Encountering God in a Foreign Land
Foreign workers constitute 10% of the population in Malaysia. Working in various industries, they are willing to leave their homeland regardless of the price they have to pay in order to earn a better living. At the Mamak stall or any hawker centre, one can hardly get to meet the owner but the foreign workers are the ones who serve the customers, from preparing and cooking the food to being the cashier. This category of workers are considered lucky as they are provided with a good shelter, and thus have no worries about the weather. But there is another group of workers who are not as blessed as them. They work in the oil palm estates, sleeping on just a piece of mat on the floor under a simple tent. Often they have no choice but to endure the oppression and exploitation of their boss.
When Jesus went to the synagogue of his hometown, he stood up to read a scripture from the book of Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4: 18-19, NIV). Today, this proclamation is still valid. A sister in Christ was concerned for a group of oppressed foreign workers and began to apply Jesus' proclamation on them. Working together, they built a chapel to worship God in the simple place where they live. They managed to do so because they have found true freedom.
A mission team led by a campus ministry staff had the privilege to witness just such a work of God. During their annual semester break in November, campus students would work in teams in partnership with local churches to visit the local community and share the love of Christ with them. One such team worked with a pastor who shared with them about the ministry to foreign workers in an estate, and even arranged for them to pay the workers a visit at the estate.
It took them about an hour to reach the place. Every one was overwhelmed with what they saw. The foreign workers lived in a simple environment but despite this, they have their own chapel. The difficult condition did not seem to be an obstacle to the foreign workers in their thirst for God. Just as it is written in the gospel of Matthew, "the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." (Mathew 13:44, NIV)
Have you encountered God?
by Koh Pay Shen
