quick update #2

Things have been pretty hectic these past few days; mainly cause i've been through some labour of carrying carrying heavy equipment to the dts house which we shifted into - fridge, ping pong table, tables, chairs, mattresses, beds, washing machine, pots/pans and heaps of other random stuff that a house needs. I've also just finished organising/handling orientation over the weekend so that has been pretty crazy (organising games, talent time, worship etc). so today was first day of lecture which was a bit chilling for me. praise God. life for the next few months though would be pretty much like this:- handling worship, special events, transport, prayer, discipling students (one-on-ones), leading small group, preparing for outreach, and cleaning up for dinner. pretty crazy schedule eh? this does not include the book reports i still need to do for my own bls training, journals to write, journals to mark! i need all the prayer i can get :)

quick update

Things are doing good, I have adjusted much better these past few days, initially it was a bit hard to blend it BUT, I am doing much better now, my malay has improved and I am helping out much more at the base, I helped cook lunch yesterday afternoon, besides this i have been helping out cleaning the base and dts house, washing dishes and would be soon gonna learn how to drive their manual van. I do feel more at home now then I was a couple of days ago. Praise God. The accomodation at the kinder would be a little different than the base, as the furnitures and fans has yet to be moved in and i don't think there will be internet but i do have my own broadband connection, so i should still be connectable:) training so far has been about ywam and dts staffing, and seeking God for guidance and training for leadership etc. My prayer request would be for continued strength and guidance, and for continued ability to speak malay more fluently :)

Japh's upcoming YWAM journey

And so here is the proposed itinerary of my stay in Sabah *subject to change some of them butthis is roughly what is going to happen throughout the 6 months. To answer some questions that i have received, No i am not doing evangelism everyday and neither am i chilling around everyday. Besides the above (which are mostly speaker topics and lectures) are work duties, book reports, journal reports, outreach reports, discipling students and other miscellaneous stuff that may pop up along the way. So Yes, although these past few days have been pretty 'chilling' since the school hasn't started, prep has started and things are gonna get more intense as the days go by :) Appreciate your continued prayers and support :) take care and God bless

a little bit more about what i'm doing in sabah

for the benefit of those who am unsure of what i'm doing in sabah :)

In 2006 i took a gap year after spm to join a missions organisation called ywam - youth with a mission. i chose frontiers dts - discipleship training school (the most basic school of ywam) at brisbane and did my outreach in India. a dts is basically a 6 months course which has 3 months of lecture phase (kinda like bible school) and another 3 for outreach (missions). It was in that school that i felt a calling to my home - Malaysia, to reach out to my own backyard, culture and language. i felt a calling towards sabah and to love malaysia whilst doing my dts. i determined to fulfill this call once i had completed my studies. my call here was further confirmed when i visited sabah somewhere in 2007, while overlooking the town of kota kinabalu alone one night.

Upon completion of my studies at monash university this year and a couple of awesome years in between, i head back to ywam - this time to sabah, doing a bls - basic leadership school (a second level ywam school which basically means staffing two dts's - co-leading an outreach team on one and leading an outreach team on the other). i might, however, just be staffing one dts, which means just 6 months instead of a year (with an interval of 6 months in between too). for more info about dts/bls/ywam kindly google it :p

so here am i in kk, as the only guy staff at the school along with the base leader, in training and awaiting the students and school to start on the 22nd. mark and tammy (the base leaders) have been pretty awesome and the environment here is very family and home oriented. the main language here is bahasa, with a slight sabahan slang 'ba'. i need to learn up my malay, and fast! food here is similar, which is awesome, the weather's the same too.

Am excited for these next few months, God's doing great things already! like providing for us a place to run the school and other provisions in the nick of time. just found out that awesome people like josh yeoh (penhop) are coming as speakers too! how cool is that yo! haha

would appreciate your prayers and continued support, am still trying to figure out more about my role here, blend in to the environment, communicate effectively in bahasa and get used to the hang of things, along with hearing the voice of God and growing in Him, to be an effective witness while i'm here.

i will try to update as much as possible / or at least as long as there's internet connection :p He is good :) i need to constantly remember that :) till the next update, take care :)

kota kinabalu

and so here i am in kota kinabalu, Sabah. Learning fast about the life here even though it's just day one. there's wifi at the base! praise God! hehe

things here are really chilling, really laid back, something that i think i would need to get myself used to :p *current feeling- what am i supposed to be doing now? hehe

i expect to be caught in the thick of action soon, staff training starts on monday and the dts itself starts on the 24th, and i think i'm expected to brush up on my malay, and manual driving *yikes

the leaders here are really nice people, really hospitable.

there's this cat right next to me now :s

so yes. this is the start of my 6 month journey, till the next time an update comes, take care everyone :)