Reflection from Kuala Lumpur

Update from the Kennedy family, mission partners with CMS

As our time draws to a close here in Malaysia we have been busy packing, making preparations and saying farewell to friends. We have been very blessed by our time here and learned so much in many different ways. In some aspects our experience has not been as we expected. Maybe when you step out in faith the only thing to be expected is it will not be as you expect and through this God is able to refine us and make us more dependent on Him.

On reflection, getting ‘under the skin’ of Malaysia has been quite challenging. With so many different communities and nationalities with different faiths, languages and cultural practices we found it hard to get immersed. Despite this, we have had the privilege of forming good relationships and strong friendships across the melting pot that is KL. We might be discussing vegetarian recipes with our devout Hindu neighbour, talking to the Bangladeshi migrant worker at our local corner store about football, drinking fine French wine with our successful Chinese Malaysian businessman friend from church or cooking kebabs with our Muslim friends from Iran.

Our cell group recently did a study on Jesus’s teaching on salt and light (Matt 5). We are called to infiltrate society, to make life taste better, to live a life that reflects God’s glory. In our daily lives we make many social connections and have opportunities to develop relationships with a whole host of people. We have become very aware of this, living in a different context, but these opportunities are everywhere to some extent.

It is so easy to become hung up on trying to find a specific ministry or working out what God wants us to do next, that perhaps we miss the everyday opportunities to make a difference. God wants us to be ‘salty’ and ‘shiny’ right where we are, here and now. As we prepare to return to the UK we are reminded to make the most of each encounter we make and are thankful for what God has taught us through our relationships in Malaysia.