Selamat Datang, apa kabar?

I hope everyone is doing well back home, and Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians! Glad to know
about the church's 50th Anniversary...must have been a time of celebration and excitement! Thank
you for your continued support of my missions experience in Malaysia. The Lord’s work is evident in
my life, but your prayers are still crucial to complete well, as I am still in financial need for the second
phase, our outreach time, starting December 20th.

My discipleship training school is a diverse group of fifteen young individuals ages 17 – 28, representing
seven nations. There are 5 Canadians, 5 Americans, one German, 2 Australians, one Thai, and one local
Chinese-Malay. We have 5 leaders, all from the USA; most of which are younger than the students, a
joking matter among the DTS group. They have all been through the DTS program, and some through
the SBS, school of Biblical studies program, and all feel God’s leading to staff YWAM Penang. The staff
are amazing and I know God has brought our school together exactly how He planned.

This is our third week of classes, with a different guest speaker each week. The first week we studied
“God’s character” with Carol Freisen. The second week was on “Hearing God’s voice”, with Jimmy
Stewart, an American living in Hong Kong with an inner-healing ministry focused on counseling. This
third week we are studying “World View” with guest speaker Tom Love from the US, who has been on
the mission field in Asia for several years. We have completed our first book study, “Is that Really You,
God?” by Loren Cunningham, an intro to how YWAM was founded, written by the man behind the vision.

Besides classes in the morning, work duty chores in the afternoon, community outreach (coffeehouses
and other ways to start relationships with the local college students) at night, we have quite a lot of
free time to get to know each other and sight-see a bit. Our first trip into downtown Georgetown, the
capital city of Penang, was last Saturday for our cultural orientation. We split into teams and visited
many temples and places of worship. I caught some of the experience on camera, which I will share
with you hopefully when I return, among many other pictures I’m sure that will add up. We have had a
chance to explore “Little India” in Georgetown, which is the equivalent of Chinatown in Vancouver. We
ate a marvelous curry dish!

I’m enjoying the beautiful palms which line the streets and consider the contrast between the clean
modernized city streets to the dirty side streets in the neighborhoods, populated with many stray dogs
and fast motorcycles. Visiting the beaches would be my highlight so far, as they are planted with white
sand and fed with brilliant tropical blue-green waves. The shore displays magnificent hotels and this
scene at night is my favorite. I have pictures to share of this as well! While all this creation is beyond
words, the majority of the population does not know its Creator. With animist background and cultural
traditions, I struggle with understanding their way of living warped with Satan’s powers in their slave to
his lies. There is not much we can do other than pray for their hearts to be changed.

Thank you for your faithfulness. I am enjoying meeting new people and living in a world of beauty and
learning. I constantly look forward to telling others about the Jesus that loves me and the One of
whom I am growing in depth of knowledge and understanding.

The unreached will only know who this Savior and King is if we go and tell them about the way we
experience Him in real life!

Love In Christ,

Joanne Kirkley