If you are going to have one meal a day, the Kawan Kuala Lumpur team should make it! Their lunches taste amazing and are packed with good nutritional content.We’re sweeping and moping the floor (the meagre remnants of lunch evidence of its being enjoyed) of Kawan’s little ministry building in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Looking back on the day it is easy to tally up the 35 cups of coffee and sandwiches, 80 lunches, 40 cups of Milo and 160 crackers, countless showers and loads of laundry, but this ministry is about more than that.

Kawan means friend in Malay and that is what the staff of YWAM Kuala Lumpur are seeking to be to those in the city termed the “scum of society” by politicians. Elisha Tan (Director of YWAM Malaysia for the last nine years) terms their calling the “Samaritan Mandate”, reaching out to the drug users and homeless of society in a way that demonstrates righteousness through actions.

Around 80 people arrive on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays to the ministry’s small building, and about 120 to the Saturday street meal program. During the week a safe place is provided for washing, exchanging dirty clothes for clean, breakfast, tea and a nutritious lunch. In addition to this the staff are trained in social work and counselling (many of them coming from a history of drug addiction themselves) and are able to direct and facilitate people ready for rehabilitation into the right centres for their recovery.

In the six years Kawan has been running in Kuala Lumpur they have seen many people successfully rehabilitated and have touched many lives. It is with great excitement that they watched this ministry multiply with the opening of a Kawan centre in Penang.

Dedication of Kawan Penang on Love Lane

Six years after the opening of the Kawan drop in centre in downtown Kuala Lumpur, a new centre is opened on Penang Island also in Malaysia.

This ministry is focused on reaching out to the intravenous drug users of Penang, with a particular heart for those who have contracted HIV/AIDS through this lifestyle. The small island of Penang has around 2,000 people infected with the virus with 20 new cases cropping up each month.

The recently acquired building is in the centre of George Town (the island capital) on a street named Love Lane, referring to the industry that it is renowned for hosting. Nestled in between the hotels and bars is the Kawan (meaning friend in Malay) building. The ground floor is renovated and has been opened for little more than ten days when we arrived for the dedication.

The hall, which is usually packed with people from the streets, is today filled with pastors, NGO workers, rehabilitation workers and YWAMers as they worship the Lord. The building is prayed over and the workers anointed and food is shared. The presence of the Lord is tangible and a sense of excitement obvious as people step into the ministry of their calling.

With goals to educate people about HIV/AIDS, minimise the rate of infection, reduce discrimination against those infected and those abusing substances, as well as assisting the local churches along similar lines, great things can be expected from the Kawan Penang team.