Week 46 – Malaysia - Kaamatan!!!!‏

May 31, 2011

The Harvest Festival has arrived!!!

    Wow, talk about the big party time of the year for Malaysia. In Sarawak, it is usually a month long thing, with lots of parties happening everywhere, but here in Sabah, it is a bit more organized. All over they have beauty pageants and mini festivals, but they all build up to the 30th and 31st of May, in which the largest festival is at the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) where everyone goes. During the day there are tons of ethnic dancing and foods and crafts and beads, and you can see people in all their native costumes and even learn bits of their language. It was a way cool experience, as we took one of our investigators around and got to get a feel for the culture of Sabahans. I even tried a bit of their dancing as well. It’s pretty tough! You move very slowly and make little tiny movements with your feet and wrists and elbows and knees all in a slow fluid motion. It’s kinda crazy. But as soon as I started to dance with some Malaysian guys EVERYONE started taking pictures of the white guys dancing. It was pretty entertaining.   :)

                         

   The adverse effects of the Harvest Festival Season all across Malaysia is that church attendance everywhere goes down, because many, many, many members go back to their villages to celebrate the festival. The same happened for KK, but not as bad as some. Some people come back to KK, but not as many that go. It’s ok though.

   But there was a bit of a sweet miracle this week. One of our investigators flat out disappeared on us at one point. We had not yet been to her house, and her phone was shut off and text messages would not even get sent to her phone. She had been SOOOO prepared by the Lord too, but all of a sudden she disappeared. Yet, I knew in my heart that we were not done with Ria (bus contact from a few weeks ago). Then, last Saturday the Sister Missionaries called us and told us that they had found her!!! She had lost her phone and had even tried to come to church, and didn't know where it was.  They gave her a map to the church, and the following Sunday she came!!! Oh, the Lord sure does take care of His lost coins.

    I hope you are all safe and healthy, and taking care of yourself. Don't have too much fun in the coming summer months. :D

Elder Willem Kampenhout