lessons from alpha and some unexpected ministry costs....

as time moves on here, we're getting steadily busier, and as a result I'm finding less and less time to get online and blog about what we've been doing...

So the last you heard we were preparing for the first alpha session... which was a bit of a learning experience... we invited over 40 students and had strong hopes for a few of them... we prayed a lot, asking God to do something big and we waited for responses to come in... of the 40 or so that we sent messages to, we got replies from somewhere between 5 and 10 of them, all of them apologising and saying that they couldn't come... this made for a nervous and uncertain wait... thinking thoughts like... "what would happen if no-one came?" and "does this mean that we're failing in our purposes here?" or "will Keng Yin be ashamed and feel let down if, after so much prayer and effort getting us over here, we can't get a small group of students to an alpha course?" Obviously these thoughts weren't demonstrating great amounts of faith, so we continued to pray, and ask God to help us stay faithful regardless of what happened...

As it turned out, we had a group of four students arrive, and two ladies who are friends with the people from the old navigators group (the one we're aiming to get up and running again). The students had to leave before the start of the video, which whilst it was a shame, meant that we were able to get to know them better and share and enjoyable meal with them... hopefully they'll come for the whole thing next week... The two ladies stayed and seemed to enjoy it, but they chatted more to Keng Yin and the other ladies there so i can't be certain (they did both fill in the cards saying they had not yet decided if they'll return so please pray for them)...

I think the experience is helping us realise that things aren't always going to be really easy here, and that we need to involve God in it more and more, we can't expect people to want to come to alpha just because we stand out here and invited them along... we need to be constantly seeking God, and also seeing people as individuals, and getting to know them....

A rather odd and expensive mistake happened before the alpha evening. That afternoon we were playing with todd's baseball and baseball gloves out in the front garden... we were all getting pretty good, and it was my turn to play with Cheun hoe, after a few throws I was getting more and more confident, and threw the ball really pretty hard... which he caught well... I figured I should maybe slow it down a bit... to be on the safe side... so i threw the next one a little softer and as he reached to catch it, it bounced off his glove, then bounced off the top of the garden wall... and finally bounced off a car windscreen as it drove past, the car kept going so we figured it was ok and that the ball had slowed enough not to do any damage... so we set about hunting for the ball which had made its way, rowling down the road... a few minutes later, just as we found the ball and were heading triumphantly back to the house the car reappeared, sporting a rather large crack running across the windscreen, we apologised profusely to the young girl driving and offered to pay for the damage we had caused... unfortunately the car was a brand new import (possibly from Japan) and so its not going to be particularly cheap to replace the broken window, although Cheun hoe did a bit of research and found a place that will put a new one on for considerably cheaper than the price she had originally suggested... as much as its a dissapointment to incur such a cost, we do thank God that noone was hurt as the situation could have been a lot worse...

We're also hoping that the girls who were in the car are students so that maybe, when they come to collect some money for us we can perhaps invite them to something or tell them why we're here... as I'm sure you've been told before, God works in mysterious ways...

please pray:

thank God for the guys we're living with, for their continued hospitality and kindness
thank God for the students we've met so far
for continued good health
for the building of relationships with those we have met
for the Bible study times with Kelvin, Chuen Hoe and Bik Yih (B. E.)
for good personal time with God for myself and Todd

thank you

some photos...

I've got a bit of time on the computer so I'm going to try to upload some photos for you all to look at from our trip to KLCC (the centre of Kuala Lumpur - we learnt quite quickly that saying we've been to visit KL and expecting people to understand exactly where we've been and what we've done is a bit like telling someone that you went to visit London and expecting them to know where you've been and what you've done). We went with Kelvin and three of his friends (from left to right in the first photo: TY, Elsie, Todd, Car Leng and Me - Kelvin took the picture)












That will have to do for now, I've been sitting here for ages and I'm getting a little bored... I'll put some more up when I get the chance (click on the photos to enlarge them)

alpha...

I haven't really got time to write much (this time i mean it)

It's the first alpha tomorrow (Thursday) night (again if you don't know what alpha is click here) and todd and I are praying that God will do something big... we're not sure what this means exactly but we'd like you to join with us in praying...

If you want to type a prayer to encourage us please leave it in the comments section at the bottom of this post, this would be really helpful :-)

the alpha evening starts at 7.30pm Malaysia time, 12.30pm UK time, and 6.30am US time, if you can, please make a note of your local time and pray with us for this occaision...

one week in...

Hello again...

Firstly, forgive me if this post is a little short... I know we're due to go out for tea soon but I'm not sure when... I'm not expecting to have time to write much....

Secondly... I plan to write a post at some point when I get the time about my friend and team mate todd, please remember him in your prayers...

Ok... so I've been here for a week now, well I've been here (in Malaysia) for 6 days but I set off from the UK a week ago... how's it been going? ... pretty good... we've seem some really big blessings, but are also encountering some challenges...

The main challenge has been coming to terms with an entirely different culture... you may have encountered me complaining about not being able to sleep or it being too hot if you are a regular reader... on the surface and in isolation these kind of things seem a bit trivial to me... but when they all come at the same time and you don't have anyone with you who you feel you know well enough to show weakness to and be really honest with it gets pretty hard... This has been teaching me a great thing, something I suppose I should already know... to rely on God...

1 Peter 5v7 says "cast your anxieties on Him (God), because He cares for you" I've been realising that when God says He cares for you, He is not merely offering friendly words to temporarily boost your morale, He means it and He acts upon His care... for example one time this week I was feeling a bit worn out (physically and emotionally) and so I asked God to comfort me, soon after Todd asked if we could pray together for a while, we did this and shared scripture with each other... all of a sudden, the comfort of God's words broke through the worry and apathy and rejuvinated me... I thank God that His Word (the Bible) is living and active...

Another big challenge is not knowing how much, and it what way we can speak to the people we meet about our Lord and Saviour, the author and perfector of our faith (Jesus). For example, after we made the brochures for the SPICE program Keng Yin (the navigator lady) and Big Guy (the navigator guy we live with) went through and took out any mention of the word "Christian" or "Jesus" or "Christ" as this might cause us problems... at first i think we felt a bit discouraged, I felt a bit like i was being dishonest, or deceiving people to come along to something other than what it was...

I think its clearer in my mind now and I'm beginning to understand that explicit Christian language might cause us problems if it gets into the hands of an authority figure, also it seems that we can talk to people about our faith but giving them literature are different things here and to be approached in different ways... I'm still not sure that I understand... Today I was talking to a Chinese girl about Religion and saw what would usually (in England) be a clear opportunity to present the gospel, however i am still uncertain of the "rules" so I kept the conversation at a less personal level... this felt a bit odd... but i think in the situation i did the right thing...

Another challenge is that we have a day (or two maybe) to meet people and get them along to an English class we are teaching (we are being taught how to do this later tonight) which starts on Tuesday... please pray that God would surpass any of our expectations...

A big blessing has been the kindness of the guys who we are living with, between the seven of them, there has always been someone about to help us out whenever we needed anything (food, transport etc.) Kelvin taught us some chinese today, which i seemed to pick up pretty well and was a lot of fun...

I suppose the major blessing of the first week was the Bible studies we have been doing with Cheun Hoe and Kelvin, we've done two now and i think it has been really good for them, and for us... please pray for them :-)

Todd and I have also be been blessed by spending time each day praying together... please pray that we will continue to see this is a necessity, and that we will continue to place our work here in God's hands...

We went to Kuala Lumpur today with Kelvin and three girls from his course (TY, Elsie and Kar Leng), it was good fun, I'll post about it (including some pictures - hopefully!) another time :-)

Thankyou so much for your thoughts and prayers

ups and downs...

Please pray for some sleep for me!! I managed to scrape together about an hour (maybe two maximum) last night and its really beginning to drain me, i've been feeling a little under the weather today due to a lack of sleep (I've only had one night of more than 3 or 4 hours and I got here nearly a week ago)... so that is the down, when you're tired it's hard to be really enthusiastic about things, and its been making me feel a little homesick today

On a more positive note we did a spontaneous bible study with a couple of the guys in our house today (Kelvin and Cheun Hoe). Which was really cool as they'd seen us reading our Bibles and asked if they could join in with us... so we did a study on the first 18 verses of John's Gospel, they asked plenty of questions and it was really good... Kelvin went away and wrote down everything that he had learnt once we were done and said (despite coming from a Christian background) no-one had told him before that you could know and experience God personally, as well as knowing about Him intellectually... we're starting an alpha course next week and they're both going to come :-) and hopefully bring some friends :-) please pray especially for these two guys.

I have managed to learn a few Malay words. By asking the guys what street signs and other things say (For example Jalan means "street" and Selamat Detang means "welcome"), but that's about it... also the guys we are living with are chinese-malays and spend most oftheir time speaking to each other in mandarin... which is pretty hard to pick up... they all speak at least four languages (mandarin, cantonese, malay and english), which is pretty impressive... sometimes they speak them all at once, which would make it impossible for us to follow, even if we spoke a bit of each...

We went for a drive around the campus last night and it was absolutely HUGE! There are 11 colleges (halls of residence) inside the campus (and one outside) each housing about 900 students... also every subject has its own faculty area, each with many buildings, there are also sports facilities and many other things... we might have a little trouble getting into the campus as two months ago some people walked in and stole $2m worth of equipment, so they are really tight on security right now, please pray that God will find a way in for us. The SPICE club is really taking place, and we will have a fairly busy weekly schedule starting next week:

• Monday - sports night - maybe badminton, ping pong, swimming or football
• Tuesday - English class - Todd and I will be teaching a conversational English class to help improve confidence
• Wednesday - night off to spend with our friends
• Thursday - Alpha course (if you're not sure what it is, click here)
• Friday - another sports night

We are also planning two weekend trips, one on the weekend of the 5th August - to a Rice Plantation in Kuala Selangor (click here). And another on the weekend of the 12th August - to a Tea Plantation in the cameron highlands (click here) hopefully the Navigators Singapore team will be joining us for this trip... This afternoon Todd, Cheun Hoe and myself made a brochure for the SPICE club showing all the activities, so that we can give them to our friends to invite them along, hopefully i'll get a picture of the the guys on here

a trip to the malaysian police...

We've been here for 4 days now and our team leader, James, leaves todd and I today, never to return!! He's got to go and check up on the singapore team, and also on the team in the philapines, then he's heading back to the US for the rest of the summer. This was a little bit of a surprise for us when we were told the other day, as we both thought he would be here for the entirety of our trip. However we are feeling ok about it as we had a meeting two nights ago, to decide what our objectives were for our time here...

Todd and myself are aiming to have a bible study group each started by the time we leave, hopefully with Christians, who will continue after we leave. We are also putting the finishing touches on an evangelistic programme called "SPICE" which stands for:

- Spiritual discovery
- Physical development
- Intelligent development
- Character building
- Emotional quotient

The program will be aimed at university students and recent graduates, and intends to help students develop important life skills, whilst having fun together and being challenged about the truth in the Bible, they are hoping to run the programme for the next 3 years at least so we will be working on fine tuning it...

So at the moment we are still adjusting... especially to the time difference (I stayed awake until 5am last night and then fell asleep to be woken at 11.30 to go and get breakfast), its also an adjustment getting used to eating Chinese food for every meal...

This morning Todd and I ordered our own food for the first time, which was a very positive step, I ordered "Chee yok fan" which is Pork noodles, and Todd ordered "big pau" which is a kind of dumpling filled with meat and egg...

We then set of to get mobile phones for ourselves so we can keep in touch with our friends while we're here as the student culture is to organise themselves using text messages (which for me is the norm, but it is not how it is done in the US so it is a little harder for Todd), when we got back to the car an old man was reversing into a space and reversed into the back of our car! The old man refused to accept responsibility and so, after a bit of an arguement (between Chong, who was driving, and the man) we went to the police station to report the incident. It turned out to be fairly uneventful as the Malaysian Police are not very helpful, Chong thought that having a couple of foreign guys present would cause them to act, but this wasn't the case, so we left without any success...

please pray for:

sleep
adjusting to food
adjusting to the heat
and thank God for our housemates
and also for our new friends: Laun, and San (most spellings of names are my guesses from how the name sounds!!)

It takes a long time to upload photos so they are going to have to be a rare treat, also as we haven't really been to any tourist spots yet we haven't taken many pictures...

Thanks to all those who have left comments, it is really good to know you are thinking of me

the most unusual shower and breakfast...

after another night of little sleep (please pray that my body adjust quickly!!) I awoke to another hot day...

firstly, sorry about the lack of photo, I'm going to try again today...

I'm living in a student house with 7 malaysian guys and todd (a navigator from the US), their names are:

Chuen Hoe
Kelvin (who is the same age as me and is also studying psychology)
Bik Kai
Thompson
William
Jun
Bik yih

The shower here is a little different, its basically a big container of water and a little tub, which you pour over yourself... water is lukewarm, which is welcome relief as its so hot here... I fellt a little naughty as you get water all over the bathroom as there's no special area to stand in, but that's the only way to do it... Malaysian people tend to wash at least twice a day, which is understandable in the heat and humidity...

Last night we were told that its actually cheaper to eat out than to buy ingredients to make food at home, so i expect that's how it will be here... so whilst at the night market we went to a hocke (probably spellt wrong) store and i got some noodle soup and a glass of sugar cane juice (like sugary water)...

This morning we set off zooming off on the back of the guys mopeds (this is looking likely to be our main transport.. don't worry mum, we all wear helmets!) to another food court style area and had pork noodles and wan tons with pepper sauce... along with a soya bean drink (like very sweet milk)... and then for pudding (that's right, pudding at breakfast!) we had some little cakes that were filled with chicken...

Still not sure what the plan is for today, spent a lot of time chatting with Kelvin and Todd about the UK, US and Malaysian school system... there's also been another Tsunami, this one in Java in indonesia, we've been reassured that it won't effect us, but please pray for the victims, you can read about it here...

The photo is the view from the balcony, and the house we are staying in is fairly similar to the one that is on the picture... i'll try and get some more photos up soon...

Oh, we've also been told that, Mr Dave Irvine and his colleagues may be coming to visit for a few days at some time during our stay, which will be great...

safely arrived...

I've been here for about 3 hours :-) its a little toasty... that is... its very hot, and very humid... I had a fairly uneventful flight, although i didn't manage to sleep until about 10 minutes before we came into land... met a friendly newlywed Christian couple who are here for their honeymoon (congratulations to them if they should read this!!) I'm living in a student house with 7 malaysian guys and an american for the next six weeks... Met the lady who we're going to be working with, whose name escapes me at the moment... Sorry but I'm going to keep this brief as we're just off out to get some food...

If you're praying for me, give thanks for a safe journey and my friendly new housemates, and please ask God to help me get a good night's rest as we start working tomorrow (when i say working... i think we're going to the university to meet some students... nothing too difficult) and please pray for myself and todd that we adapt quickly to the culture here...

By the way the picture here is the view up the road from our balcony

how am i feeling?

I'm immensely looking forward to stepping off the plane and walking (or stumbling after a 12 hour flight), hazy eyed into a scenario that I've never been in before, I'm looking forward to meeting the other members of my team, James Kang and Todd Bradely Suave (awesome!)... but even before all this I'm looking forward to that exciting moment of arriving at heathrow on sunday afternoon... taking my place on the plane, hopefully sitting next to someone pretty cool, who is willing to talk when you want to talk and will leave you be if you just want to chill and rest...

I love sleeping while i travel, not sure why, i just do... I fell asleep in the car today, good stuff... so in my mind i'm dividing my flight into three different blocks of about four hours, one spent listening to the music i'm loving at the moment (I really hope that Malaysia has some interesting and unique music to offer...) and reading (I hope to finish the book I got from my housemate ben for my birthday: D. L. Moody by John Pollock - paints a superb picture of a man who inspires you to keep going and going) a second block of time spent chatting with my new found aeroplane friend (possibly two of them, you never know) and a final block of time spent sleeping... love it!

I'm going to be sharing a room with someone, although I'm not sure who though - I know its going to be in a satellite township about 30km from KL called Petaling Jaya... the arrival address i've been given is Block L 1-2, Happy Apartment - you got to love that! By the way I arrive at about 2.30pm on monday I think (Malaysia time which is +8hrs), I have no idea what I'll be doing when I arrive which is pretty exciting... I've also been told that if you go to the check in looking smart you have more chance of being upgraded so I'm going to give that a go, I'll let you know how I get on...

I think I'll leave it there... can't wait!

who am i?

Some of the people who read this (assuming there are any) will know me very well, some may not know me so well, some may have never met me and know nothing about me at all, for the benefit of the latter two this post will give you an idea of who i am and the things i like...

I'm going to do this via a rather strange medium... a good friend (dan hames) started a craze, well he didn't start it, it came about through a sermon he listened to (by Steve Davis of a church in Leicester) in which he (Steve) suggested that, as Christians, we should be able to give, at short notice, a list of 150 things that we are thankful to God for... so I'm going to give it a go, and hopefully it'll be a fun way of allowing any readers to get to know me a little bit...

Here goes (by the way, these are in no particular order of preference)...

1. The Gospel (not sure what this is? click here)
2. My mum and dad (thanks for having me)
3. Ben (who i'll have known for 10 years - my longest standing friend - in September)
4. Nathan
5. Jonny
6. The hope that as I get older and more mature willies and farts will continue to be funny
7. That I have good relationships with all four of my grandparents
8. That God has provided for me to go to Malaysia for six weeks to do His work
9. Psalm 73 (click the link to read!!)
10. Leicester University
11. My Psychology girls (Holly, Indi, Sarah and Tish) - a group of girls who live up the road and I study psychology with - who I love to bits
12. Being able to naturally use the phrases "by proxy" and "liase with" in conversation
13. Football
14. That football is enjoyable to watch as a neutral - meaning I can continue to watch the world cup now that England have been knocked out
15. Superlatives
16. My sister (Rebecca) and brother-in-law (Michael)
17. Radiohead
18. Lad's nights
19. Steve Bawden and Dan Hames - a delight to know
2o. Christine "Beeee" Burroughs - one of the most inspiring people I know
21. Loud Rach (Rach Webb) and Noisy Rach (Rach Wray) - noisy = loud + annoying
22. Newcastle United FC
23. My ipod
24. My guitars
25. James Pearson - a very gifted friend
26. Chris Turnpenny - another very gifted friend
27. Tennyson Boys (past, present and future)
28. When Pete spontaneously bakes for us
29. That Jonny is going out with a nice young lady (Anneli)
30. The library gang (a group of people who I spent much time revising with before my exams this year) - Myself, Steve, Charlie and Sara
31. That Charlie always looses when we play games (and is a gracious loser - at games, not in life generally, that is... she is not a loser in life, not that she is a loser in life, just not a gracious one)
32. How competetive she (Charlie) gets
33. The things we did on our revision breaks - and managed to do something different every time
34. Long conversations with beeee
35. Playing guitar
36. Writing songs
37. Playing pro evolution soccer against nathan
38. Playing pro evolution soccer on the same team as ben, and trying to win a world cup together with England
39. Real ale
40. Going to the pub with dad
41. John Steptoe
42. John's family - who have looked after many of us students at leicester since we arrived
43. Our holiday last year to Munich, Prague and Budapest
44. Drawing
45. Michelle - so much fun to spend time with, talk about Jesus with and paint/draw with
46. Evangelism with people you don't know
47. Evangelism with people you do know
48. Answered prayers
49. Finding out you've encouraged someone
50. The Cross of Christ
51. Different Cultures
52. World music
53. Talking about music with my dad
54. The Mighty Boosh - hilarious and wierd english sitcom
55. Alan Partridge - another hilarious english sitcom
56. The Office - another hilarious english sitcom
57. Swimming
58. Giggling in public places with Ben (like recently when we were on a train opposite a business man and were doing a crossword and realised the first five letters of a word were "e, r, e, c and t")
59. That I'm going to Malaysia with an American guy with a much cooler name than mine (me - david andrew panting, him - todd bradely suave)
60. Steve Coogan - comedian
61. Hymns - especially when I can understand what they're getting at
62. Andy Upton - pastor of my churh and a very big man
63. Jenna - one of my best friends from the second year of uni
64. Anna - another friend from uni who is lots of fun to talk to and spend time with
65. Hitting a half decent shot when I play golf
66. Playing football in the rain
67. When I score a header
68. The pub (specifically the one down the road from our house - the "horse and groom")
69. Food
70. Steak - I like mine done between medium rare and rare
71. Girls who either like football, or like that I like football
72. People who think I'm funny (especially John Steptoe - he's soo easy)
73. A good Pizza
74. Christmas Dinner
75. The Christmas Eve service at our Church (Great Sampford Baptist Church)
75. Knighton Evangelical Free Church - my church in Leicester
76. My gap year - spent doing sports ministry with Ambassadors in Sport
77. Hebron - the Scripture union camp i went on for 8 years and will probably go back to one day
78. Confusing and thought provoking films
79. The Parole Officer - fantastically funny film
80. The boys from uni - James, Liam, Mark, Andreas, Rich, Adam, Paul and Fiona (not really a boy, but in that group of friends)
81. John Piper's sermons - which you can download here
82. Our family home
83. My beds - both at uni and at home
84. Being able to drive in all circumstances
85. Leicester University Christian Union
86. Jo Lacey
87. Late night conversations with Nathan
88. Spending time with Jonny in any situation at all
89. Being on the CU exec as evangelism secretary
90. Writing songs with Nathan
91. Being in a car with either John, Dan or Joe
92. That I'll be living with Joe Guilford next year
93. Word Alive
94. Graham Beynon - pastor of a church in Leicester
95. Anyone who came as a guest speaker to the CU
96. Lee Nicholson - my youth pastor as I grew up
97. Clever television adverts
98. Muse
99. Jenna's housemates - Rach, Bine, and Emma
100. Learning a foreign language
101. Durham City
102. Durham Cathedral
103. Friends from Durham who I've not spoken to for a while - Rob, Sarah, Kirsty, Chris, Mandy, James, Amy, Jenny
104. Ali Wickam
105. The Navigators
106. Bernard Dishman - the king of the leicester navs
107. Being a little naughty - obviously in the name of good fun
108. Good practical jokes
109. Playing Uno with my family
110. Ian, Fiona and Joseph from next door
111. Dan's singing voice
112. Steve's guitar riffs
113. That we live round the corner from a 24 hour spar
114. That we can be fully satisfied in Jesus
115. Being able to wear flip flops with long trousers
116. Annoying Rach Wray
117. That we (me, jonny and john) got to see radiohead live in blackpool
118. Shpongle
119. Jazz
120. Learning to play the drums with John
121. Upper Tichbourne people - a group who live near us in Leicester, who were so welcoming and encouraging in our first year at uni
122. Hedge and BB
123. Ruth Clarke - the exec link to da street
124. My new friendship with Chloe
125. Bumping into friends I've not seen for ages - for example when I bumped into Paul Loosemoor at the CU leaders training weekend
126. That I'm going to see Jonny for two weeks in Perth, Australia (not Scotland) when I'm finished in Malaysia
127. Spending time with Jenna and Ruth Shepherd
128. My evang team - Amber, Liz and Joe
129. Swimming in the sea
130. Skiing - haven't done it for ages, absolutely love it
131. That the bible condemns eating cucumbers - well... kind of... - in Numbers 11 v 5 - read the whole passage, and think about what Paul says about going back into slavery after being given freedom from sin
132. Alan Shearer, Robert Lee, Warren Barton, Temuri Ketsbia, Nolberto Solano and Michael Owen - Newcastle Players (past and present)
133. Delirious? - although I'm still not too sure about their latest album
134. Curry
135. Chinese food
136. Mexican food - possibly my favourite after Christmas dinner
137. Trying new food
138. Trying new things in general
139. Scuba Diving
140. The Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5)
141. Psalm 63
142. Huw Miles - half welsh leicester legend
143. Fish and Chips
144. Greece - including greek food
145. Crosswords
146. How caring Jonny is when I'm ill
148. Play fighting
149. Anybody who reads this and leaves a comment
150. Finally, and most importantly, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of heaven

There you go... I hope you know me a little better now, in my next post I'll be writing about why I'm going to Malaysia and what I'll be doing there

some information...

This time in two weeks i will be gracing the skies with my presence as i travel towards my summer destination... I'm looking forward to using this space as an outlet for my experiences, as well as information for anybody who wishes to pray for me... as I'm not there yet, here is some general Malaysia information....

Climate

The temperature fluctuates little throughout the year. Average temperature is between 21 C and 32 C. Humidity is high. Click here for the current four-day weather forecast in Kuala Lumpur.

Clothing

As Malaysia's climate is sunny almost year round, light clothing is ideal. It is advisable for ladies, when entering mosques and temples, to wear long sleeves and loose pants or long skirts.

Time

Malaysia is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Etiquette

To avoid "cultural offenses," here are some tips:
- Remove shoes when entering homes and places of worship.
- Dress neatly in a suitable attire which covers arms and legs when visiting places of worship.
- Handle food with your right hand.
- Do not point your foot at someone.
- When giving or receiving money gifts to/from a Malaysian, do so with your right hand.

Here is an exract from a www.geographia.com:

"Once you have overcome your jet-lag fatigue, step into the real heart of Malaysia--the citizens of the country. You would be pleasantly surprised at the warmth of Malaysians. For deeply entrenched within each of the different races is the engaging charm and traditional hospitality for which Malaysia is renowned.
Malaysians enjoy meeting people from other lands. So, do go right ahead and strike up a conversation. After all, the whole point of travelling is to know other cultures.
When greeting a Muslim, offer your right hand then bring it towards you, fingertips lightly touching your heart. This is the traditional Salam or 'greeting of acceptance'. Hindus greet with a Namaste (in Hindi) or Vanakam (Tamil). Both palms are brought together as in prayer at mid-chest level. With a Chinese, you may shake hands. If you are really unsure about all the different forms of greetings, just smile and nod your head slightly when introduced."

Here are some fast facts about Kuala Lumpur from lonely planet...

Full Name
- Kuala Lumpur
Area
- 243 sq km/94 sq miles
Population
- 1,800,000
Languages
- Malay (official) - Known as Bahasa Malaysia
- English (other)
- Tamil (other)
- Chinese (other)
Currency
- Malaysian Ringgit (RM)

more from lonley planet...

"Kuala Lumpur is an Asian tiger that roars: in almost 150 years, it has grown from nothing to a modern, bustling city of almost two million people. Take in its high-flying triumphs from the viewing deck of the world's tallest building, then dive down to explore its more traditional culture in the back lanes of Chinatown.
It's a modern Asian city of gleaming skyscrapers, but it retains much of the local colour that has been wiped out in other Asian boom-cities such as Singapore. It has plenty of colonial buildings in its centre, a vibrant Chinatown with street vendors and night markets, and a bustling Little India."

There's lots of information here now to be going on with, please leave a comment if you are reading this, I'll update again with more specific informaion, about what I will be doing, as well as who I am if you don't know me, closer to my departure