Malaysia trip report from Nicole Nordyke  

Thank you again for your intercession. We have two who have congestion and are not feeling well - Elaine and Joe. Especially pray for their health.The snorkeling experience on Friday was great.

The multitude of fish were amazing; and there were all kinds. The water was beautiful when we first got there. (After a while, with all the swimmers, the water became a little less clear.) Everyone put on plenty of sun block, and the buffet lunch was great. Not until, on the way back, did some of our people get sun burned! They forgot to put on sun block then! But we had a great day.

On Saturday we had a 10-mile hike up Penang Hill, over 800 meters high, and a very steep climb at times (certainly as steep as a flight of stairs). We were exhausted, soaked with sweat, and very tired. It was a full 10-mile hike. Then after showers and a short rest, we visited a Tamil, Indian Christian worship service. The music was especially contextualized with drums, large drums, electric pianos, tambourines. It was all loud and long. The whole worship service was a great experience in cross-culture. The Indian / Tamil people are a beautiful people. Then we ate an Indian meal (with our fingers) afterward and had opportunity to talk with the pastor who was once Hindu himself. He had very strong statements concerning any Hindu and spiritism.

This morning, Sunday, we saw something we'll never forget ! ! A goat sacrifice in a Hindu temple. In fact, we saw 6 goats beheaded. Very bloody and shocking. It really re-emphasized the meaning of Jesus' death and the hopeless, repetitive sacrificing of goats and sheep (Heb 9,10). The Hindus were very gracious to us, and in fact they served us a breakfast meal. We will never erase from our minds what we saw today.

This afternoon, we are relaxing at the home of a coupe who are teachers at the Dalat International School where most of the kids are MK's. Tonight we will go to another Indian Christian worship service. Early in this week, we will continue to study Hinduism, and in the middle of this week, we will study Islam and visit several mosques. Then we will board the plane to come home on Friday.

We have stayed in contact with the news. It looks like we will be home before anything will begin in Iraq. We are very aware of the importance of prayer. And we pray that in this last week, that the Lord will lead us to open doors and to significant sharing of the gospel. Dr. Jim Frost - Team Leader.

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