The year started in an adventurous manner for me. I went to Sidikalang, about 6 hours away from Medan to attend a Batak wedding. I arrived in Medan and joined the rest of the team, squeezing into a single vehicle. Imagine a Toyata Unser which is Kijang, in Indonesia, capable of transporting 7 passengers. There were 9 of us in our journey to Sidikalang and 10 of us in our journey from Sidikalang. But it was fun throughout the journey. I had very fun travel companions. Besides Lita, I was the only other Malaysia and there were 2 ang mo kao from USA. The rest were locals who proudly showed us their scenic country. We stopped at Parapat, a highland tourist spot with a spectacular waterfall next to the beautiful Lake Toba. Then we had a Batak lunch in Berastagi. It was 9 hours after leaving Medan before we reach Sidikalang. Even after the stop at a strawberry farm and plucking strawberries from the trees and sinking our teeth into those juicy, red fruits. A few of us decided to go sight-seeing early the next morning. (Lita was the bridesmaid who had to go to the salon at 4am in the morning with the bride). There was a hill park in this small village that housed sections of religious history. There were a section depicting the history of Buddha, Hindu, Islam, and Christianity. We explored the Christian section. It was truly amazing. There were huge statues erected to depict Biblical events, starting from Abraham sacrificing Isaac, and ends with the resurrection. At each station, there were plagues to describe the events of the Bible that was displayed. The nativity scene was simply spectacular. The crucifixion was awesome. There were prayer huts erected at certain stations also.
I had the intention of taking many, many pictures of our friends’ wedding. But I ended up taking more scenic pictures instead! The Batak wedding was quite an experience. I enjoyed it. It was held in a Lutheran Haka Bepe Church and we proceeded to another church where the kenduri was held at the community hall. It was loud with blasting music and lively rituals.
We started our journey from Sidikalang, back to Medan in the afternoon after the lunch kenduri. Again we stopped at Berastagi for dinner. It was a fantastic place, similar to our Cameron Highlands. It was about 11pm before we reach Medan and we just dropped dead on our beds. The next morning, we explored Medan and I was able to source 2 books for my class. Later in the afternoon, we visited a friend in Sukaramai, about 45 minutes from Medan town center. Again, we were served with local Batak dishes for dinner. The next morning I took a cab to the airport to return home and that was when I encountered an accident. The cab driver applied an emergency brake to prevent hitting 2 motorcyclists in front of him at a red light and another motorcyclist came to hit him at the back. It was pretty scary because a fierce looking man came from nowhere and started screaming and scolding the cab driver as if he was ready punch him in the face. But thank God, the fury subsided when the traffic lights turned green and the cars starting moving.
Just a few short days to catch my breath and I hopped on the flight again to Tawau. Arriving late, about 8.30pm, the student greeting me at the airport with her husband and child, drove me straight into the jungle. But I had a fantastic dinner with a simple yet delicious prawns dish and pork soup. The Sunday morning service was at the Kiulu Baru Baptist Church, located in the heart of palm oil estates, in the midst of what seemed like some jungle. I got a taste of rural ministry. I joined the team for a typical Sunday. Early morning was service in the church followed by brunch prepared by church members. Now, this time it was Dusun dishes. Simple jungle food. Then later in the afternoon there was another service held at one of the members’ house. (They rotate the location among the church members). It was at another palm oil estate. The team arrived in 3 cars (2 pick-up trucks and one kancil) and we walked 20 minutes into the thick jungle, no I’m just exaggerating…it was just palm oil trees left and right.
It was an exciting class that I taught. I taught Cultural Anthropology and the class was represented by various people groups, some of which I’ve never heard of before. There were the Murut-Serudung, Murut-Kalabakan, Dusun, Orang Sungai, Iban, Filipin, Toraja, Rungus, and Tombunuo. And of course several in-betweens. They eagerly shared their traditional cultures and worldview. There was a story someone told the class of an isolated people group. They were so isolated that during war times, food was hardly available. So, what these people did was at each morning after they passed motion, they brought their excrement to the river to wash it. Whatever solid that was left were eaten. Another story was a testimony from one of the students. He went to visit another people group and was served dinner. How was the dinner prepared? A deer was caught and it was cut opened. The inside, stomach and all were thrown into a pot of boiling water (without being cleaned first) and it was served! This student testified that he almost vomited eating that and when someone accidentally tore the stomach, the soup was smeared with the stomach content and they still had to eat it. There was also the story of how the ancestors of a student from the Philippines who were brave warriors and during war times with their enemy, they would slaughter their enemy, cut off their ear, and ate it raw. It was pretty scary being in a class who are descendants of such fierce cannibalistic people. One proudly shared that his people group defended the town of Pitas from the invading Japanese army during WWII. In fact, Pitas was the only town in Sabah that the Japanese could not enter because the inhabitants not only killed the Japanese soldiers but they slaughter them, cutting of their heads but left one survivor to bring the story back, also to bring more Japanese soldier so that they have more people to slaughter. Then there was the worldview of the Dusun people who believed that men came from the spirits of Mount Kinabalu and when he dies, his spirit returns to Mount Kinabalu. But one young chap says that Mount Kinabalu has shrunk in its height these days. Reason being that more Dusun have become Christians and when they die, they go to heaven and not back to Mount Kinabalu
I hope the students learnt something from me. But I certainly learnt a lot from them. They treated me very kindly and were often afraid that I might go hungry. So, they were feeding me endlessly. We had a barbeque in the middle of the week. It looks like it might become a tradition here during my visits. There was another home service held on Thursday night. Similar to our CG. It was then that I bite into a delicious kampong biscuit and my tooth filling cracked. I could feel the sharp pain but it was brief. The next morning after breakfast, the whole filling came off Aise…visited the dentist again
I had a fun and exciting time in Tawau, or rather Kiulu Baru. I only went to Tawau on Friday afternoon after class. I was accommodated at the guest quarters of Tawau Baptist Church and wanted so much to spend some time for a lazy afternoon nap. After all, the cock crows at 5am in the kampong and refused to stop until I got up from bed. I really wanted to slaughter that particular rooster. It always crow below the window in my room and refused to stop crowing until I got up from bed! Anyway, I could not take a restful nap that Friday afternoon. SMS came, followed by a phone call, followed by a knock on the door…and there goes my plan to snore the day away. We went to town for dinner. It was pretty late but after dinner, we went window shopping, just jalan-jalan in the newly opened Eastern Plaza. Well, I heard that when Giant first opened its doors in late October last year, the whole town of Tawau flocked to the hypermarket and traffic jams lasted the whole week
I came back to Penang, dreadfully. The past two weeks were filled with adventure and coming back to the routine was a bore. But I sat for my entrance exam into the PhD (Missiology) program and I passed! It is especially significant for me because I have never been a good student in school. To have come thus far is a testimony of God’s grace and God’s goodness. It will be the last (official) exam that I have to take for the rest of my (formal) education life! Throughout my first year will be guided study, the next year is preparing the research prospectus, and the final year is writing the dissertation. Hopefully I complete it on schedule.
This Saturday I will be preaching at BJAC and CNY will arrive. There will be ang pao collecting sessions and hopefully some lazing around, some eating, and some (unofficial) working. I will be assisting FGAC BM church to teach their pastoral team. It will be something like one morning in each month. But it still needs preparations. It will be challenging to teach in a different context and I am very looking forward to it. There is another preaching engagement on 8th Feb at JCMC and I may just stay away from going to town that weekend, which is the Thaipusam weekend.
Finally, a very King Xi Fa Chai to all of you and thank you for your partnership in ministry.
