Asia Trip Update : Singapore to Malaysia

Our Regional Field Directors sometimes do what they call a “drive-by.” This may sound a little scary, but in reality, it refers to an unannounced visit to thank or connect with a donor. I did one of those in Singapore on Tuesday morning: grabbed a taxi and dropped of a Bible and some information.

After concluding our meetings with our friends from Wycliffe, the BLI team headed off on a 45 minute flight to Kuala Lumpur where for a celebratory dinner with the Bible League Malaysia Board of Directors.

Some background info: Bible League Malaysia was established in the year 2000. Over the years they have served the church in Malaysia and seen wonderful fruit in their ministry. They have also witnessed a development of more government restrictions on the Christian community. As a result, it was decided in wisdom to cease the activities of this entity and move to East Malaysia in Sarawak. This means though that the current board and staff will not be able to serve any longer, as East Malaysia is some distance away on the island of Borneo. We were grateful for this opportunity to dine together, to thank them for their service and for their wisdom and courage to take this difficult decision for the furtherance of the ministry in Malaysia.

The chairman and secretary have served on the board for years and supported the ministry with great enthusiasm. The chairman’s background is in medicine, sociology and anthropology, and he has used this in ministry in many countries throughout Asia including reaching people groups in the jungle of Malaysia. He is a very passionate man with a great heart for the Gospel.

While we were together we reflected on the work of BL Malaysia through which they have reached around 500,000 people with the Gospel! What a wonderful and faithful service. We presented them each a Bible with their name printed on the cover and a signed certificate as a token of appreciation for their service. It is good to celebrate and recognize what the Lord has been doing through these men.

As mentioned, the ministry in Malaysia does not stop. We flew the next day to East Malaysia to meet the new board and get introduced to the new ministry organization to reach Malaysia. More on that in my next post.

Jos