure, but after a nice meal celebrating Chinese New Year’s with a big plate and all of us taking chopsticks and mixing up everything together all the while saying things like “long life, prosperity, health, happiness etc”. This seems to be only a diaspora-Chinese thing, probably only done in SE Asia. Nice.
We study chapter 32 of the 1858gc. They take me to the church at nite, and say i can stay in the empty room there, perhaps sleeping on a table or something. Looks fine to me. Just when i’m letting down my backpack and looking for the bathroom, a lady comes in, asks what’s going on, and says that she will not let me stay there, but i must come to her house. I weakly protest, and soon i’m in a beautiful, huge condo looking 17? stories down. Thank you!! The next day at Baliester Church i’m given a minute to promote the book, and tell people about the study in the afternoon. I give a personal testimony to the young people’s group too. After the sermon some of us stood around talking with the pastor. Then in the afternoon, when i was expecting around 10 people, perhaps 15 showed up for the study 🙂 We study chapter 32, The Shaking. One elderly lady seems quite suspicious of me and this book, and asks several pointed questions at the end. I must have answered to her satisfaction, because she is very warm and friendly and happy after breaking-up, telling me that she wants to test all “new” things. That is very wise, something a true Berean would do 🙂
A retired church school teacher invited me to her home, so i move there. It is in a government flat, very nice, up on the 14th floor. This lady and her husband are very, very strong in the Spirit of Prophecy, and they are very frugal and missionary-minded. It was quite a pleasure staying with them for a few days. The inside of the refrigerator is very much like those i’ve seen in America and Japan – crammed full of stuff, some of which no one has any idea what it is. Many of the countries i travel to, people don’t have any fridge, or if they do, it just has enough food for one or two meals.
There is a vegetarian restaurant run by SDAs called “Genesis”, and they let me help out by delivering food to a company one day. The box lunch they’ve prepared for me is delicious, reminding me of the days spent at Country Life in Osaka.
The man i met last week invites me to go around with him again, and i gladly accept. We have some really good, deep discussions, and i really believe we are doing just what the angel in Ezekiel 9 wants to see us doing – sighing and crying for abominations done in the church. We also discuss ways to spread God’s words more, and he invites me to have a 1858gc study at the Union headquarters in one room used by the radio ministry. Only around 6 people are present, but it is a nice study of chapter 30 – Spiritualism. I meet an Indian man who read the entire Bible thru 4 times before becoming a Christian, and even now, is very, very knowledgeable in the Scriptures, in a humble way. Another man is introduced to me, and i’m told that these 3 men are kind of like a team, giving the straight testimony here in Singapore. One lady listens to me talk about this 1858gc, asks several questions, shows great interest, and gives me the largest donation anyone ever has since i left Japan – wow! Thank you, many blessings to you, and thank you Lord for putting us together. Actually, my U.S. money is about run out, and i wish to save the remaining yen for when i go back to Japan some day, so i’m pretty much living on what i’ve been able to sell, and from donations, all in Malaysia. The books sell very quickly here for 5sgd (3.35usd), and some people are even interested in printing here!!! Praise God!
The Union Publishing Director lets me talk with him in his office a while, and we pray together in a sweet spirit. May we always be working together to advance the kingdom of truth.
My last Sabbath there i meet the Japanese man who has been working with ADRA or AWR, i forget, but is going back to Japan to be the publishing director there. Sure do pray he decides that it IS good to print and sell Spirit of Prophecy books. He currently thinks that with the non-existent knowledge of the Bible in Japan, that we should print books explaining the gospel in simple terms. I’m all for presenting Jesus Christ more, but we must have the added light as found in Ellen White’s books. Many of our church members in Japan are withering up because there are so few inspired books available, and the ones they do have are old-style, not very readable, and not translated so well either.
I’m allowed time in the afternoon again to do a 1858gc study, so do chapter 3: The Plan of Salvation. There are a few less people than last week, but i’m happy to see that questioning, elderly lady smiling so nicely at me this week 🙂 One African brother has a hard time accepting the fact that Jesus and the Father did this plan after Adam and Eve fell, but that’s what the book shows clearly. Yes, i know, that goes directly against what some other books with Ellen White’s name on the cover say. That’s one more good reason to get back to the original books. For sundown worship with the youth, they want me to talk, and i do a bit, and then finish by reading the ending part of the book. Tears are running down as i read how the saints of the Most High will throw their crowns at the feet of Jesus and worship him forever, and the greatness of the kingdom and everything in it will be given to them to reign forever and ever…..aaahhhhhh. I want to be there!!!!! After that we play volleyball, but i give up after the first game, choosing instead to shoot baskets with a young girl.
The next day i do something useful, helping put up curtains for a Japanese family who has just moved in. The view is awesome – looking out over the water from the 29th floor, and seeing what looks like hundreds of boats out there of various shapes and sizes – amazing. The man is amazed i can speak Japanese, and we talk a few minutes. I hope it was a good witness. In the afternoon we go to Genesis where a farewell party is underway. The elderly lady has a deep talk with me about this 1858gc book, and seems to be under some conviction, or troubled by God about it….. The first lady who wanted me to stay at her house tells me that her eldest son (15?) who has never read the thick GC book, was lying on the sofa when she came home the other nite with this 1858gc book opened and reading it 🙂 Goosebumps of joy arose on my arms as i listened to her tell me 🙂 Please send your Spirit and angels to guide him Lord!
Sim Lim, the big computer mart, is about like Pantip in Bankok, but nicer, and a little smaller. There is more variety it seems. I go to a shopping complex near where i’m staying, and am awed at the vast numbers of people thronging the place. I buy a cash card to use the internet at the library, and find out that this card can be used to purchase many things in Singapore. Singapore is not as controlled as i thot, i actually did spit on the ground a couple of times and no police came with siren to fine me, but it sounds like it is next to impossible to own land, sensors you put in your car tell the police where you are just about all the time, cash is going out etc. etc. Very convenient, but each convenience also entails giving up some independence.
Tiger Airways whisks me away to Bangkok the next day, and i’m led to think quite a lot about my life while on the plane. There is a magazine (most discount airlines do not have), and it hilites 35 youngish people in SE Asia who are “successful”. There is a lady who was a model and now is a coordinator selling resorts in Thailand, a French man in Cambodia who runs a thriving guest house and upscale restaurant, an entrepeneur in Vietnam, a fashion designer in Singapore, etc. etc. They are all under 40. So just what has Daniel Winters done with his life??? Why isn’t his mug printed here? Of course i know the answer, that men don’t see things as God does, but still it digs at me a bit. Then those feelings mostly go away as i think about what kind of magazine God is creating in heaven for those he deems to be “successful”. Sure hope i’m in that one 🙂
Thank the many nice Brothers and Sisters i met in Singapore. I apologized to them for thinking they would be not receptive to the SOP, only to have them tell me that many members here do not believe much in SOP, but that i had somehow been led to the main group that does believe in and promote them. Now how did you do that Lord? Thank you so much!! May your words spread here have a powerful effect for good.