Our Malaysian Adventure

We just got back from our trip to Malaysia where we went for a MTW conference. Every so many years they get all of their missionaries in a region together for a time of training and encouragement and spiritual feeding. The adults went to "sessions" every day to hear an English sermon, learn about Third Culture Kids, or stressors on missionary lives or various other subjects to help equip us better to serve where we are. Meg went to classes where she learned Bible verses and songs while Titus went to the nursery because he said he would rather play with the babies than have to use the toilet. Another time on that one!

This was the view from our room-
one of the largest and most expensive to build in Malaysia

While there Kevin and I had the most exciting adventure of visiting the local Malaysian hospital. All in all it was a good experience as we barely had to wait at all to be seen and when I told the doctor what I needed she offered to inject me with some of the medicine right there and send me back with 14 days worth of pills to cover me until I could see a doctor in Japan. This is truly amazing as here in Japan you ask for 10 days of medication and the doctor gives you 5- so when I asked for 10 and she said "why don't I give you 14, that way if you have to take the medicine twice a day a couple of times you are covered" I practically hugged the lady. She was very tender and caring and I felt like I had my mom there taking care of me- so we were Very blessed in this way!

Some things that during our trip to the hospital I noticed but felt just too horrible to even care about them...

You know you feel HORRIBLE when:
1. you get into a cab and you feel like you are in a nascar race and decide it is just better to close your eyes and be thankful that at least you will get there sooner rather than later- never mind the fact that your driver is not wearing a seatbelt.

2. you walk into the ER waiting room and it is filthy, you excuse it away that the hospitals in America are dirty sometimes too- whether it is actually true or not.

3. the doctor tells you to climb up on the bed- you see the dirty sheet and thankfully climb up and lay down not even really caring about it because you are in place where they are going to make you feel better.

4. the doctor, now with an assistant, has tried to get the needle in you twice already and you are pointing out good veins they could try- anything just to get the medicine in! Need I say when they brought the needle out- I chose to not even look to see if it was a brand new one or not- at this point I did not care.

On the positive side of our trip we enjoyed meeting other missionaries from other parts of this side of the world, and the kids made some new friends. I got to hear a great seminar on TCK's by Eric Larson (who I knew many years ago when I helped with the youth group at Chapelgate b/c he was the youth guy at Annapolis E.P.). That was fun getting to know him and his family a little bit. Meg really got along with their second youngest Natalie. I told him too bad there weren't still in MD, but we are going to have Meg keep up with her in St. Louis. Here is Meg with a special new friend from Thailand. She loved Emmy and the girls had a wonderful time swimming at the pool every afternoon and playing make believe.


We also had a day off where we had the privilege of going to this wonderfully amazing amusement park/ water park/ zoo. I felt pretty good all day so we were able to go as a whole family and really had a great time. The kids loved the water places. Titus' favorite was this pirate ship- I think he would have stayed here all day if we let him.

Meg had a wonderful time in the wave pool and wanted to go all the way out to "ride the waves". If you look carefully you can see her out there all alone having a great time.


We also walked across a suspension bridge where we could see most of the park and the kids got to see the Lowthers in the water and wave and yell down at them, and the Pfeils at the zoo.


We ran into this cute duck figure several times and the kids loved saying hello and giving hugs.

They both also rode their very first roller coaster ride. All day long Meg kept asking about going on her roller coaster ride- no idea where she got this idea from. Meg loved it and wanted to go again (I guess we know who will be Kevin's roller coaster buddy), and Titus apparently said he wanted his mommy the whole time- he will be hanging out with me in the future.


Both kids rode numerous other rides- which they loved!


And of course they had to do the merry go round. We were the only ones on the ride so they just kept letting us go around and around. Meg loved petting the horse, and Titus loved the saddle on his.


We are glad to be home now, even though it was fun, to be done our adventure and back to the normal things of life.