Ipoh Mission Team Member

Hannah Ramsamy, KL Singles.. My dream to be on the Ipoh Mission Team came about at the launch of Operation Evangelization of Malaysia at the SEA Conference in Singapore last year. I knew that being a Malaysian it was my calling to reach out to the people in Ipoh. It was during the Malaysian Churches Conference that I pledged to God that I would serve him. As the theme of the conference went, “Here I am. Send Me”, I told God to use my life for the advancement of his kingdom. On our first trip, we didn’t know the directions to Ipoh. We had no plans, no contacts…anyone would have thought that it was plain foolishness to travel without a plan. But it was amazing how God guided us to Ipoh. We met a stranger during lunch and asked for directions. Her name was Gannes. And she volunteered to be our tour guide for almost half a day! That I would call a miracle from God! God had continuously encouraged us in many ways, be it in bringing friends, reaching out to people, or just getting directions around Ipoh. Many times we were lost, but somehow we always met helpful people who were willing to guide us. On one occasion a man driving a Mercedes directed us all the way back to YMCA at midnight even though it was out of his way. I view this as God looking after his lost sheep - that’s us! During our trips, we stayed at my auntie’s house in Chemor. My aunty had often persecuted me for being a Christian and challenged me on the amount of time I spent at church. But today she knows what I do and she had the chance to get to know the Christians. She finds it a joy to host us. She is even cooked for the Bible talks. God is truly amazing, I lost hope for the salvation of my family, but now God has opened the door for my relatives to know the Christians. Being in the Ipoh mission team enabled me to build greater friendships with people from different sectors. It’s amazing how people of different characters from diverse backgrounds can be united in one purpose – the MISSION. It’s been a great experience working with Katy Lee, Alisha, and Natalie, being able to discover their talents, character and above all, their love for God and the lost. I also learned to accept each other in spite of our weaknesses and to be united in serving God. Truly, it’s amazing to see how God put the four of us together for the advancement of his kingdom! I used to think that in order to serve, I needed to be fully equipped and I felt insecure about my lack of abilities and knowledge. But I was lifted up and encouraged by the verse in John 6:65 that say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” It helped me to pursue my dream despite my fear of evangelizing. Being on the mission team has enabled me to see God’s goodness and his faithfulness towards his disciples. I learned that God will enable me to do his will despite all my limitations as long as I decide to trust in Him. I only need to have a heart for his mission. I learned to pray a lot and surrender to God for his will to be done in Ipoh, instead of ours. I am thankful to God to be able to serve him, I am humbled that God uses ordinary people like me for the advancement of his kingdom, and above all I am grateful to God for enabling me to serve him with the little that I have. To God be the glory! Natalie, KL Singles... “It has been a fruitful experience for me to follow a few of the sisters, namely Katy Lee, Hannah and Alisha to reach out to the people in Ipoh. Not only did we manage to create fond memories together, but also great friendships with one another. While we were there we lost our way a few times but God sent a guardian angel (so to speak) to help us find our way back. That taught me to trust God and to believe that He is always there to guide and protect us. I also realized that in the church I was just a sheep, but in Ipoh I found myself playing the role of a shepherd. That is my newly found conviction. It was amazing to see how God put all of us together with different strengths and character to accomplish his good work. Being a part of the mission team to Ipoh lifted up my faith especially in the area of evangelism. I used to struggle in evangelism as I was very timid and had difficulties in carrying on conversations with people. But God is truly awesome. He used this as an opportunity to help me overcome all these weaknesses. All these priceless experiences I will never forget and I thank God for watching over us and guiding us through out the time we have spent in Ipoh.” Katy Lee, PJ Singles “I have the privilege of going to Ipoh mission team this year. So far, I've been on four trips, with each trip bringing me a new learning experience. Funnily enough, I've never been to Ipoh before this. I have heard of Ipoh's famous delicacies but I've never set foot on this mining town until I volunteered myself to go for the mission there. It was a whole new learning experience for me. I feel refreshed because I've never been on a mission team before, and it is my first one after being a Christian for 7 years now. Going to Ipoh helps me to put my focus on God. You see, I've not been sharing my faith consistently and I feel really dry in reaching out to people. Going to Ipoh and evangelising to the people there pushes me to follow-up on them and motivates me to keep up the friendship with them. There were three others sisters who joined me on these trips, namely Alisha, Hannah and Natalie. I took the opportunity to build friendships with them as they are not in my group. It's fulfilling to work together to help win souls for Christ. I learned that God will provide our every need wherever we are. For example, when we got lost, somehow we encountered friendly people who were willing to show us the right direction. That gave us the opportunity to build friendships with them and to get to know their lives in a manner which is not legalistic. I'm grateful that I'm the chosen one for Ipoh mission team. I'm grateful that I am blessed with financial stability, allowance of time and good health to go on regular trips to Ipoh. Please keep us in our prayer!”